lang="en-US"> Useful PHP Functions –  Design1online.com, LLC

Useful PHP Functions

I ask myself why type the same thing over and over again when you can just use one function call? I’ve seen a lot of people do that, so stop it! Save yourself the trouble. Here are some things I use a lot:

Error: " . $message . "

"; } /**** * Purpose: gets the value of the given field * Precondition: value and table are given, already connected to the database * Postcondition: returns the field value ****/ function getValue($value, $table, $where) { if (!$value || !$table) return errorMsg("getValue incomplete query!
Table: $table
Where: $where
Value: $value"); $value = htmlentities($value); $query = "SELECT " . $value . " FROM " . $table . " " . $where; $result = mysql_query($query) or die ('cannot get ' . $value . ": " . mysql_error()); $row = mysql_fetch_array($result); return stripslashes($row[$value]); } /**** * Purpose: sets the field to the given value * Precondition: value is given (-1 for no value), already connected to database * Postcondition: field has been set to value ****/ function setValue($field, $value, $table, $where) { if (!$field || !$table) return errorMsg("setValue incomplete query!
Field: $field
Table: $table
Where: $where
Value: $value"); if ($value == -1) $value = 0; if ($value == "null" || $value == "NULL") $value = ""; $value = htmlentities($value); $query = "UPDATE " . $table . " SET " . $field . "='" . $value . "' " . $where; mysql_query($query) or die ('cannot set ' . $field . " where " . $where . ": " . mysql_error()); return html_entity_decode($value); } /**** * Purpose: display all server details * Precondition: none * Postcondition: server details displayed on the screen ****/ function serverDetails() { echo "Document Root: " . $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']; echo "
"; echo "Gateway Interface: " . $_SERVER['GATEWAY_INTERFACE']; echo "
"; echo "Http Accept: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT']; echo "
"; echo "Http Accept Charset: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET']; echo "
"; echo "Http Accept Encoding: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING']; echo "
"; echo "Http Accept Language: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']; echo "
"; echo "Http Connection: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_CONNECTION']; echo "
"; echo "Http Host: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; echo "
"; echo "Http Referrer: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; echo "
"; echo "Http User Agent: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']; echo "
"; echo "Path Translated: " . $_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']; echo "
"; echo "Php Self: " . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; echo "
"; echo "Query String: " . $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']; echo "
"; echo "Remote Address: " . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; echo "
"; echo "Remote Port: " . $_SERVER['REMOTE_PORT']; echo "
"; echo "Request Method: " . $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']; echo "
"; echo "Request Uri: " . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; echo "
"; echo "Script Filename: " . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']; echo "
"; echo "Script Name: " . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']; echo "
"; echo "Server Admin: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_ADMIN']; echo "
"; echo "Server Name: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']; echo "
"; echo "Server Port: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT']; echo "
"; echo "Server Protocol: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']; echo "
"; echo "Server Signature: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_SIGNATURE']; echo "
"; echo "Server Software: " . $_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE']; } /**** * Purpose: get the filename from the path * Precondition: path i.e. http://domain.com/contacts.php * Postcondition: returns the filename i.e. contacts.php ****/ function fileName($path) { return substr($path, strrpos($path, '/')+1, strlen($path)); } /**** * Purpose: return a formatted success message * Precondition: the message to display * Postcondition: formatted message echoed to the screen ****/ function successMsg($message) { return "
Success! ". $message . "

"; } /**** * Purpose: checks to see if this is a valid email address * Precondition: email to check * Postcondition: returns true if email has @ and . in it ****/ function validEmail($email) { if (strstr($email, '@') && strstr($email, '.')) return true; return false; } /**** * Purpose: get the users IP address * Precondition: none * Postcondition: ip returned ****/ function getIP() { $ip = 0; if (getenv("HTTP_CLIENT_IP")) $ip = getenv("HTTP_CLIENT_IP"); else if(getenv("HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR")) $ip = getenv("HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"); else $ip = getenv("REMOTE_ADDR"); return $ip; } /**** * Purpose: turn this file into an img src html, scaled down porportionally to defined max * Precondition: url of file * Postcondition: file is now in img src form at correct porportions ****/ function thumbnail($file) { $max = 84; // Max. thumbnail width and height $size = getimagesize($file); if ( $size[0] <= $max && $size[1] <= $max ) $ret = ''; else { $k = ( $size[0] >= $size[1] ) ? $size[0] / $max : $size[1] / $max; $ret .= ''; } return $ret; } /**** * Purpose: remove specific html tags from text * Precondition: text to remove them from * Postcondition: non-allowed tags have been stripped ****/ function removeTags($source) { $allowedTags='

' . '
    1. ' . '
        '; $source = strip_tags($source, $allowedTags); //remove all tags that aren't allowed return preg_replace('/<(.*?)>/ie', "'<'.removeTags('\1').'>'", $source); } /**************** * Purpose: randomly generates a number * 11 digits long, and is in the pattern commented below ****************/ function generateKey() { $key = rand(100, 999); //random 3 digit number $key .= chr(rand(65, 90)); //upper case letter $key .= rand(10, 99); //2 digit number $key .= chr(rand(97, 122)); //lowercase number $key .= chr(rand(97, 122)); //lowercase number $key .= rand(10, 99); //2 digit number return $key .= chr(rand(65, 90)); //upper case letter } /**** * Purpose: delete object from an array * Precondition: array contains objects of same type, objects have an ID variable, * id of object to delete is given * Postcondition: object with specified id is removed from array ****/ function deleteObjectFromArray($array, $objectid) { $count = 0; foreach ($array as $object) { if ($object->id == $objectid) break; $count++; } //remove object from array $top = array_slice($array, 0, $count); $bottom = array_slice($array, $count+1, sizeof($array)); $array = array_merge($top, $bottom); return $array; } /**** * Purpose: find and return object from an array * Precondition: array contains object, each object has an ID variable * Postcondition: object is returned ****/ function findObject($array, $id)

        {

        foreach ($array as $object)
        {
        if ($object->id == $id)
        return $object;
        }
        }
        ?>

        You may also like...

        3 Responses

        1. Jay says:

          Wow, that is handy 😀
          Thanks! 😀
          Jay.

        2. Niels Bom says:

          Nice article!

          I always try to name my functions with a verb, so instead of errorMsg() I say makeErrorMsg(). I see that you do that a lot as well.

          Functions that return a boolean can mostly be named with “is” in the name validEmail –> isValidEmail. This makes your code really readable.

          if(isValidEmail($email))
          {
          sendMail($email,$foo,$bar);
          }
          else
          {
          displayErrorMsg(‘Invalid email’);
          }

          Other examples: isChecked(), isOlderThanLimit(), hasBodyParts(array(‘ears’,’eyes’)). etc..

          I’d also like to stress that function names really and specifically should explain what they do. A function called getValue() is quite vague. I’d have to read the function to see what it does, (imho) a better name would be getValueFromTable(), because that’s more descriptive.

          What I also try to do is abstract my functions as much as possible so I can (more) easily reuse them. Your thumbnail function has a certain value for thumbnails in it. If you’d ever want to have different sizes thumbnails you’d have to change the function, or make a new one. What I would have done is give an argument for the size of the thumbnail. In the configuration file for the application I would have defined the standard size for the thumbnail.

          Also don’t forget the classes and libraries you can find on the web, you can find a lot of excellent code in the PEAR website. pear.php.net
          It gives you a lot of excellent code which you can immediately use on your site, like http://pear.php.net/package/Image_Transform which is ideal for resizing images, like thumbnails.

          What might also be a good idea for displaying code in your blog is the Geshi plugin. http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/wiki/GeshiSyntaxColorer

          Happy coding!

          • Jade says:

            Thanks for the feedback.

            I try to make my function names as short as possible but as readable as possible. I don’t see a point in writing isValidEmail when ValidEmail() that’s a boolean is pretty obvious to me in terms of what it does.

            I agree with what you’re saying with the getValue/setValue functions. They’re usually a part of a DB class that I’ve created so it’s more along the lines of $db->getValue() and in that case I don’t feel it needs anything more descriptive.

            Abstracting a function, if I never intend to use under any other circumstances just makes it more of a pain to call. Why enter 12 fields when you only really plan on using one?

            PHP libraries… not all servers have those libraries. It’s a good practice to have these basic functions in case you run into a situation with a client where the library is not available. It’s not acceptable to say to someone whose paying you thousands of dollars for a website “I can’t resize this image because you don’t have the PEAR library.”

            Thanks for letting me know about the Geshi plugin. I’ll give it a go.

        Leave a Reply