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Magento Integration: Session Login

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:35:00 +0000

New Object-Oriented Features

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:55:00 +0000

The new OO features are too numerous to give a detailed description in this section. Chapter 3, “PHP 5 OO Language,” details each feature.The following list provides the main new features:

public/private/protectedaccess modifiers for methods and properties.Allows the use of common OO access modifiers to control access tomethods and properties:

class MyClass {
private $id = 18;
public function getId() {
return $this->id;
}
}

Unified constructor name__construct().
Instead of the constructor being the name of the class, it is now declared as __construct(), which makes it easier to shift classes inside class hierarchies:

class MyClass {
function __construct() {
print "Inside constructor";
}
}

Object destructor support by defining a __destructor() method.Allows defining a destructor function that runs when an object is destroyed:

class MyClass {
function __destruct() {
print ”Destroying object”;
}

}

Interfaces.

Gives the ability for a class to fulfill more than one is-a relationships. A class can inherit only from one class, but may implement as many interfaces as it wants:

interface Display {
function display();
}
class Circle implements Display {
function display() {
print "Displaying circle\n";
}
}

instance of operator.

Language-level support for is-a relationship checking. The PHP 4 is_a() function is now deprecated:

if ($obj instanceof Circle) {
print '$obj is a Circle';
}

Final methods.

The final keyword allows you to mark methods so that an inheriting class cannot overload them:

class MyClass {
final function getBaseClassName() {
return __CLASS__;
}
}

Final classes.

After declaring a class as final , it cannot be inherited. The following example would error out.

final class FinalClass {
}
class BogusClass extends FinalClass {
}

Explicit object cloning.

To clone an object, you must use the clone keyword. You may declare a __clone() method, which will be called during the clone process (after the properties have been copied from the original object):

Array Sorting Function

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:15:00 +0000

arsort — Sort an array in reverse order and maintain index association
asort — Sort an array and maintain index association
compact — Create array containing variables and their values
count — Count all elements in an array, or something in an object
current — Return the current element in an array
each — Return the current key and value pair from an array and advance the array cursor
end — Set the internal pointer of an array to its last element
extract — Import variables into the current symbol table from an array
in_array — Checks if a value exists in an array
key — Fetch a key from an array
krsort — Sort an array by key in reverse order
ksort — Sort an array by key
list — Assign variables as if they were an array
natcasesort — Sort an array using a case insensitive "natural order" algorithm
natsort — Sort an array using a "natural order" algorithm
next — Advance the internal array pointer of an array
pos — Alias of current
prev — Rewind the internal array pointer
range — Create an array containing a range of elements
reset — Set the internal pointer of an array to its first element
rsort — Sort an array in reverse order
shuffle — Shuffle an array
sizeof — Alias of count
sort — Sort an array
uasort — Sort an array with a user-defined comparison function and maintain index association
uksort — Sort an array by keys using a user-defined comparison function
usort — Sort an array by values using a user-defined comparison function

PHP MySQL Function

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:35:00 +0000

mysql_affected_rows — Get number of affected rows in previous MySQL operation

mysql_client_encoding — Returns the name of the character set

mysql_close — Close MySQL connection

mysql_connect — Open a connection to a MySQL Server

mysql_create_db — Create a MySQL database

mysql_data_seek — Move internal result pointer

mysql_db_name — Retrieves database name from the call to mysql_list_dbs

mysql_db_query — Selects a database and executes a query on it

mysql_drop_db — Drop (delete) a MySQL database

mysql_errno — Returns the numerical value of the error message from previous MySQL operation

mysql_error — Returns the text of the error message from previous MySQL operation

mysql_escape_string — Escapes a string for use in a mysql_query

mysql_fetch_array — Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array, or both

mysql_fetch_assoc — Fetch a result row as an associative array

mysql_fetch_field — Get column information from a result and return as an object

mysql_fetch_lengths — Get the length of each output in a result

mysql_fetch_object — Fetch a result row as an object

mysql_fetch_row — Get a result row as an enumerated array

mysql_field_flags — Get the flags associated with the specified field in a result

mysql_field_len — Returns the length of the specified field

mysql_field_name — Get the name of the specified field in a result

mysql_field_seek — Set result pointer to a specified field offset

mysql_field_table — Get name of the table the specified field is in

mysql_field_type — Get the type of the specified field in a result

mysql_free_result — Free result memory

mysql_get_client_info — Get MySQL client info

mysql_get_host_info — Get MySQL host info

mysql_get_proto_info — Get MySQL protocol info

mysql_get_server_info — Get MySQL server info

mysql_info — Get information about the most recent query

mysql_insert_id — Get the ID generated in the last query

mysql_list_dbs — List databases available on a MySQL server

mysql_list_fields — List MySQL table fields

mysql_list_processes — List MySQL processes

mysql_list_tables — List tables in a MySQL database

mysql_num_fields — Get number of fields in result

mysql_num_rows — Get number of rows in result

mysql_pconnect — Open a persistent connection to a MySQL server

mysql_ping — Ping a server connection or reconnect if there is no connection

mysql_query — Send a MySQL query

mysql_real_escape_string — Escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement

mysql_result — Get result data

mysql_select_db — Select a MySQL database

mysql_set_charset — Sets the client character set

mysql_stat — Get current system status

mysql_tablename — Get table name of field

mysql_thread_id — Return the current thread ID

mysql_unbuffered_query — Send an SQL query to MySQL without fetching and buffering the result rows.

SQL Joins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:41:00 +0000

1. Login in to the mysql client using the login name and password provided by your instructor (if
not already logged in).

2. View the existing databases that the MySQL Server is maintaining.

SHOW DATABASES;

3. Utilize the photo_album database.

USE photo_album;

---- If Need be, recreate the database and load the SQL data
in that will be used for this lab

CREATE DATABASE photo_album;
SOURCE /tmp/photo_album.sql;

4. Query the database to display the active primary customer (email, first and last name) and all
the associated active login names associated with that customer.

SELECT customers.email_customer, customers.fname,customers.lname, logins.login_name FROM customers, loginsWHERE customers.email_customer = logins.email_customer AND customers.active_customer = 'True' AND logins.active_login = 'True';

5. Modify the query just issued to also show the image name of all the active files associated with
each one of the login names.

SELECT customers.email_customer, customers.fname,customers.lname, logins.login_name,images.file_name
FROM customers, logins, images WHERE customers.email_customer = logins.email_customer
AND logins.login_name =images.login_name AND customers.active_customer = 'True' AND logins.active_login = 'True' AND images.active_image = 'True';

6. The customer with the login name of Frankie has requested that his login name be changed to
just 'Frank' to make it easier for him to remember it. The only problem is that the change must
also take place in the images table. This is not automatic due to the fact that this table is a
MyISAM table (rightfully so) and there is no Foreign Key constraints that would make the
change automatic. However, this is not a problem with the right update statement against the
two tables at once. Can you make one query that will update both the tables at once?

UPDATE logins, images, comments SET logins.login_name = 'Frank',images.login_name = 'Frank'
WHERE logins.login_name = images.login_name AND logins.login_name = 'Frankie';

SQL DML Commands

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 03:46:00 +0000

1. Login in to the mysql client using the login name and password provided by your instructor (if
not already logged in).

2. View the existing databases that the MySQL Server is maintaining.

SHOW DATABASES;

3. Utilize the photo_album database.

USE photo_album;
---- If Need be, recreate the database and load the SQL data
in that will be used for this lab
CREATE DATABASE photo_album;
SOURCE /tmp/photo_album.sql;

4. Search the customers records for the customer with the following e-mail address:
hollywood@truedog.com

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE email_customer ='hollywood@truedog.com'\G

5. Search the logins records for logins associated with the customer identified in step 4.

SELECT * FROM logins WHERE email_customer ='hollywood@truedog.com';

6. In the customers table, update the customers e-mail address, identified in step 4, to
howleewood@truedog.com.

UPDATE customers SET email_customer = 'howleewood@truedog.com'
WHERE email_customer = 'hollywood@truedog.com';

7. Review the customers records to see if the change (from step 6) took place. If the update did
not take place, reissue the statement in step 6 to ensure the change takes place?

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE email_customer ='howleewood@truedog.com'\G

8. Review the logins table to see if the e-mails associated with the customer in step 6 were also
changed. If the e-mail associated with that customer were also changed in the logins table,
why?

SELECT * FROM logins WHERE email_customer ='howleewood@truedog.com'\G

SQL Expressions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:27:00 +0000

SQL SELECT Commands

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 03:56:00 +0000

1. Login in to the mysql client using the login name and password provided by your instructor (if
not already logged in).

2. In the photo_album databases, load the /tmp/photo_album.sql.data file into the
database.

USE photo_album;
SOURCE /tmp/photo_album.sql;

3. Perform an aggregate select against each table to count the number of records located in each
table.

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM customers;
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM comments;
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM images;
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM logins;

4. Using the customers table, list the customers who are active from closest to farthest
termination date (term_date).

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE active_customer='True' ORDER BY
term_date ASC;

5. Using the logins table, list those with active logins and have logged in during the month of
April 2007.

SELECT * FROM logins WHERE active_login='True' && last_login
LIKE '2007-04%';

6. Using the images table, list the active images names from the most recent date to the oldest
dates (image_date).

SELECT file_name, image_date FROM images WHERE active_image
ORDER BY image_date DESC;

7. Using the comments table, list the user with the most active comments.

SELECT login_name, COUNT(*) FROM comments WHERE active_comment =
'True' GROUP BY login_name DESC;

Managing Database Tables

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 03:54:00 +0000

1. Login in to the mysql client using the login name and password provided by your instructor.

2. View the existing databases that the MySQL Server is maintaining.

SHOW DATABASES;

3. Utilize the photo_album database.

USE photo_album;

4. Create the first table called customers that will store the information related to the customers
who have purchased access to the online photo album

CREATE TABLE customers (
email_customer VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
f_name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
l_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
addr1 VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
addr2 VARCHAR(30) NULL,
addr_city VARCHAR(25) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
addr_state CHAR(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
addr_zip CHAR(10) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
primary_phone CHAR(12) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
secondary_phone CHAR(12) NULL,
term_date DATE NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
active_customer ENUM('True', 'False') NOT NULL DEFAULT
'True',
PRIMARY KEY (email_customer)
) ENGINE=INNODB;

5. Create the second table called logins that will contain the login authentication data. Each
customer will be able to have up to 5 logins for their site (this could be given to family and
friends to access their photos).

CREATE TABLE logins (
login_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
email_customer VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
f_name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
l_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
passwd VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
last_login DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
active_login ENUM('True', 'False') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'True',
PRIMARY KEY (login_name),
INDEX (email_customer),
FOREIGN KEY (email_customer)
REFERENCES customers (email_customer)
ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=INNODB;

---- Note: The reason we do not want a DELETE CASCADE on this FK relationship is due to the
fact that we do not want to lose the customer information. By setting the active_customer to
False, we can simply code a response to the customer when they attempt to log in that there
account has been closed. If they wish to pay us, we will be happy to open their account again and
they have lost nothing. However, a policy would have to be in place on when data is archived.

6. Create the third table called images that will contain the information about the photos. The
image information will include information to connect the images to other tables, the size of the
image and the name of the image that was stored. Later in the course, the code will be created
to upload these images with the image information being stored in the database.

CREATE TABLE images (
id_image INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,
login_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
image_size VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
file_name VARCHAR(60) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
image_date DATE NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
active_image ENUM('True', 'False') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'True',
PRIMARY KEY (id_image),
INDEX (login_name)
) ENGINE=MYISAM;

7. Create the last table called comments that will be used to keep track of the comments attached
to each picture. Each login associated with the images will be able to provide comments against
the picture.

CREATE TABLE comments (
id_comment INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,
login_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
id_image INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
comments TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
log_date TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
active_comment ENUM('True', 'False') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'True',
PRIMARY KEY (id_comment),
INDEX (id_image)
) ENGINE=MYISAM;
8. View the list of tables located in the photo_album database.
SHOW TABLES;

9. Review the details of each table created and verify that the tables were designed properly. If
they are not correct, use the ALTER TABLE command to make the changes to correct the
problems.

SHOW CREATE TABLE customers\G
SHOW CREATE TABLE logins\G
SHOW CREATE TABLE images\G
SHOW CREATE TABLE comments\G

Managing Databases

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:56:00 +0000

1. Login in to the mysql client using the login name and password provided by your instructor.

2. View the existing databases that the MySQL Server is maintaining.

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;

3. There should be only three databases that the MySQL Server is maintaining:
INFORMATION_SCHEMA, mysql and test. Remove any additional databases that exist.

If need be, mysql> DROP DATABASE db_name;

4. Create a new database called photo_album with a default character set of utf8.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE photo_album CHARACTER SET utf8;

5. Using the mysql client, verify that the database was created.

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;

6. View the contents of the /usr/local/mysql/data directory. Is there a new sub-directory associated with
the database just created?

>ls /usr/local/mysql/data/

7. View the db.opt file located in the associated sub-directory to verify the correct default character set
is being used. What collation type has been assigned as default? Does that make sense for the
character set chosen?

> more /usr/local/mysql/data/photo_album/db.opt

Counting Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 07:19:00 +0000

Due to the fact that PHP's regular expressions are so versatile, many functions that have been designed by
PHP developers have been overlooked in the past because the tasks were able to be completed with regular
expressions. However, there are two functions that should not be overlooked due to their simplicity in
performing a more complex task.

• count_chars -
This built-in function provides information about the number of times that an standard
ASCII character appears in the string.

<?php
$text = "I went to Mississippi for the summer.";
$letters = count_chars($text, 1);
// 1 counts only the characters that show up more than zero
times
// 0 is the default and produces the entire listing of standard
// ASCII characters, even those not showing up in the string
// 2 returns only those ASCII characters that do not show up
// 3 & 4 return byte info (all located and all unused,
respectively)
foreach($letters as $key=>$value) {
print chr($key)." = ".$value;
}
// A list of characters followed by their frequency appears
// The order is based on the standard ASCII order
?>

str_word_count -
This built-in function works on a similar principal to the count_chars() function,
but with the focus on the words themselves versus the characters. The basic function is to return a
numeric count of the number of words contained in the string.

<?php
$text = "I went to Mississippi for the summer.";
print str_word_count($text); // Returns the number of words
found
?>

Another way the function works is by placing each word in the string into an array. This array can be
built one of two ways. By placing a numeric 1 in the second parameter option, the array will be built
with just the words as the entities for the array. By placing a numeric 2 in the second parameter
option, the array will be built with the entities built with the key being the numeric location of where
the word was located in the array and the value of the word as the key.

<?php
$text = "I went to Mississippi for the summer.";
$words = str_word_count($text,1);
print_r($words,1);
// The following will be "printed" out:
// Array ( [0] => I [1] => went [2] => to [3] => Mississippi
// [4] => for [5] => the [6] => summer )
?>
<?php
$text = "I went to Mississippi for the summer.";
$words = str_word_count($text,2);
print_r($words,1);
// The following will be "printed" out:
// Array ( [0] => I [2] => went [7] => to [10] => Mississippi
// [22] => for [26] => the [30] => summer )
?>

Modify String Length

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 04:41:00 +0000

When performing the duties of creating/manipulating web content, the PHP programmer will need to
modify the lengths of strings, either by padding the strings to be a certain length or removing strings to be a
certain length. PHP provides numerous built-in functions to accomplish these tasks. The following are the
most common functions for modifying string lengths:

• ltrim -
The name of this function identifies its purpose, to trim the string content starting from the
left portion of the string. By default, the ltrim() function will remove all white space characters which
includes the standard space, the horizontal tab(\t), vertical tab (\x0b), new line (\n), carriage return (\r)
and NULL (\0). This function will continue to remove these characters until it reaches a non-white
space character and then the function removal process will terminate.

<?php
$text = \n\t Jane wanted to listen to the troupe play.";
print ltrim($text);
// The new text printed will be "Jane wanted to listen to the
// troupe play."
?>

If there are other characters that must be removed from the left portion of the string, they can be
placed into the second component of the function which is the optional parameter option. When there
is a value in the optional parameter option, all other characters will remain (even white space
characters). If the programmer requires white space characters to be removed also, they must enter
them into the optional parameter option along with the additional required character. With the
optional parameter option, the function will also continue to remove characters until it finds a
character that is not in the optional parameter list and then terminate.

<?php
$text = "\ta) \n\tJane wanted to listen to the troupe play.";
print ltrim($text, "\ta) ");
// The new text printed will be "\n\tJane wanted to listen to
the
// troupe play."
?>

• rtrim -
Is equivalent to the ltrim() function in how it performs, the only difference is it trims from the
end of the string versus the beginning of the string.

<?php
$text = "Jane wanted to listen to the troupe play. \n";
print ltrim($text);
// The new text printed will be "Jane wanted to listen to the
// troupe play." Without the space and line return at the end
?>

• trim -
Is equivalent to the ltrim() and rtrim() functions combined together. The trim() function
trims the characters from the beginning of the string and the end of the string.

<?php
$text = "\n Jane wanted to listen to the troupe play. \n";
print ltrim($text);
// The new text printed will be "Jane wanted to listen to the
// troupe play." Without the space and line return on either end
?>

• str_pad -
This function will insert characters (spaces by default) into a string to force the string to be
a certain length (which is defined in the second parameter of the function).

<?php
$text = "Title";
print str_pad($text, 15);
// The new text printed will be "Title "
?>

A PHP programmer can also change the default character (a space) to another character(s) by placing
the character(s) into the third optional parameter option.

<?php
$text = "Title";
print str_pad($text, 15, "-|");
// The new text printed will be "Title-|-|-|-|-|"
?>

By default the padding is added to the end of the string; however, by entering either
STR_PAD_RIGHT, STR_PAD_LEFT or STR_PAD_BOTH into the fourth optional parameter
option, the programmer can control where the padding will be added. When using the fourth optional
parameter option, the third optional parameter option must also have a character (even if it just a
space).

<?php
$text = "Title";
print str_pad($text, 15, " ", STR_PAD_BOTH);
// The new text printed will be " Title "
?>

HTML to Text Conversion Functions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:16:00 +0000

• array_flip -

This function is the opposite function for the get_html_translation_table() function by
reversing HTML special characters back their original string characters.
<?php

$html_text = "Júan and Felípe paid 13¢ a
piece
for gum."
$translation_table = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES);
$flipped = array_flip($translation_table);
print strtr($html_text, $flipped);
// The sentence will now read "Júan and Felípe paid 13¢ a piece
for
// gum" without any HTML translation
?>

• strip_tags() -
This function removes all HTML and PHP tags from a string.
<?php
$html_text = "<a href=\"http://www.johnsgifts.com\">
John's Gifts</a>";
print strip_tags($html_text);
// Returns John's Gifts with no HTML tags
?>

In the even that a tag type should remain while all others are removed, that can be accomplished by
adding the HTML tag in the optional second component of the function.

<?php
$html_text = "<a href=\"http://www.johnsgifts.com\">
John's Gifts</a>";
print strip_tags($html_text, "");
// Returns John's Gifts but without the <a>
tags
?>

HTML Conversion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 04:09:00 +0000

PHP's strength is in its ability to turn a static web page into a dynamic web page by interacting directly with
the HTML. Part of this strength is PHP's ability to convert non-HTML (text only) strings to HTML and
HTML strings to non-HTML strings. To make this happen, PHP provides multiple built-in functions
designed specifically for HTML conversions. The following is a list of the most commonly used:
Text to HTML Conversion Functions

• nl2br -
This function name (nl2br) is an acronym for "newline to tags" due to the fact that this
function will convert all newline characters (\n) in strings to their XHTML-compliant equivalent ( ).

<?php
$text = "See Spot.
See Spot run.
See Spot fall.
See Spot's friends laugh.
Hear Spot growl.
See Spot's friends run.";
print nl2br($text);
// The sentence will now read "See Spot. See Spot run.
// See Spot fall. See Spot's friends laugh. 
// Hear Spot growl. See Spot's friends run."
?>

• htmlspecialchars -
There are numerous characters that HTML identifies as special for completing
certain tasks that are everyday characters in written language. For example; the ampersand sign (&)
is used in many languages to abbreviate the word "and"; however, the ampersand sign is also used in
HTML as a special character. If a programmer wants to actually use the ampersand sign as its
original meaning, the following HTML code must be entered in its place: "&amp" as in "Jack &amp
Jill". The PHP function htmlspecialchars() will convert all such special characters in HTML to their
HTML equivalents.

<?php
$text="<<Storytime>> Jack & Jill went up the hill ... Jack
fell
down! Jill screamed \"Jack are you OK?\"";
print htmlspecialchars($text);
// The sentence will now read "<<Storytime>> Jack
// &amp Jill went up the hill ... Jack fell down! Jill
screamed
// "Jack are you OK?""
?>

If using both the nl2br() and htmlspecialchars() functions against the same string, it is important to
execute the htmlspecialchars() first and then nl2br() second. If the order is reversed, the XHTMLequivalent
line returns ( ) will be converted to defeating the purpose of the
functions.

• strtr -
This function uses arrays to handle search and replace operations. It is similar in nature to the
preg_replace() Perl-style regular expression function. The following is an example presented earlier
using the preg_replace() function:

<?php
$text = "The dog barks, the bear growls and the cat meows";
$adults = array("/dog/", "/bear/", "/cat/");
$children = array("puppy", "cub", "kitten");
print preg_replace($adults,$children, $text);
?>

The following is an example of using the strtr() function to recreate the above example:

<?php
$text = "The dog barks, the bear growls and the cat meows";
$translation_table = array("dog" => "puppy", "bear" => "cub",
"cat" => "kitten");
print strtr($text, $translation_table);
?>

With this capability, there are many uses that the strtr() function can provide to the programmer.
However, due to the fact that the discussion now revolves around converting strings to HTML, it is
time to talk about the get_html_translation_table() function.

• get_html_translation_table -
PHP has built in arrays for handling the most common HTML
equivalent characters. The arrays are referenced by calling them with the function
get_html_translation_table(). The two arrays that are available are HTML_SPECIALCHARS and
HTML_ENTITIES. The following examples demonstrate how these two arrays are called and
utilized in PHP code:

<?php
$text="<<Storytime>> Jack & Jill went up the hill ... Jack fell
down! Jill screamed \"Jack are you OK?\"";
$translation_table=get_html_translation_table(HTML_SPECIALCHARS);
print strtr($text, $translation_table);
// The sentence will now read "<<Storytime>> Jack
// &amp Jill went up the hill ... Jack fell down! Jill screamed
// "Jack are you OK?""
?>

<?php
$text="Júan and Felípe paid 13¢ a piece for gum.";
$translation_table = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES);
print strtr($text, $translation_table);
// The sentence will now read "Júan and Felípe
//paid 13¢ a piece for gum."
?>

To see what characters are in the HTML_ENTITIES translation tables, use the following PHP code
(view the source of the web page to see the HTML special characters):

<?php
$translation_table = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES);
foreach($translation_table as $row) print "$row \n";
?>

Manipulating String Cases

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Case sensitivity is an issue that the programmer (and the end user) must deal with. Everything from
commands to passwords are affected by case sensitivity. In PHP there are four functions that provide the
tools to deal with the case sensitivity issue by allowing the string case to be manipulated.

• strtolower -
This string case manipulation function converts all characters that are uppercase
characters to lowercase characters.

<?php
$text = "MySQL http://WWW.MYSQL.COM";
print strtolower($text);
// Returns "mysql http://www.mysql.com";
?>

• strtoupper -

This string case manipulation function converts all characters that are lowercase
characters to uppercase characters.

<?php
$text = "MySQL http://WWW.MYSQL.COM";
print strtoupper($text);
// Returns "MYSQL HTTP://WWW.MYSQL.COM";
?>

• ucfirst -
This string case manipulation function converts only the first character of the string to
uppercase. The remaining characters are left alone.

<?php
$text = "mysql http://www.MySQL.com";
print ucfirst($text);
// Returns "Mysql http://www.MySQL.com ";
?>

• ucwords -
This string case manipulation function converts the first character of each word in the
string to uppercase. The remaining characters in each word are left alone.

<?php
$text = "my mother said to pick the very best one and ...";
print ucwords($text);
// Returns "My Mother Said To Pick The Very Best One And ...";
?>

Other String Comparison Functions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:53:00 +0000

While the strcmp() function is the most commonly used string comparison function in PHP, there are other
string comparison functions offered:

• strcasecmp -
This string comparison function is equivalent to the strcmp() function except that it is
not case sensitive.

<?php
function chk_emails($input1, $input2) {
if (! strcasecomp($input1, $input2)) {
print "E-mails are the same, proceed ";
}else {
print "E-mails are not equal ";
}
}
chk_emails("jones@mysql.com","Jones@MySQL.com");
// strcasecmp is case-insensitive and thus these two e-mails
// are the same
?>

• strspn -
The strspn() function compares two strings to determine how closely related they are to each
other. This is accomplished by returning the length of the first string containing characters that are
also located in the second string.

<?php
function passwd_diff($n_passwd, $o_passwd) {
if (strspn($n_passwd, $o_passwd) > (strlen($o_passwd) *.75))
{
print "New password must be noticeably different from
the old password ";
}else {
print "The new password is acceptable ";
}
}
passwd_diff ("mydogskip","mydogskippy");
// The characters in the new password and old password are

// too similar to be allowed

passwd_diff ("myfriendskip","mydogskippy");

// The characters are different enough between the two

// passwords to be considered acceptable

• strcspn -
The strcspn() function is similar to the strspn() function in that it compares two strings to
determine how closely related they are to each other. However, rather than giving a number related to
the similarities it looks at each character from left to right and identifies the first segment in the first
string containing characters not in the second string.

<?php

$alphabet1 = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

$alphabet2 = "ghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

print strcspn($alphabet1, $alphabet2);

Comparing Two Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Following the password example just shown, there are many web sites today that force a person to type
there password in twice to make sure that they truly are setting it to what they want (the chances of typing it
identically wrong twice is very low). This is accomplished using such tools as strcmp() which is a built-in
to PHP.

<?php
Function chk_passwds($input1, $input2) {
if (strcomp($input1, $input2) = 0) {
print "Passwords are equal, proceed ";
}else {
print "Passwords are not equal ";
}
}
chk_passwds("doggy1", "Doggy1");
// strcmp is case-sensitive and thus these passwords are not
equal
?>

The strcomp() function has three possible results: 0 means the two strings are equal, -1 means that the first
string is less than the second string and 1 means that the second string is less than the first string. In the
example above, all that needs to be tested is if they are equal. It is not necessary to know the exact
differences between the two strings. Of course, a statement like if ($input1 == $input2) would
serve the same purpose, but would not result in the same output type.

Comparing Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 04:30:00 +0000

As stated, PHP has poweful regular expressions that provide programmers with the tools necessary to
complete difficult searching tasks. In addition to this regular expression capability, PHP provides built-in
functionality for performing a wide range of string-specific tasks. Many of these tasks are based on string
comparison operations.

String Length

One of the simplest comparison operators of strings is determining if the lengths are equivalent. This
involves determining the length of the strings and then acting upon those lengths. The length function
built-in to PHP is strlen() and is one of the more widely used string expressions.

<?php
function chk_passwd($input) {
if (strlen($input) < 7) {
print "Password is too short";
} else if (strlen($input) > 10) {
print "Password is too long";
}else {
print "Password is the proper length, proceed ";
}
}
chk_passwd("doggy1");
chk_passwd("Diabolical");
chk_passwd("rst 4567");
chk_passwd("run-^$#&");
chk_passwd("mydogspotruns");
?>
In the above example, the length of the password is the only test being evaluated. Of course, this would not
be acceptable by itself; however, it does show how length can be used as a string test.

Perl-style regular expressions(preg_split )

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 05:30:00 +0000

• preg_split -
This Perl-style function is equivalent to the split() function previously discussed with the
exception of allowing Perl-style regular expressions. The third optional component of the
preg_split() function can be entered to limit the number of changes that take place. Failing to enter a
numeric limit (or a -1), ensures that there is no limit on the changes that can take place.

<?php
$csv_text = "5, \"Amsterdam\", \"NLD\", \"Noord-Holland\",
731200";

$csv_array = preg_split("/\,/",$csv_text);
foreach ($csv_array as $csv_column) {
print "$csv_column ";
}
?>

The script above creates an array called $csv_row that contains the following element: [0] = 5,
[1]="Amsterdam", [2]="NLD", [3]="Noord-Holland", [4]=731200). The foreach iterative control
statement prints each of these elements on the screen on their own lines. A third component can be
placed in the split function that would limit the number of array elements that would be created. By
adding 3 to the split function in the above script (preg_split("/\,/",$csv_text, 3) the
array elements that would be created would consist of: [0]=5, [1]="Amsterdam", [2]="NLD", "Noord-
Holland", 731200.

Perl-style regular expressions( preg_replace_callback)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:30:00 +0000

• preg_replace_callback() -
With preg_replace(), the function itself is responsible for handling the
replacement procedure. With preg_replace_callback(), the handling of the replacement procedure is
handed off to another function to take care of. The syntax is identical to preg_replace() except where
the replacement text would be located, a function name is present. This function is responsible for
handling any of the replacement changes to the text that matches the pattern searched.

<?php
$text = "Dear <pnm>S</pnm>Ortiz,     I
would like to thank you and <pnf>F</pnf>Picard for taking the
time in talking to me today. Please feel free to contact me if
you have any additional
questions. Sincerely, <pnm>E</pnm>Bob Riker";
function proper_name_m($matches) {
$titles = array(
'E' => 'Mr. ',
'S' => 'Sr. ',
'F' => 'M ');
if (isset($titles[$matches[1]])) {
return $titles[$matches[1]];
} else {
return $matches[1];
}
}
function proper_name_f($matches) {
$titles = array(
'E' => 'Ms. ',
'S' => 'Sra. ',
'F' => 'Mme ');
if (isset($titles[$matches[1]])) {
return $titles[$matches[1]];
} else {
return $matches[1];
}
}
$new_text = preg_replace_callback("/<pnm>(.*)<\/pnm>/U",
'proper_name_m', $text);
$final_text = preg_replace_callback("/<pnf>(.*)<\/pnf>/U",
'proper_name_f', $new_text);
print $final_text;
?>

In the code presented above, a letter (which looks like a follow-up to a sales or interview meeting) has
been written. The user did not know the proper titles to use with the names, so they were taught to
place 'E' for English titles, 'S' for Spanish titles and 'F' for French titles. In addition, because of the
need to address both genders, they were also taught to identify the gender in the tags used:
<pnm>$language_code</pnm> for male and <pnf>$language_code</pnf> for female. The function
proper_name_m handles the replacement for the <pnm> tags and proper_name_f handles the
<pnf> tags. The first preg_replace_callback function handles the changing of the male titles
and then places the new text into the variable $new_text. The second
preg_replace_callback function handles the changing of the female titles and then finalizes
the text by placing the replaced contents in the variable $final_text.

Perl-style regular expressions( preg_replace)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 05:00:00 +0000

• preg_replace() -
This Perl-syntax function is equivalent to the ereg_replace() function. This
function works by replacing all occurrences of the pattern searched with the replacement characters
and then returns the modified result. The fourth parameter is optional, but when a number is entered
it determines how many occurrences of the pattern searched will be replaced. If no number is entered,
all occurrences of the search pattern will be replaced.

<?php
$url = "MySQL http://www.mysql.com";
print preg_replace("/http:\/\/(.*)/","<a
href=\"\${0}\">\${0}</a>",
$url);
?>

The script above changes the http reference to be replaced with the HTML code required to create a
web link. The three components of this function include the pattern to search for ("/http:\/\/(.*)/"), the
replacement string ("<a href=\"\${0}\">\${0}</a>") and then finally the variable that is going to be
searched and replaced. The ${0} tells the preg_replace() function to repeat the complete matched
pattern (in this case http://www.mysql.com).
In addition to individual variables, the pattern and replacement components can also be arrays. The
function will cycle through each element of each array, making replacements as they are found.

<?php
$text = "The dog barks, the bear growls and the cat meows";
$adults = array("/dog/", "/bear/", "/cat/");
$children = array("puppy", "cub", "kitten")
print preg_replace($adults,$children, $text);
?>

More on Perl-style regular expressions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 04:30:00 +0000

• preg_match_all() -
This function is similar to preg_match(); however, rather than searching for just
one occurrence of the search parameter, this function will find all occurrences. In addition, each
occurrence found will be placed into an array variable entered into the third input parameter. The
array created will contain various sections of the subpatterns contained in the search pattern. Just like
preg_match(), if there is a match, the function returns a TRUE, if the regular expression does not
find a match, a FALSE is returned.

<?php
$text = "mysql_close, mysql_connect and mysql_error are
all PHP functions used when working with MySQL.";
if (preg_match_all("/mysql\w+/",$text,$mysql_commands) {
print_r($mysql_commands);
} else {
print "No mysql commands were found";
}
?>

• preg_quote() -
This function places a backslash in front of all special regular expression characters.
This is useful if a run-time string containing special regular expression characters has to be evaluated.
The special regular expression characters are: . \ + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! < > | :

<?php

$text = "The rental is $300";

print preg_quote($text); // Returns "The rental is \$300"

Using Perl-style regular expressions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Within PHP there are seven functions used for searching strings using Perl-style regular expressions:

• preg_match() -
This function utilizes the Perl-style regular expressions to search strings provided for
a match. If there is a match, the function returns a TRUE, if the regular expression does not find a
match, a FALSE is returned.

<?php
$phone_number = "1900Atlanta";
if (preg_match("/.\D/",$phone_number)) print "The Phone
Number must contain only numeric digits";
?>

• preg_grep() -
This function is similar to the preg_match() function, but works only on arrays. The
preg_grep() function is also useful in that it creates a new array based on those matches found in the
search array.

<?php
$product_codes = ("NZ3456", "SUS5678", "SNZ3294", "US4678");
$NZ_Codes = preg_grep("/NZ/", $product_codes);
print_r($NZ_Codes); //NZ3456 and SNZ3294 are displayed
?>

The preg_grep() function can also take a third input parameter that has a unique capability. By
placing the words PREG_GREP_INVERT in the third input parameter, only those elements that do
not match the parameter searched for are returned. Using the example above, the opposite elements
would be returned:

<?php
$product_codes = ("NZ3456", "SUS5678", "SNZ3294", "US4678");
$non_nz_Codes = preg_grep("/NZ/", $product_codes,
PREG_GREP_INVERT);
print_r($non_nz_Codes); // SUS5678and US4678are displayed
?>

Perl-style

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:30:00 +0000

The Perl programming language is exceptional at parsing strings by providing a comprehensive regular
expression language to the programmer. Rather than creating their own regular expression language, the
developers of PHP made the Perl regular expression syntax available to PHP users. The Perl-style regular
expression syntax was built from the POSIX regular expression syntax and thus hold many of the same
features. In fact, PHP programmers can use many of the same POSIX regular expression syntax when
using Perl-style regular expression syntax. The basic Perl-style regular expression syntax involves using
forward slashes (/ /) to identify the pattern that will be searched for: /mysql/ will find any string that
contains the pattern "mysql", /m+/ will find any string that contains the letter "m" followed by one or more
characters (mysql, mom, mudd, my, etc.) and /m{2,4}/ will find any string that contains the letter "m"
followed by 2 or 4 characters (mom, mysql, etc.). The Perl-style regular expressions are utilized in three
methods: Quantifiers, Modifiers and Metacharacters.

• Quantifiers - The quantifiers used in Perl-style regular expressions are identical to those used in
POSIX ERE's.

• Modifiers - These are specific commands that allow for a more defined search based on the
specific needs of that search. These commands work by being added to the standard Perl-style
regular expressions. The following is a list of the most common Perl-style modifiers:

􀂃 i - performs a case insensitive search (ex. /mysql/i will find "mysql" and "MYSQL" or any
other combination of upper and lower case characters).
􀂃 g - finds all occurrences of the search pattern (ex. /iss/g will find 2 occurrences of "iss" in
"Mississippi"). This is useful when performing a global search and replace.
􀂃 m - performs the search based on individual lines in a multiple line string. For example, when
using the characters ^ (which is for matching at the beginning of the string) or $ (which is for
matching at the end of the string), the programmer can search a string with multiple lines as if
they were individual lines. (ex. /^Thomas/ would not be matched against the following
sentence but /^Thomas/m would be: "My mother went to the store.\nThomas went with her.")
􀂃 x - this Perl-style modifier will ignore white space and comments within the regular
expression.
􀂃 U - this Perl-style modifier will stop the searching after the first occurrence of the pattern is
found.

• Metacharacters - These are specific characters that are preceded by a backslash that symbolize a
special meaning for the character following. The following are a few of the metacharacters
associated with Perl-style regular expressions:

􀂃 \A - matches patterns only at the beginning of the string
􀂃 \b - matches a word boundary (ex. /\bis\b/ will find only occurrences of "is" but not words
like "dish" or "mist", /is\b/ would find not only "is" but also "his" because the boundary is
looking for the only "is" at the end of the word, ignoring what would be in front of it). \B
ignores word boundaries.
􀂃 \d - matches any numeric digit character. \D is the opposite matching any non-numeric
character.
􀂃 \s - matches a white space character. \S matches non-white space characters.
Other metacharacters that do not require the backslash include:
􀂃 $ - matches patterns at the end of the line
􀂃 ^ - matches pattern at the beginning of the line
􀂃 . - matches any pattern except for the new line
􀂃 ( ) - encloses a character grouping

POSIX regular expressions(SQL)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 04:30:00 +0000

• sql_regcase -
This function converts each alphabetical character into its equivalent lower and upper
case representation surrounded by brackets. For those characters that are not alphabetical, no change
is taken place.

<?php
$text = "MySQL's website is http://www.mysql.com";
print sql_regcase($text);
// Outputs [Mm][Yy][Ss][Qq][Ll]'[Ss] [Ww][Ee][Bb][Ss][Ii][Tt]
// [Ee] [Ii][Ss] [Hh][Tt][Tt][Pp]://[Ww][Ww][Ww].[Mm][Yy][Ss]
// [Qq][Ll].[Cc][Oo][Mm]
?>