Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated

Description

PHP used to support the curly braces {} to access elements in an array and a string. This was deprecated in PHP 7.4 and abandoned in PHP 8.0. The only operator to access an element is the square brackets [].

Example

<?php

$string = 'abc';
echo $string{1}; // b

$array = ['A', 'B', 'C'];
echo $array{1};  // B

?>

Solutions

• Switch to the square brackets.

• Use the substr() function to extract one string char.

In more recent PHP versions, this error message is now Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is no longer supported.

Changed Behavior

This error may appear following an evolution in behavior, in previous versions. See curly_braces.

Static Analysis

This error may be tracked down with the following static analysis rules: Php/DeprecateDollarCurly.