IntlChar isgraph() function in PHP

The IntlChar::isgraph() function checks whether a given character is a graphic character or not. Graphic characters are visible characters that have a visual representation, excluding whitespace and control characters.

Syntax

bool IntlChar::isgraph(mixed $codepoint)

Parameters

• codepoint − An integer codepoint value (e.g., 0x41 for 'A'), or a character encoded as a UTF-8 string (e.g., "A").

Return Value

The IntlChar::isgraph() function returns TRUE if the codepoint is a graphic character, FALSE otherwise. Returns NULL on failure.

Example

The following example demonstrates checking various characters ?

<?php
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph("A"));        // Letter
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph("9"));        // Digit
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph("@"));        // Symbol
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph(" "));        // Space (not graphic)
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph("<br>"));       // Newline (not graphic)
    echo "<br>";
    var_dump(IntlChar::isgraph("\t"));       // Tab (not graphic)
?>

Output

The output of the above code is ?

bool(true)
bool(true)
bool(true)
bool(false)
bool(false)
bool(false)

Key Points

• Graphic characters include letters, digits, punctuation, and symbols

• Whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines) are not considered graphic

• Control characters are not considered graphic

• The function accepts both string characters and Unicode codepoint integers

Conclusion

IntlChar::isgraph() is useful for validating visible characters in text processing applications. It returns TRUE for any character that has a visual representation, excluding whitespace and control characters.