The PHP RFC for square bracket syntax for array destructuring assignment has passed and will be included in PHP 7.1 The vote needed a 2/3 majority to be accepted, and it passed with a unanimous vote in favor.

Short array syntax was added to PHP 5.4 and it allowed you to define arrays in a square bracket style:

// Old array style 
$array = array(1, 2, 3); 
// 5.4 square bracket style. 
$array = [1, 2, 3];

With the accepted proposal it creates an alternative to using “list” for destructuring an array. In all previous versions of PHP this works like this:

list($a, $b, $c) = array(1, 2, 3);

Now you can extract using a square bracket just as you do for assignment:

[$a, $b, $c] = [1, 2, 3];
["a" => $a, "b" => $b] = ["a" => a, "b", => 2];

It also works in foreach loops:

foreach ($points as ["x" => $x, "y" => $y]) {
    var_dump($x, $y);
}

You can find out more from the [PHP RFC](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/short_list_syntax_ and look for this in the PHP 7.1 release.