PHP Tips and Tricks

April 6th, 2009

php

After years use PHP, there is always a time where I find myself look back to PHP documentation.

PHP has many functions, if you’re new to PHP, you won’t note some of useful function to remember.

There are also some of technique that you couldn’t learn by just looking PHP documentation.

For a beginner, who just learning basic PHP programming, I have collect some of tips and trick to help you upgrade your skill.

  1. Generate random password

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    <?php
 
function generatePassword($length) {
    $character = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
    $password = "";
    for($i=0;$i<$length;$i++) {
        $password .= $character[rand(0, 61)];
    }
    return $password;
}
 
echo generatePassword(7);
 
?>

  2. Calculate age

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    <?php
 
$testcase = array("12-03-1985", "15-01-1987", "01-01-2000");
 
function getAge($year) {
    return floor(abs(strtotime('now') - strtotime($year))/31536000);
} 
 
foreach($testcase as $test) {
    echo "Born in $test, approximately age is " . getAge($test)." years<br/>";
}    
?>

  3. Get visitor’s IP address

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    <?php  
 
echo "Your IP address is " . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];  
 
?>

  4. Check even or add number

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    <?php
 
$testcase = array(1, 4, 5, 6, 11);
 
function isOdd($number) {
    if ($number % 2 == 0) {
        return false; 
    } 
    return true;
}    
 
foreach($testcase as $test) {
    if (isOdd($test)) {
        echo $test . " is odd<br/>";
    } else {
        echo $test . " is even<br/>";
    }   
}    
 
?>

  5. Get file extension

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    <?php
 
$testcase = array("sample.txt", "sample.jpg", "sample.case.txt");
 
function extension($filename){
    return substr(strrchr($filename, '.'), 1);
}
 
foreach($testcase as $test) {
    echo "Extension from $test is " . extension($test) . "<br/>"; 
} 
 
?>

  6. Sort data in array

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    <?php
 
$data_list = array("lychee", "pineapple", "apple", "mango", "strawberry", "banana", "orange", "grape", "guava");
 
sort($data_list);
foreach($data_list as $data) {
    echo $data . "<br/>"; 
} 
 
?>

  7. Random pick from array

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    <?php
 
$fruits = array("lychee", "pineapple", "apple", "mango", "strawberry", "banana", "orange", "grape", "guava");
 
print $fruits[array_rand($fruits)];
 
?>

  8. Shuffle data

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    <?php
 
$data_list = array("lychee", "pineapple", "apple", "mango", "strawberry", "banana", "orange", "grape", "guava");
 
shuffle($data_list);
foreach($data_list as $data) {
    echo $data . "<br/>"; 
} 
 
?>

  9. Highlight text

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    <?php
 
$text = "Sample sentence from KomunitasWeb, regex has become popular in web programming. Now we learn regex. According to wikipedia, Regular expressions (abbreviated as regex or regexp, with plural forms regexes, regexps, or regexen) are written in a formal language that can be interpreted by a regular expression processor";
 
$text = preg_replace("/\b(regex)\b/i", '<span style="background:#5fc9f6">\1</span>', $text);
 
echo $text;
 
?>

  10. Change to title case (first letter uppercase)

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    <?php
$testcase = array("hello world", "Hello WORLD", "heLLO world");
 
function titleCase($text) {
    return ucwords(strtolower($text));
}
 
foreach($testcase as $test) {
    echo titleCase($test)."<br/>";
}    
 
?>

  11. Time since

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    <?php
 
$testcase = array("12-03-1985", "15-01-2007", "04-04-2009", "01-01-2009", "30-03-2009", "07-04-2009", "07-04-2009 11:12");
 
define("MINUTE", 60);
define("HOUR", 3600); // 60 * 60 
define("DAY", 86400); //  60 * 60 * 24 
define("WEEK", 604800); // 60 * 60 * 24 * 7
define("MONTH", 2592000); // 60 * 60 * 24 * 30
define("YEAR", 31536000); // 60 * 60 * 24 * 365
 
function timeSince($date) {
 
    $since = abs(strtotime('now') - strtotime($date));
 
    if($since > YEAR) {
        $year = floor($since / YEAR);
        return "more than $year year(s) ago";
    }    
 
    if ($since > MONTH) {
        $month = floor($since / MONTH);
        return "about $month month(s) ago";
    } 
 
    if ($since > WEEK) {
        $week = floor($since / WEEK);
        $day = floor(($since - ($week * WEEK)) / DAY);
        return "about $week week(s), and $day day(s) ago";
    }
 
    if ($since > DAY) {        
        $day = floor($since / DAY);
        $hour = floor(($since - ($day * DAY)) / HOUR);
        return "about $day day(s), $hour hour(s) ago";
    }
 
    if ($since > HOUR) {        
        $hour = floor($since / HOUR);
        $minute = floor(($since - ($hour * HOUR)) / MINUTE);
        return "about $hour hour(s), $minute minute(s) ago";
    }
 
    if ($since > MINUTE) {        
        $minute = floor($since / MINUTE);
        return "$minute minute(s) ago";
    }
 
    return "under 1 minute ago";	
 
}
 
foreach($testcase as $test) {
    echo "Time since $test is " . timeSince($test)."<br/>";
}   
 
?>

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