Functions
Useful little functions I use all the time.
Text-fixing and adjusting functions
Create a proper proper-noun name. DAVE -> Dave | dave -> Dave | deVille -> deVille | McDave -> McDave
function fix_name($name)
{
if (strtoupper($name) == $name) return ucwords(strtolower($name)); // Is all caps, so make it lowercase and uc the first letter of every word.
elseif (strtolower($name) == $name) return ucwords($name); // Has no caps, so uc the first letter of every word.
else return $name; // Has _some_ caps, so we respect the input.
}
Fix and remove invalid characters from a filename.
// Create Unix-style filename.
function fix_filename($name)
{
return preg_replace(array('/[^a-z0-9_\-]/', '/ /'), array('', '_'), strtolower($name));
}
Fix and remove invalid characters from an email address.
function fix_email($email)
{
return preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9_\-\.@]/', '', strtolower(substr($email, 0, 50)));
}
Fix and remove invalid characters from a domain name.
function fix_domain($domain)
{
$domain = strtolower(substr($domain, 0, 50));
if (substr($domain, 0, 7) == 'http://') $domain = substr($domain, 7); // Remove http from the start.
$domain = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9\-\.\/]/', '', $domain);
$bits = explode('/', $domain);
$domain = $bits[0]; // Only take before the first slash.
return $domain;
}
Remove invalid characters and spaces from a phone number.
function fix_phone($phone)
{
// No spaces. Numbers and pluses only.
return preg_replace('/[^0-9\+]/', '', substr($phone, 0, 16));
}
Add ordinals to numbers (1 -> 1st | 2 -> 2nd | 3 -> 3rd).
function ordinal($num)
{
// Special case "teenth"
if ( ($num / 10) % 10 != 1 )
{
// Handle 1st, 2nd, 3rd
switch( $num % 10 )
{
case 1: return $num . 'st';
case 2: return $num . 'nd';
case 3: return $num . 'rd';
}
}
// Everything else is "nth"
return $num . 'th';
}
Output functions
Transform plain text into HTML by turning each line into a paragraph.
function text_to_html($text)
{
$lines = preg_split('(\\r\\n|\\n\\r|\\r|\\n)', $text, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
foreach ($lines as $line) $html .= '<p>' . $line . '</p>' . EOL;
return $html;
}
Scan text for URLs and change them into links.
function urls_to_links($text)
{
$pattern = '(http\://[a-zA-Z0-9_\+%\.\-\/\?\&\=%]*)';
$replacement = '<a href="$0" rel="external">$0</a>';
return preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $text);
}
Validity functions
Check an email address by checking for existance of MX records for the domain.
function valid_email($email)
{
if (empty($email) || !strpos($email, '@')) return false;
list($username, $domain) = split('@', $email);
if (checkdnsrr($domain, 'MX')) return true;
else return false;
}
Date and time functions
Show spread of two dates without repeating month or year if they are unnecessary, such as '1–3 March 2003' or '18 July – 12 April 2007'.
function date_spread($start_date, $end_date)
{
$start_day = date('j', $start_date);
$end_day = date('j', $end_date);
$start_month = ' ' . date('F', $start_date);
$end_month = ' ' . date('F', $end_date);
$start_year = ' ' . date('Y', $start_date);
$end_year = ' ' . date('Y', $end_date);
if ($start_year == $end_year)
{
if ($start_month == $end_month)
{
$start_month = '';
$start_year = '–';
}
else $start_year = ' – ';
}
return $start_day . $start_month . $start_year . $end_day . $end_month . $end_year;
}
Show a date in plain English, such as '3 years ago', 'in five minutes' or 'yesterday'. Answers the questions 'When is it?' or 'When was it?'
function rough_date($target_date, $start_date = false)
{
if (!$start_date) $start_date = time();
if ($start_date < $target_date)
{
$future = true;
$pre = 'in ';
$dif = $target_date - $start_date;
}
else
{
$post = ' ago';
$dif = $start_date - $target_date;
}
if ($dif > 46656000) // 18 months
{
$num = round($dif / 31536000);
$type = 'year';
}
elseif ($dif > 5184000) // Two months.
{
$num = round($dif / 2592000);
$type = 'month';
}
elseif ($dif > 1209600) // Two weeks.
{
$num = round($dif / 604800);
$type = 'week';
}
elseif ($dif > 86400) // One day.
{
$num = round($dif / 86400);
$type = 'day';
}
else
{
if (date('Ynd', $target_date) == date('Ynd', $start_date)) return 'today';
elseif ($future) return 'tomorrow';
else return 'yesterday';
}
if ($num == 1) return $pre . '1 ' . $type . $post;
else return $pre . $num . ' ' . $type . 's' . $post;
}
Show time between two dates, such as '4 days', '30 minutes' or '5 hours', etc. Answers the question 'How long does it last?'
function rough_time($target_date, $start_date = false)
{
if (!$target_date) $start_date = time();
if ($start_date < $target_date)
{
$future = true;
$dif = $target_date - $start_date;
}
else $dif = $start_date - $target_date;
if ($dif > 46656000) // 18 months
{
$num = round($dif / 31536000);
$type = 'year';
}
elseif ($dif > 5184000) // Two months.
{
$num = round($dif / 2592000);
$type = 'month';
}
elseif ($dif > 1209600) // Two weeks.
{
$num = round($dif / 604800);
$type = 'week';
}
elseif ($dif > 172800) // One day.
{
$num = round($dif / 86400);
$type = 'day';
}
elseif ($dif > 3559)
{
$num = round($dif / 3600);
$type = 'hour';
}
elseif ($dif > 90)
{
$num = round($dif / 60);
$type = 'minute';
}
else
{
$num = $dif;
$type = 'second';
}
if ($num == 1) return '1 ' . $type . $post;
else return $num . ' ' . $type . 's' . $post;
}
Return Unix timestamp for midnight of a given day.
function midnight($ts = false)
{
if (!$ts) $ts = time();
$now = explode('-', date('j-n-Y', $ts));
return mktime(0, 0, 0, $now[1], $now[0], $now[2]);
}
Return Unix timestamp for the first day in a given month.
//
function first_day($ts = false)
{
if (!$ts) $ts = time();
$now = explode('-', date('n-Y', $ts));
return mktime(0, 0, 0, $now[0], 1, $now[1]);
}
Return Unix timestamp for the last day in a given month.
function last_day($ts = false)
{
if (!$ts) $ts = time();
$now = explode('-', date('n-Y-t', $ts));
return mktime(0, 0, 0, $now[0], $now[2], $now[1]);
}
Other functions
Send a redirect header and exit
function redirect($redirect)
{
header('Location: ' . $redirect);
exit('<a href="' . $redirect . '">' . $redirect . '</a>');
}
Turn a two-dimensional array into equivalent XML.
function array_to_xml($array, $num_tabs = 0)
{
if ($num_tabs) $tabs = str_repeat("\t", $num_tabs);
if (is_array($array)) foreach ($array as $name => $value)
{
if (is_array($value)) $return .= $tabs . '<' . $name . '>' . EOL . array_to_xml($value, $num_tabs + 1) . $tabs . '</' . $name . '>' . EOL;
else $return .= $tabs . '<' . $name . '>' . $value . '</' . $name . '>' . EOL;
}
return $return;
}
Turn an array into a string.
// Array to string.
function a2s($array, $tabs = false)
{
if (is_array($array))
{
foreach ($array as $key => $value)
{
if (is_array($value))
{
$string .= $tabs . "'" . $key . "' => array(" . EOL . a2s($value, $tabs . "\t") . $tabs . ")," . EOL;
}
elseif (is_numeric($value)) $string .= $tabs . "'" . $key . "' => " . $value . "," . EOL;
elseif ($value === true) $string .= $tabs . "'" . $key . "' => true," . EOL;
elseif ($value === false) $string .= $tabs . "'" . $key . "' => false," . EOL;
else $string .= $tabs . "'" . $key . "' => '" . $value . "'," . EOL;
}
return $string;
}
else return $array . ' (not an array)';
}
Echo an array. Like print_r() but formatted better inside a <pre>.
function e_a2s($array)
{
echo '<pre>' . EOL;
echo a2s($array);
echo '</pre>' . EOL;
}