14 PHP arguments that are not enough used PHP has a few thousands functions under its belt, and there are even more arguments. And just like for functions, some of those arguments are not often used, while they provide a useful extension to the original behavior of the function. The posterboy of the unknown arguments […]
07
Mar
Mar
Removing a value in an array, six methods Removing one value is a classic task, and it is quite natural to discover multiple ways to do so. Then, you can choose the one that suits your coding style the best. Usually, alternatives algorithms come with different limitations : speed, memory usage, extensions… In this article, […]
31
Jan
Jan
Semantic typing Semantic typing is an old practice, where the name of the parameter would also tell what its type is. It is typing, because a $string is supposed to be typed, and it is semantic, because only the human reader is actually using the meaning : PHP doesn’t really care. The interesting part is […]
07
Oct
Oct
PHP 8.1 features, one year later Closing on one year after PHP 8.1 publication, we can take a look at the published features, and how they are doing in current code. Let’s take the list of ‘PHP Core’ from the New Features ¶. Project corpus We’ll use that against the Exakat corpus, with 2696 PHP […]
04
Oct
Oct
Unpacked, named and positional arguments are in a call… Argument spread is the three dots operator, when used with arguments. Its primary usage is simple : it stands in front of a variable, and turns an array into a list of arguments. Recently, while checking the PHP 8.1 migration guide, I realized that named arguments […]
27
Sep
Sep
Code inventories An inventory is the list of items in a container, and it is also the process to making such list. The inventory is meant to provide a complete view over available ressources. Translated to code, PHP or else, it is an auditing process that collects code structures of one type, for further analysis. […]
13
Sep
Sep
The 3 nothings of PHP Mathematicians have the concept of infinity, which represents something that cannot be topped. Strangely enough, infinities come in different sizes : some infinities are larger than others. That sounds quite paradoxical, yet somewhat understandable. On the other hand, PHPians, if we can say that, have three kinds of nothing. The […]
31
Aug
Aug
Let’s make PHP more abstract abstract is a conception keyword. It is decided during the conception phase that some classes and some methods uses the abstract keyword. Later, that keyword might disappear as needed, yet abstract never appears sponteanously. Nobody decides abstraction late in the coding phase. That seems to be a lack of practise […]
26
Aug
Aug
Adding the last types to PHP code Adding types to PHP code is a staple of any PHP code refactoring. With a code base crawling towards 10 years and over 2000 classes, Exakat is quite a consistent piece of software, with a lot of parameters, methods and properties. Covering everything with types was long, and, […]
01
Aug
Aug
PHP native attributes In PHP 8.0, PHP added attributes to its vast arsenal of features. Later, the first native attribute, aka, available in the core of PHP, appeared. Here they are, for quick reference. In PHP 8.2, there are 4 native attributes. Attribute ReturnTypeWillChange SensitiveParameter AllowDynamicProperties Attribute Attribute is the attribute to make a class […]