What best practices should PHP developers follow to future-proof their code against potential deprecations and changes in upcoming PHP versions, such as PHP 5.6?

To future-proof PHP code against potential deprecations and changes in upcoming PHP versions like PHP 5.6, developers should stay updated with PHP documentation, use modern PHP features, follow coding standards, and regularly test code on different PHP versions. 

// Example of using a modern PHP feature (null coalescing operator) to future-proof code
// Before PHP 7, use isset() to check if a variable is set, otherwise use a default value
$variable = isset($_GET['value']) ? $_GET['value'] : 'default';

// With PHP 7 and later, use the null coalescing operator (??) for a more concise and readable code
$variable = $_GET['value'] ?? 'default';

Keywords

backward compatibility PHP 5.6 deprecated functions code refactoring version control

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