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PHP Tip of the Week Archive

• If Brevity: The Ternary Operator
• Easy Database Inserts
• Output Buffering and Editing Web Pages On the Fly
• Searching Arrays
• Random Thoughts
• Faster Page Transfer Using Compression
• Persistent Values in Web Forms
• Using HEREDOC Syntax with HTML
• Calculating Dates More Easily
• Using Single and Double Quotes
• Timing Your PHP Scripts
• When Nothing is Something: Zero, Empty, Null, and Negative Values
• Nesting Instincts
  
  
  One helpful method for writing more concise PHP code is that of nesting functions within one other. Although this nesting doesn't appear to affect execution time significantly, it does create compact, elegant code.
  
  For example, if we wanted to parse a string containing a first and last name and then rearrange the names within that string, we might do this:
  
  <?php
  
  //A name formatted 'last, first'
  $name = 'Brown, Perry';
  
  //Reformat to read 'first last'
  $array = explode(", ",$name);
  $array_rev = array_reverse($array);
  $new_name = implode(" ",$array_rev);
  
  print "Name reformatted is $name";
  //prints "Name reformatted is Perry Brown"
  
  ?>
  
  Or, the more concise approach using nesting:
  
  <?
  
  //A name formatted 'last, first'
  $name = 'Brown, Perry';
  
  $name = implode(" ",array_reverse(explode(", ",$name)));
  
  print "Name reformatted is $name";
  //prints "Name reformatted is Perry Brown"
  
  ?>
  
  The key to nesting is simple: a function must be able to accept data of the same type as the function within it returns.
  
  So, in the example above, explode( ) returns an array that array_reverse( ) can understand and manipulate. Then implode( ) manipulates the array that array_reverse( ) returns. And implode( ) returns a string assigned to $name, which can be printed.
  
  This nesting principle can be applied more widely in PHP coding, but an obvious and practical application is when used with functions.
  
  Here's to more elegant, nested code!
  
  
  
  
• Useful (for) Characters: The Increment Operator
• The "static" keyword
• Those !#@% Characters!
• The Value of PHP Classes and OOP
• The Simple Things in (programming) Life
• Just a Passing Reference
• Simple Image Creation with PHP