The Null Coalescing Operator makes life easier for php programmers. Thanks to the php core team members and every other contributors.
Null Coalescing Operator helps you check for null value.
Previous version of php here is how it is done:

$firstname = isset($user->firstname) ? $user->firstname : 'guest';

But now cleaner and easy with PHP7:

$firstname = $user->firstname ?? 'guest';

Enjoy coding, and stay safe.

*Spreads mat* them call me PHP Maestro, but me i no sabi all this one walahi.

So I hereby 'commoth' my php championship belt (or be-li-ti) and e-hand it over to the indian guru, and i doff my hat as well.

Hailing: Baba O!

So in php 7 there is no value to assign the variable to if the condition is false??
I like the former operator better.

^^^You will, better start changing your concepts before the world overtakes you

here is my take on PHP 7, since the servers are all still using 5.3, 5.4, there is no point in using something that can only run on my localhost.
Even the latest version of Joomla and Co are still using php 5.x (usually not higher than 5.4), I ain't gonna be make a mistake i made sometime back.

I remember when PHP 5.0 first came out, I was one of the first few people to migrate. I did a fantastic app then, when i upload the stuff like this, na so wahala start only for me to find out the web hosts were still using 4.x, i migrate host na the same the same. Them tell me to buy vps or dedicated server and customize. Na so i jejely downgrade the app back to 4.x.

dhtml18:
^^^You will, better start changing your concepts before the world overtakes you

here is my take on PHP 7, since the servers are all still using 5.3, 5.4, there is no point in using something that can only run on my localhost.
Even the latest version of Joomla and Co are still using php 5.x (usually not higher than 5.4), I ain't gonna be make a mistake i made sometime back.

I remember when PHP 5.0 first came out, I was one of the first few people to migrate. I did a fantastic app then, when i upload the stuff like this, na so wahala start only for me to find out the web hosts were still using 4.x, i migrate host na the same the same. Them tell me to buy vps or dedicated server and customize. Na so i jejely downgrade the app back to 4.x.

How much does a vps cost in naija and do i need to manage it by myself?

dhtml18:
^^^You will, better start changing your concepts before the world overtakes you

here is my take on PHP 7, since the servers are all still using 5.3, 5.4, there is no point in using something that can only run on my localhost.
Even the latest version of Joomla and Co are still using php 5.x (usually not higher than 5.4), I ain't gonna be make a mistake i made sometime back.

I remember when PHP 5.0 first came out, I was one of the first few people to migrate. I did a fantastic app then, when i upload the stuff like this, na so wahala start only for me to find out the web hosts were still using 4.x, i migrate host na the same the same. Them tell me to buy vps or dedicated server and customize. Na so i jejely downgrade the app back to 4.x.

You may be write, it depends on the host. The host I use are already supporting php7 as we speak and its on a shared server.

teampregar:
So in php 7 there is no value to assign the variable to if the condition is false??
I like the former operator better.

If you check the code I wrote, you can see that the guest is assign to the var if false.

teampregar:

How much does a vps cost in naija and do i need to manage it by myself?

You don't need a vps to run php7 code. Just ask the host if they support it, if not look for other host that does.

There are some vps that are as cheap as shared hosts. An example is http://ovh.us which is cheaper than Godaddy shared host. I can't remember the last time I saw cpanel sef and most of my websites are using hhvm

In Laravel blade you can just do

{{ $user->firstname or 'guest' }}

and it translates to the above

^^^many frameworks have this functionality already (even my own smallboy framework).

Inasmuch as I would like to learn something new, what would it profit me to sacrifice readability over elegance? Besides, the operator borders on redundance; because, most times you need to use the ternary operator, you're evaluating the truthy of another statement and not necessarily the assigned value as is used in the OP's example.

^^^ probably in your template when you need to echo something

<?= $user->firstname ?? 'guest' ?>

Php7 is 2x faster than php5.6 but not still as fast as hhvm. What I would be more interested in is Php7 Vs hhvm, will people using hhvm start migrating back to php because of the improved speed?

jidez007:
Php7 is 2x faster than php5.6 but not still as fast as hhvm. What I would be more interested in is Php7 Vs hhvm, will people using hhvm start migrating back to php because of the improved speed?

Hhvm is a form of mechanism for compiling php codes.
Php7 is a programming language, and is as fast as hhvm.
Check online for benchmarks.

You are right, php 7 has really caught up and it performs better on servers with lower resources.

And this: http://www.zend.com/website/var/tmp/image-thumbnails/10000/14913/thumb__auto_8f003aa3d171b0e739a4314b85eb4f3d/php7-infographic.png

Shows php7 has the fastest dynamically typed language