PHP removes deprecated functions in major version bumps — the PHP 5.x to 7.x transition removed over 70 functions, and PHP 8.0 and 8.1 removed or deprecated many more. Each entry below shows the old function, the reason it was removed, and the modern replacement with a copy-paste code snippet.
Deprecated Functions
| Deprecated | Description | Replacement |
|---|---|---|
| create_function() | Deprecated in PHP 7.2 — creates a function from a string at runtime | Use anonymous functions (closures) with function() {} syntax |
| each() | Removed in PHP 8.0 — iterates array with internal pointer | Replace with foreach, key(), and current() |
| ereg() | Removed in PHP 7.0 — POSIX regex matching | Replace with preg_match() using PCRE regex syntax |
| mysql_* | Removed in PHP 7.0 — the entire mysql extension | Migrate to mysqli_* functions or PDO with prepared statements |
| split() | Removed in PHP 7.0 — splits a string by a regex or delimiter | Replace with explode() for delimiter splits, or preg_split() for regex |
Quick Check
// Enable deprecation warnings in development
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);