Text Helper

The Text Helper file contains functions that assist in working with text.

Loading this Helper

This helper is loaded using the following code:

<?php

helper('text');

Available Functions

The following functions are available:

random_string([$type = 'alnum'[, $len = 8]])

• Parameters

  • $type string Randomization type
  • $len int Output string length

• Returns: A random string

• Return type: string

Generates a random string based on the type and length you specify. Useful for creating passwords or generating random hashes.

The first parameter specifies the type of string, and the second parameter specifies the length. The following choices are available:

• alpha: A string with lower and uppercase letters only.
• alnum: Alphanumeric string with lower and uppercase characters.
• numeric: Numeric string.
• nozero: Numeric string with no zeros.
• crypto: A random string based on random_bytes().

Note

When you use crypto, you must pass an even number as the second parameter. Since v4.2.2, if you set an odd number, InvalidArgumentException will be thrown.

Note

Since v4.3.3, alpha, alnum and nozero use random_bytes(), and numeric uses random_int(). In previous versions, they used str_shuffle(), which is not cryptographically secure.

Usage example:

<?php

echo random_string('alnum', 16);

increment_string($str[, $separator = '_'[, $first = 1]])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $separator string Separator to append a duplicate number with
  • $first int Starting number

• Returns: An incremented string

• Return type: string

Increments a string by appending a number to it or increasing the number. Useful for creating "copies" of a file or duplicating database content which has unique titles or slugs.

Usage example:

<?php

echo increment_string('file', '_'); // "file_1"
echo increment_string('file', '-', 2); // "file-2"
echo increment_string('file_4'); // "file_5"

alternator($args)

• Parameters

  • $args mixed A variable number of arguments

• Returns: Alternated string(s)

• Return type: mixed

Allows two or more items to be alternated between, when cycling through a loop. Example:

<?php

for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
    echo alternator('string one', 'string two');
}

You can add as many parameters as you want, and with each iteration of your loop the next item will be returned.

<?php

for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
    echo alternator('one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five');
}

Note

To use multiple separate calls to this function, simply call the function with no arguments to re-initialize.

reduce_double_slashes($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: A string with normalized slashes

• Return type: string

Converts double slashes in a string to a single slash, except those found in URL protocol prefixes (e.g., http://).

Example:

<?php

$string = 'http://example.com//index.php';
echo reduce_double_slashes($string); // results in "http://example.com/index.php"

strip_slashes($data)

• Parameters

  • $data mixed Input string or an array of strings

• Returns: String(s) with stripped slashes

• Return type: mixed

Removes any slashes from an array of strings.

Example:

<?php

$str = [
    'question' => "Is your name O\\'reilly?",
    'answer'   => "No, my name is O\\'connor.",
];

$str = strip_slashes($str);

The above will return the following array:

<?php

[
    'question' => "Is your name O'reilly?",
    'answer'   => "No, my name is O'connor.",
];

Note

For historical reasons, this function will also accept and handle string inputs. However, this makes it just an alias for stripslashes().

reduce_multiples($str[, $character = ','[, $trim = false]])

• Parameters

  • $str string Text to search in
  • $character string Character to reduce
  • $trim bool Whether to also trim the specified character

• Returns: Reduced string

• Return type: string

Reduces multiple instances of a particular character occurring directly after each other. Example:

<?php

$string = 'Fred, Bill,, Joe, Jimmy';
$string = reduce_multiples($string); // results in "Fred, Bill, Joe, Jimmy"

If the third parameter is set to true, it will remove occurrences of the character at the beginning and the end of the string. Example:

<?php

$string = ',Fred, Bill,, Joe, Jimmy,';
$string = reduce_multiples($string, ',', true); // results in "Fred, Bill, Joe, Jimmy"

quotes_to_entities($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: String with quotes converted to HTML entities

• Return type: string

Converts single and double quotes in a string to the corresponding HTML entities. Example:

<?php

$string = "Joe's \"dinner\"";
$string = quotes_to_entities($string); // results in "Joe&#39;s &quot;dinner&quot;"

strip_quotes($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: String with quotes stripped

• Return type: string

Removes single and double quotes from a string. Example:

<?php

$string = "Joe's \"dinner\"";
$string = strip_quotes($string); // results in "Joes dinner"

word_limiter($str[, $limit = 100[, $endChar = '…']])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $limit int Limit
  • $endChar string End character (usually an ellipsis)

• Returns: Word-limited string

• Return type: string

Truncates a string to the number of words specified. Example:

<?php

$string = 'Here is a nice text string consisting of eleven words.';
$string = word_limiter($string, 4);
// Returns:  Here is a nice

The third parameter is an optional suffix added to the string. By default, it adds an ellipsis.

character_limiter($string[, $limit = 500[, $endChar = '…']])

• Parameters

  • $string string Input string
  • $limit int Number of characters
  • $endChar string End character (usually an ellipsis)

• Returns: Character-limited string

• Return type: string

Truncates a string to the number of characters specified. It maintains the integrity of words, so the character count may be slightly more or less than what you specify.

Example:

<?php

$string = 'Here is a nice text string consisting of eleven words.';
$string = character_limiter($string, 20);
// Returns:  Here is a nice text string

The third parameter is an optional suffix added to the string. If undeclared, this helper uses an ellipsis.

Note

If you need to truncate to an exact number of characters, please see the ellipsize() function below.

ascii_to_entities($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: A string with ASCII values converted to entities

• Return type: string

Converts ASCII values to character entities, including high ASCII and MS Word characters that can cause problems when used in a web page, so that they can be shown consistently regardless of browser settings or stored reliably in a database. There is some dependence on your server's supported character sets, so it may not be 100% reliable in all cases, but for the most part, it should correctly identify characters outside the normal range (like accented characters).

Example:

<?php

$string = ascii_to_entities($string);

entities_to_ascii($str[, $all = true])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $all bool Whether to convert unsafe entities as well

• Returns: A string with HTML entities converted to ASCII characters

• Return type: string

This function does the opposite of ascii_to_entities(). It turns character entities back into ASCII.

convert_accented_characters($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: A string with accented characters converted

• Return type: string

Transliterates high ASCII characters to low ASCII equivalents. Useful when non-English characters need to be used where only standard ASCII characters are safely used, for instance, in URLs.

Example:

<?php

$string = convert_accented_characters($string);

Note

This function uses a companion config file app/Config/ForeignCharacters.php to define the to and from array for transliteration.

word_censor($str, $censored[, $replacement = ''])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $censored array List of bad words to censor
  • $replacement string What to replace bad words with

• Returns: Censored string

• Return type: string

Enables you to censor words within a text string. The first parameter will contain the original string. The second will contain an array of words which you disallow. The third (optional) parameter can contain a replacement value for the words. If not specified, they are replaced with pound signs: ####.

Example:

<?php

$disallowed = ['darn', 'shucks', 'golly', 'phooey'];
$string     = word_censor($string, $disallowed, 'Beep!');

highlight_code($str)

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string

• Returns: String with code highlighted via HTML

• Return type: string

Colorizes a string of code (PHP, HTML, etc.). Example:

<?php

$string = highlight_code($string);

The function uses PHP's highlight_string() function, so the colors used are the ones specified in your php.ini file.

highlight_phrase($str, $phrase[, $tag_open = '<mark>'[, $tag_close = '</mark>']])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $phrase string Phrase to highlight
  • $tag_open string Opening tag used for the highlight
  • $tag_close string Closing tag for the highlight

• Returns: String with a phrase highlighted via HTML

• Return type: string

Will highlight a phrase within a text string. The first parameter will contain the original string, and the second will contain the phrase you wish to highlight. The third and fourth parameters will contain the opening/closing HTML tags you would like the phrase wrapped in.

Example:

<?php

$string = 'Here is a nice text string about nothing in particular.';
echo highlight_phrase($string, 'nice text', '<span style="color:#990000;">', '</span>');

The above code prints:

Here is a <span style="color:#990000;">nice text</span> string about nothing in particular.

Note

This function used to use the <strong> tag by default. Older browsers might not support the new HTML5 mark tag, so it is recommended that you insert the following CSS code into your stylesheet if you need to support such browsers:

mark {
    background: #ff0;
    color: #000;
}

word_wrap($str[, $charlim = 76])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $charlim int Character limit

• Returns: Word-wrapped string

• Return type: string

Wraps text at the specified character count while maintaining complete words.

Example:

<?php

$string = 'Here is a simple string of text that will help us demonstrate this function.';
echo word_wrap($string, 25);
/*
 * Would produce:
 * Here is a simple string
 * of text that will help us
 * demonstrate this
 * function.
 *
 * Excessively long words will be split, but URLs will not be.
 */

ellipsize($str, $max_length[, $position = 1[, $ellipsis = '&hellip;']])

• Parameters

  • $str string Input string
  • $max_length int String length limit
  • $position mixed Position to split at (int or float)
  • $ellipsis string What to use as the ellipsis character

• Returns: Ellipsized string

• Return type: string

This function will strip tags from a string, split it at a defined maximum length, and insert an ellipsis.

The first parameter is the string to ellipsize, and the second is the number of characters in the final string. The third parameter is where in the string the ellipsis should appear from 0 - 1, left to right. For example, a value of 1 will place the ellipsis at the right of the string, .5 in the middle, and 0 at the left.

An optional fourth parameter is the kind of ellipsis. By default, … will be inserted.

Example:

<?php

$str = 'this_string_is_entirely_too_long_and_might_break_my_design.jpg';
echo ellipsize($str, 32, .5);

Produces:

this_string_is_e…ak_my_design.jpg

excerpt($text, $phrase = false, $radius = 100, $ellipsis = '...')

• Parameters

  • $text string Text to extract an excerpt from
  • $phrase string Phrase or word to extract the text around
  • $radius int Number of characters before and after $phrase
  • $ellipsis string What to use as the ellipsis character

• Returns: Excerpt.

• Return type: string

This function will extract $radius number of characters before and after the central $phrase with an ellipsis before and after.

The first parameter is the text to extract an excerpt from, and the second is the central word or phrase to count before and after. The third parameter is the number of characters to count before and after the central phrase. If no phrase is passed, the excerpt will include the first $radius characters with the ellipsis at the end.

Example:

<?php

$text = 'Ut vel faucibus odio. Quisque quis congue libero. Etiam gravida
eros lorem, eget porttitor augue dignissim tincidunt. In eget risus eget
mauris faucibus molestie vitae ultricies odio. Vestibulum id ultricies diam.
Curabitur non mauris lectus. Phasellus eu sodales sem. Integer dictum purus
ac enim hendrerit gravida. Donec ac magna vel nunc tincidunt molestie sed
vitae nisl. Cras sed auctor mauris, non dictum tortor. Nulla vel scelerisque
arcu. Cras ac ipsum sit amet augue laoreet laoreet. Aenean a risus lacus.
Sed ut tortor diam.';

echo excerpt($text, 'Donec');

Produces:

... non mauris lectus. Phasellus eu sodales sem. Integer dictum purus ac
enim hendrerit gravida. Donec ac magna vel nunc tincidunt molestie sed
vitae nisl. Cras sed auctor mauris, non dictum tortor. ...