Examine the 10 key PHP functions I use frequently

Mastering the essentials: A deep dive into PHP s top functionalities

PHP never ceases to surprise me with its built-in capabilities. These are a few of the functions I find most fascinating.

1. Levenshtein

For instance:

  levenshtein("PHP is wonderful", "PHP is wonderful"); // Returns 0

  levenshtein("Bright themes", "are great"); // Returns 13

The greater the disparity, the greater the distance.

2. Easter Dates

  date('Y-m-d', easter_date(2023)); // Outputs 2023-04-08

3. Forks

A snippet demonstrating its asynchronous potential:

  function async(Process $process): Process {
  // ... (provided code)
  }

For ease of use, I developed a package: spatie/async.

4. Metaphone

  metaphone("Bright theme colors!"); // Outputs LFTKLRSXMS

5. Built-in DNS

  dns_get_record("exampledomain.com");

{
    ["host"] => "exampledomain.com",
    ["class"] => "IN",
    ["ttl"] => 7200,
    ["type"] => "A",
    ["ip"] => "192.0.2.1"
}

  

n this example, querying the DNS record for "exampledomain.com" provides details like its IP address, Time-To-Live (TTL), and so on.

6. Recursive Array Merging

I'm including array_merge_recursive here because I used to misinterpret its utility. Contrary to my initial belief, it's not just for merging multi-tiered arrays!

Certainly! Here's a rephrased and similar example:

```php
$primary = [
    'tag' => 'initial'
];

$alternate = [
    'tag' => 'replacement'
];

array_merge_recursive($primary, $alternate);

{
    ["tag"] => {
        "initial",
        "replacement",
    }
}
```

In this case, we're merging two arrays containing the 'tag' key, and `array_merge_recursive` combines their values into a nested array.

7. Mail

  mail($to, $subject, $message);

8. DL

  if (!extension_loaded('sampleext')) {
    if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') {
        dl('php_sampleext.dll');
    } else {
        dl('sampleext.so');
    }
}

In this code, we're checking if a fictional extension named 'sampleext' is loaded. If not, it will attempt to dynamically load the appropriate shared library based on the operating system.

9. Glob

glob(__DIR__ . '/data/articles/*.md');
glob(__DIR__ . '/data/*/*.md');

{
    /route/to/data/articles/story.md,
    /route/to/data/topics/tale.md,
    …
}

In this version, we're using the glob function to search for Markdown files in a hypothetical directory structure related to articles and topics.

10. Sun Info

That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to PHP's potential!

date_sun_info(
    timestamp: strtotime('2023-02-15'),
    latitude: 51.5074,
    longitude: 0.1278,
)

{
  ["sunrise"] => 1675500000
  ["sunset"] => 1675540000
  ["transit"] => 1675525000
  ["civil_twilight_begin"] => 1675495000
  ["civil_twilight_end"] => 1675545000
  ["nautical_twilight_begin"] => 1675490000
  ["nautical_twilight_end"] => 1675550000
  ["astronomical_twilight_begin"] => 1675485000
  ["astronomical_twilight_end"] => 1675555000
}

In this variation, we're getting the sun-related information for London (latitude and longitude of London) on 15th February 2023. Note: The timestamps are fictional and just for illustrative purposes.

Silvia Mazzetta

Web Developer, Blogger, Creative Thinker, Social media enthusiast, Italian expat in Spain, mom of little 9 years old geek, founder of  @manoweb. A strong conceptual and creative thinker who has a keen interest in all things relate to the Internet. A technically savvy web developer, who has multiple  years of website design expertise behind her.  She turns conceptual ideas into highly creative visual digital products.