A value can be converted into a string with the help of (string) cast or the strval() function.The strval() function is a function call whereas (string) cast is an internal type casting method.Unless there is some specific dataset or use case, both of these can be used interchangeably.This is because PHP uses automatic type conversion, due to which a variable's type is determined based on the context in which it is used.The strval($var) function returns the string value of $var whereas the (string)$var explicitly converts the "type" of $var during the process of evaluation.The $var can be any scalar type ... Read More

The functions and classes in PHP have global scope. This means they could be called outside a function even after they were defined inside the scope and the other way round.But PHP doesn't support function overloading, and it is not possible to redefine previously-declared functions.The function can be defined as an anonymous function and it can be unset after it completes its run.Below is a code sample for the same −if (function_exists('get_magic_quotes_gpc') && @get_magic_quotes_gpc())    $my_fn = create_function('&$v, $k', '$v = stripslashes($v);');    array_walk_recursive(array(&$_GET, &$_POST, &$_COOKIE, &$_REQUEST), $my_fn);    unset($my_fn); }An anonymous function can't be called inside itself. The workaround ... Read More

The fopen, fread and fwrite functions can be used to open a file stream, read a data stream and write that data to a file respectively.The file resource doesn't necessarily need to point to a location on the local machine itself.Below is an example that transfers a file from the local server to ftp server −$file = "file_name.jpg"; $destination = fopen("ftp://username:password@example.com/" . $file, "wb"); $source = file_get_contents($file); fwrite($destination, $source, strlen($source)); fclose($destination);The image needs to be transferred to an FTP server. Hence the server is opened in write mode, and the image is written to that location and the stream is ... Read More

Constants in PHP are defined using the 'define' function. They are fairly slow in PHP.There are instances where extensions (such as hidef) were written to improve the performance of the code.This comes into picture when there are thousands of constants.Beginning from PHP version 5.3, compile-time constants with the help of const NAME = VALUE; can also be used. They are relatively quicker.

Serialize is better in comparison to JSON to store PHP variables.The var_export can be used to save config file, and 'include' can be used to load the config file information.This is an easy way to save config data programmatically and easier to read/write. Below is a sample code for the same −config.phpreturn array(    'var_1'=> 'value_1',    'var_2'=> 'value_2', );test.php$config = include 'config.php'; $config['var_2']= 'value_3'; file_put_contents('config.php', '

The reply and return path can be placed in the headers as shown below −$headers = 'From: sample@example.com' . "\r" . 'Reply-To: sample@example.com' . "\r" . 'Return-Path: sample@example.com'Otherwise, it can be passed as the fifth parameter to change the return path −mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers, "-f email@wherever.com");Here, 'email@wherever.com' has to be replaced with the user's respective email id.

The below lines of code can be added to the /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file at the bottom −$i++; $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'HostName:port'; // hostname and port are provided if they are not default values $cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'userName'; //user name for the remote server $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'Password'; //the password $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';It will display “Current Server:” with drop down of both "127.0.0.1" and the one provided with $cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'].The user can switch between both the servers.

PHP SOAP has been made available beginning from PHP version 5.0.1 . Users who are still using PHP4 need to use NuSOAP.Native PHP codes are better in terms of performance & relatively bug free. Hence it is suggested to use PHP SOAP if it is available.On the other hand, NuSOAP doesn't have much documentation on their official website as well.Salient features of NuSOAPIt comes with a few predefined methods whereas they need to be written on one's own in case of Soap.The performance metric for SOAP is server response time.Handling UTF-8 is much easier in Nusoap.Nusoap offers certain functions that ... Read More

The __DIR__ can be used to obtain the current code working directory. It has been introduced in PHP beginning from version 5.3. It is similar to using dirname(__FILE__). Usually, it is used to include other files that is present in an included file.Consider the following directory structure −A directory called "master", that has two files named 'worker_1', and 'worker_2'. The master directory itself is a subfolder of the main project directory.The project directory also contains an index.php file.Consider having two files in a directory called inc, which is a subfolder of our project's directory, where the index.php file lies −project_directory ... Read More

The mutator methods can be used to chain methods, wherein these methods return the original objects, and other methods can be called on these objects that are returned by the mutator functions.ExampleBelow is a simple example demonstrating the same − Live Demo