Tutorial Convert Comma Separated String into Array

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Easy way to turn a CSV file into a parseable array.

<?php
$str="foo,bar,baz,bat";
$arr=explode(",",$str);
// print_r($arr);
?>

Tutorial Convert BR to Newline

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Technique #1

function br2newline( $input ) {
     $out = str_replace( "<br>", "\n", $input );
     $out = str_replace( "<br/>", "\n", $out );
     $out = str_replace( "<br />", "\n", $out );
     $out = str_replace( "<BR>", "\n", $out );
     $out = str_replace( "<BR/>", "\n", $out );
     $out = str_replace( "<BR />", "\n", $out );
     return $out;
}

Converts a break tag to a newline - no matter what kind of HTML is being processed.

Technique #2

function br2nl( $input ) {
 return preg_replace('/<br(\s+)?\/?>/i', "\n", $input);
}

Tutorial Convert Accented Characters

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For instance, if you want to use a string as part of a URL but need to make it safe for that kind of use.

function replace_accents($str) {
   $str = htmlentities($str, ENT_COMPAT, "UTF-8");
   $str = preg_replace('/&([a-zA-Z])(uml|acute|grave|circ|tilde);/','$1',$str);
   return html_entity_decode($str);
}

Tutorial Comments in PHP

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<?php

    /*
           This code by Chris Coyier
    */

    $i = 0;    // counter to be used later;

?>

Comments in PHP can be between /* */ markings (useful for multiple line comments) or after // markings (for single lines only).

Tutorial Cleaning Variables

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Variables that are submitted via web forms always need to be cleaned/sanitized before use in any way, to prevent against all kinds of different malicious intent.

Technique #1

function clean($value) {

       // If magic quotes not turned on add slashes.
       if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc())

       // Adds the slashes.
       { $value = addslashes($value); }

       // Strip any tags from the value.
       $value = strip_tags($value);

       // Return the value out of the function.
       return $value;

}
$sample = "<a href='#'>test</a>";
$sample = clean($sample);
echo $sample;

Tutorial Check if Website is Available

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Performs a cURL-Request to check, if a website exists / is online

Technique #1

<?php

       if (isDomainAvailible('http://www.css-tricks.com'))
       {
               echo "Up and running!";
       }
       else
       {
               echo "Woops, nothing found there.";
       }

       //returns true, if domain is availible, false if not
       function isDomainAvailible($domain)
       {
               //check, if a valid url is provided
               if(!filter_var($domain, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL))
               {
                       return false;
               }

               //initialize curl
               $curlInit = curl_init($domain);
               curl_setopt($curlInit,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,10);
               curl_setopt($curlInit,CURLOPT_HEADER,true);
               curl_setopt($curlInit,CURLOPT_NOBODY,true);
               curl_setopt($curlInit,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);

               //get answer
               $response = curl_exec($curlInit);

               curl_close($curlInit);

               if ($response) return true;

               return false;
       }
?>

View Demo

Technique #2

<?php
function Visit($url){
       $agent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)";$ch=curl_init();
       curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url );
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $agent);
       curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
       curl_setopt ($ch,CURLOPT_VERBOSE,false);
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
       curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
       curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSLVERSION,3);
       curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);
       $page=curl_exec($ch);
       //echo curl_error($ch);
       $httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
       curl_close($ch);
       if($httpcode>=200 && $httpcode<300) return true;
       else return false;
}
if (Visit("http://www.google.com"))
       echo "Website OK"."n";
else
       echo "Website DOWN";
?>

Technique #3

<?php
       ini_set("default_socket_timeout","05");
       set_time_limit(5);
       $f=fopen("http://www.css-tricks.com","r");
       $r=fread($f,1000);
       fclose($f);
       if(strlen($r)>1) {
       echo("<span class='online'>Online</span>");
       }
       else {
       echo("<span class='offline'>Offline</span>");
       }
?>

Tutorial Check if File Exists / Append Number to Name

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If the file name exists, returns new file name with _number appended so you don't overwrite it. 

function file_newname($path, $filename){
    if ($pos = strrpos($filename, '.')) {
           $name = substr($filename, 0, $pos);
           $ext = substr($filename, $pos);
    } else {
           $name = $filename;
    }

    $newpath = $path.'/'.$filename;
    $newname = $filename;
    $counter = 0;
    while (file_exists($newpath)) {
           $newname = $name .'_'. $counter . $ext;
           $newpath = $path.'/'.$newname;
           $counter++;
     }

    return $newname;
}

Example returns:

myfile.jpg
myfile_0.jpg
myfile_1.jpg