PHP 7 is considered to be a major release of PHP programming and is a revolution in the way web applications can be developed and delivered to enterprises for mobile and cloud. 

With dozens of features, it has become the favorite of the developers as it helps them to make dynamic and interactive pages easily. But before you start with the development process, there are a few things that you should know.

Here in this article, we will share with you some of the most important things that you should not do in PHP 7 development.

Don’t Use The Mysql_Functions: 

As a PHP 7 developer, it is time that you won’t be advised to stop using mysql_functions anymore, but PHP 7 has removed them from the core. This means that you will have to move to the far better mysqli_functions, and also be more flexible with PDO implementation.

Stop Using PHP Close Tags At The End Of The File: 

PHP developers can take a close look and see that most WordPress files usually omit the ending PHP tag when the file ends with PHP code. Even Zend framework forbids it. This is not required by PHP and by omitting it at the end, you are ensuring that no trailing white space can be added anymore.

Avoid Writing Wasteful Codes: 

Another most important point that PHP 7 developers should always remember is not to write unnecessary codes. As developers, you should ensure to load scripts only when they are needed, write efficient and optimized database queries, concatenate them wherever possible and also use caching if possible. 

PHP 7 will automatically increase the speed of the site, but don’t be content as it is important to optimize the speed of the site even if you switch to PHP 7.

Don’t Use Passing By Reference If Not Needed: 

Though in some cases passing by reference is useful, but in many others it makes the code harder to understand and also follow, and it is especially difficult to predict the result. Many PHP developers think that it makes their codes faster, though this is not true.

Avoid Using Queries In A Loop: 

Using database queries in a loop is a waste as it puts unnecessary stress on your system. You will achieve the same result faster, even outside the loop.  If in any case such situation arises, then it can be easily solved with two separate queries to build an array of data.

Also Read: Useful PHP Techniques That Every Developer Should Know

Don’t Trust User Inputs: 

Developers should never trust user inputs. They should always filter, escape, sanitize, check and use the fallbacks. There are three issues with user data:  developers don’t take all the possibilities into consideration, it may be intentionally malicious, it may be incorrect. 

But a well-planned system can protect against all these, so make sure that you use built in functions like filter_var() to check for proper values and other functions while working with databases.

Don’t Neglect Other Languages: 

Even if you are a hard core PHP person, it is very important for you to know about HTML, CSS and MySQL at least. Once you have mastered all these efficiently, it is time to learn JavaScript to be able to use it efficiently. It is also recommended to learn all about object oriented PHP.