PHP is a very rich with its built-in function and most of us aware of them. There are many functions which are not very well known but are really very useful. In this article, I have listed and explained few little known but really useful PHP functions.
Also, read:
php_check_syntax
This is a very useful function for checking systax of a specified file.
Usage:
<?php
$error_message = "";
$filename = "./php_script.php";
if(!php_check_syntax($filename, &$error_message)) {
echo "Errors were found in the file $filename: $error_message";
} else {
echo "The file $filename contained no syntax errors";
}
?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.php-check-syntax.php
highlight_string
The highlight_string() function can be very helpful while displaying PHP code on a website. The function returns a syntax highlighted version of the given PHP code using the colors defined in the built-in syntax highlighter for PHP. There are two parameters in function, first parameter will be string that can be highlighted and second parameter will be set to TRUE to make this function return the highlighted code.
Usage:
<?php
highlight_string(' <?php phpinfo(); ?>');
?>
Source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.highlight-string.php
show_source
The show_source() function is also very handy which works similar to highlight_file (). The function displays a file with the PHP syntax highlighted. The syntax is highlighted by using HTML tags. This function returns TRUE on success, or FALSE on failure.
Usage:
<?php
show_source("php_script.php");
?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.show-source.php
php_strip_whitespace
As explained earlier, this is similar to show_source() function. This function also returns the source code of the specific file by removing PHP comments and whitespace.
Usage:
<?php
echo php_strip_whitespace("php_script.php");
?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.php-strip-whitespace.php
__halt_compiler
This function halts the execution of the compiler. This can be useful to embed data in PHP scripts, like the installation files.
Usage:
<?php $fp = fopen(__FILE__, 'r'); fseek($fp, __COMPILER_HALT_OFFSET__); var_dump(stream_get_contents($fp)); // the end of the script execution __halt_compiler(); ?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.halt-compiler.php
highlight_file
This is a very PHP function which return specific PHP file with the PHP syntax highlighted.
Usage:
<?php
highlight_file("php_script.php");
?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.highlight-file.php
ignore_user_abort
This function can be used to client abot script. The client aborts will cause the script to stop running.
Usage:
<?php ignore_user_abort(); ?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ignore-user-abort.php
str_word_count
This function is used to count the number of words found in the string.
Usage:
<?php
echo str_word_count("Hello How Are You!");
?>
Source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-word-count.php
get_defined_vars
This is a handy function when debugging. This function returns a multidimensional array containing a list of all defined variables.
Usage:
<?php print_r(get_defined_vars()); ?>
Source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.get-defined-vars.php
get_browser
This function look up the browscap.ini file and return the capabilities of the browser.
Usage:
<?php echo $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']; $browser = get_browser(); print_r($browser); ?>
Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.get-browser.php
Do you have few other if you think should be on this list? Just share your thoughts!
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