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 […]
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. […]
04
Jul
Jul
Some Aging Parameters Parameters are part of the signature of methods and functions. They are one of the ways to inject data into a piece of code, for it to be processed. PHP has a lot of options and they have been available since ever. They are easy to find in recent and legacy code. […]
01
Jul
Jul
PDFF : PHP Document File Format details In the first episode, we have presented the origin of the PDFF: how it emerges to be a convenient format to describe PHP component, with a good level of details, some versioning and a dual-readability human/machine. In this second episode, we’ll introduce the format and the content of […]
15
Jun
Jun
Late, later and latest PHP checks PHP applies various checks when processing source code. When those checks fail, they might generate a Fatal errorand stop execution. They are the bane of production servers, and every PHP developper tries to avoid them as much as possible (unlike static code analyser authors which try to generate them). […]
07
Jun
Jun
Weekly reportekly The Weekly report is a special audit report. It sounds weird initially, to get a report per week, yet this is exactly what it does. Each week, a new report is built, based on a selection of different rules. And this is helps a lot with code quality! A different set every week […]
02
Jun
Jun
Reviewing Property Declaration In PHP Properties are a foundation part of classes. They are declared with their visibility, and their name. Then, they might be augmented with a default value, a type (even several), and may be also options like static or readonly. Contrary to methods and constants, properties cannot be marked final or abstract. […]
10
May
May
Move that foreach() inside the method Several PHP functions work with single or multiple values. For example, array_merge(), which merges several arrays into one. Or, isset(), which checks simultaneously the existence of several variables. str_replace() and preg_replace_callback() also come to mind. This approach usually brings a bit of performance, by processing a list of arguments […]