Generally speaking I never hard code any setting in my code. I extract it all into my precious config file (or my config table, material for another post) so that I can change the inner workings of my code. Sometimes those settings come in the form of strings, integers and even arrays of the previously mentioned.

To define an array as a constant you can’t just define an array as the constant. For some reason PHP doesn’t allow that.

<?php
define( 'A_CONSTANT_ARRAY' , array( 'ONE' => 'ONE' , 'TWO' => 'TWO', 'THREE' => 3)); // won't work
?>

So you have to use the serialize function instead. It’s a simple bypass really since you actually define a string as a constant. That string happens to be a serialized array.

<?php
define( 'A_CONSTANT_ARRAY' , serialize( array( 'ONE' => 'ONE' , 'TWO' => 'TWO', 'THREE' => 3))); // will work
?>

To use it it’s a simple matter of unserializing the string into a regular array and you can access its values. Now a few questions arises:

Q: what’s the point of using a constant to assign it to a variable later on?

The constant is accessible anywhere in your code. No matter how deep you are in your code, you can always access it.

Q: How do I access the content of my array?

Simply unserialize the constant string into a variable.

<?php
define( 'A_CONSTANT_ARRAY' , serialize( array( 'ONE' => 'ONE' , 'TWO' => 'TWO', 'THREE' => 3)));
$some_variable = unserialize( A_CONSTANT_ARRAY );
var_dump( $some_variable );
?>

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My next topic of discussion: an array as a constant!

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few may have noticed I’ve been rather quiet on my blog lately but I have the best excuse! I’ve been extremely busy working on an important project.

Topic of the day: the weird 127.255.255.255 IP I found in my system’s access log.

I have a MySQL table with a signed INT temporarily storing ip2long processed IPs of visitors. The ip2long function converts an IP into a number that can be stored and queried very simply using basic SQL.

The problem is, signed INT can only store numbers between 2147483647 and -2147483647. 2147483647 is trhe numerical representation of the IP 127.255.255.255. This doesn’t mean that someone from that IP connected to my site. It means that someone with an IP that translated to a higher number connected and I stored it in a too short field.

I altered my INT into a BIGINT and voila!

References:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/numeric-types.html

http://fr2.php.net/ip2long

I hope this helps at least one confused fellow developer out there.

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Well it did work and here’s me sharing with the world.

<?php
function stringToHex( $dumbString ){
$teh_split = str_split( $dumbString , 1 );
$output = '';
foreach( $teh_split as $oneLetter ){
$output .= (string) dechex( ord( $oneLetter ));
}
return $output;
}

function HexROT13( $hexedROT13  = '' ){
$rot13_ref = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
$rot13_translate = "NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm";
$teh_split = str_split( $hexedROT13 , 2 );
$teh_ref = str_split( $rot13_ref , 1 );
$teh_translate = str_split( $rot13_translate , 1 );
$output = '';
foreach( $teh_split as $letter ){
$rot13_char = chr( hexdec( $letter ));
$rot13_index = array_search( $rot13_char , $teh_ref );
if( $rot13_index > 0 ){
$output .= $rot13_translate[ $rot13_index ];
} else {
$output .= $rot13_char;
}
}
return $output;
}

echo HexROT13( stringToHex( "youremail@yourdomain.com" ));
?>

I know it may solve the problem of encoding into ROT13 from a string for a handful of you guys.

Enjoy!

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I hope you guys like it. Soon there will be more posting about development tips and best practices. My current project is well under way and I should have a little more time to share my thoughts.

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<?php

function HexROT13( $hexedROT13  = '' ){
$rot13_ref = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
$rot13_translate = "NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm";
$teh_split = str_split( $hexedROT13 , 2 );
$teh_ref = str_split( $rot13_ref , 1 );
$teh_translate = str_split( $rot13_translate , 1 );
$output = '';
foreach( $teh_split as $letter ){
$rot13_char = chr( hexdec( $letter ));
$rot13_index = array_search( $rot13_char , $teh_ref );
if( $rot13_index > 0 ){
$output .= $rot13_translate[ $rot13_index ];
} else {
$output .= $rot13_char;
}
}
return $output;
}
echo HexROT13( '516261276720736265747267206762207165766178206c6268652042696e7967766172' );

?>

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Soon I shall make time to post more about readability (with the secret hope to trigger more discussion in comments), some SimpleXML and probably some random tidbits.

I hope you are having a wonderful 2010 so far.

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I’m not gone, just resting a bit during the holidays. Soon more PHP related posts.

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And for my fellow trekkers, live long and prosper!

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