PHP: Stop Passing Arrays Everywhere

Designing Explicit Data Contracts Rule of thumb: If your array-shape PHPDoc needs line breaks, comments, or nested generics — congratulations, you’ve just designed an object. You just didn’t have the courage to admit it. Introduction: The $data Anti-Pattern Nobody Wants to Own Every PHP codebase has it. function handle(array $data): void { // 🤞 good luck } It starts harmlessly. A quick prototype. A deadline. “We’ll refactor it later.” Six months later, $data is a structural landfill: undocumented keys optional flags with magic meaning half the validation duplicated across the codebase and a PHPStan array-shape that looks like a legal contract If your system relies on arrays to model domain concepts, you don’t have flexibility — you have structural debt. Background: Why PHP Developers Fell in Love with Arrays Let’s be fair. PHP trained us this way. Historically: No enums Weak typing No readonly properti