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With the upcoming release of PHP 8.5 (scheduled for November 20, 2025), a new pipe operator (|>) makes it possible to chain first-class callables in a functional, left-to-right style. This design simplifies nested calls, improves readability, and retains performance similar to traditional nested code

What It Does

• Takes the output of the expression on the left side

• Passes it as the first (and only) parameter to the callable on the right side

• Evaluates left-to-right, making chained transformations easier to follow
  
  
  
  
  

Example Usage

 $result = "Hello World"
|> strtoupper(...)
|> str_shuffle(...)
|> trim(...);


This is functionally equivalent to:

$result = trim(str_shuffle(strtoupper("Hello World")));

Important Constraints

1. Callables must accept exactly one required parameter
   If a callable expects multiple parameters or none at all, the pipeline will either error or silently drop parameters php.net.

2. By-reference parameters usually not supported
   Most functions expecting parameters by reference won't work in the pipe chain (some exceptions like extract() and array_multisort() exist) Reddit+3PHP.Watch+3SensioLabs+3.

3. Return type void becomes null
   Any callable with a void return will result in null for the rest of the chain.

4. Precedence rules
   The pipeline evaluates left-to-right, unless overridden with parentheses; it behaves predictably with other operators like +, ??, and the ternary operato
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Real‑World Example

$fullName = 'Fred Flintstone';

$result = $fullName
|> fn($x) => explode(' ', $x) // ['Fred', 'Flintstone']
|> fn($x) => implode('_', $x) // 'Fred_Flintstone'
|> strtolower(...); // 'fred_flintstone'

echo $result;

 Why It Matters

• Cleaner, expressive syntax — no nested parentheses or temporary assignments

• Easier to read — supports point‑free and pipeline-style code

• Efficient execution — similar performance to nested calls due to VM optimizations