In the article I describe the Consistence library that aims to bring consistency to PHP applications.

There is no argument, that PHP can sometimes be a bit inconsistent about naming stuff and maintaining order of parameters for related functions. Also, in some cases it is not strict and allows you to use the language and the functions in a wrong way. Sometimes you get false as a return value where an exception would be appropriate.

I really like the idea of code being strict because it prevents errors in the application. E.g. strpos usually returns int , but it returns false when the $needle was not found. It would be much better to throw SubstringNotFoundException in that case.

Consistence provides opinionated strict wrappers with better error handling and consistent naming and consistent parameters order.

Disclaimer: I haven't created the library, but I find it useful and I hope you will as well. It is one of the packages I use on every project.

Let's dive into it.

Use Enums for better type safety

It's a good practice to use constants instead of passing magic numbers (or magic strings) around. But you still pass them as a string, so there is nothing that prevents you from passing any other arbitrary string:

<?php class BodyType { const SUV = 'suv'; const COMBI = 'combi'; const HATCHBACK = 'hatchback'; const CABRIO = 'cabrio'; // ... } function createCar(string $bodyType) { // do something with $bodyType } $car = createCar(BodyType::CABRIO); $car = createCar('doubledecker'); // unexpected things can happen

Consistence provides an enum implementation. When you extend the class from Enum , all constants are automatically treated as possible enum values:

<?php class BodyType extends \Consistence\Enum\Enum { const SUV = 'suv'; const COMBI = 'combi'; const HATCHBACK = 'hatchback'; const CABRIO = 'cabrio'; // ... } function createCar(BodyType $bodyType) { echo $bodyType->getValue(); // you can use `getValue()` method to access the internal enum value } // use get() to get an instance of enum $cabrioBodyType = BodyType::get(BodyType::CABRIO); // It is a regular class instance var_dump($cabrioBodyType instanceof BodyType); // bool(true) // You always get the same instance, so you can compare them var_dump(BodyType::get(BodyType::CABRIO) === BodyType::get(BodyType::CABRIO)); // bool(true) // Type-hint checks work as expected $car = createCar($cabrioBodyType); // Argument 1 passed to createCar() must be an instance of BodyType, string given $car = createCar('doubledecker');

Enums also make it easier to write an actual code. Compare the following examples. When you want to instantiate the class from the first one, you have to dig into the documentation to check what are the allowed values:

<?php class Car { public function __construct( string $bodyType, string $transmissionType, string $engineType, string $fuelType ) {} }

In the second one, you just start typing BodyType::get(BodyType:: and then choose from the suggested values:

<?php class Car { public function __construct( BodyType $bodyType, TransmissionType $transmissionType, EngineType $engineType, FuelType $fuelType ) {} }

There are Doctrine and Doctrine + Symfony integrations which allow you to use Enums in Doctrine entities:

<?php use Consistence\Doctrine\Enum\EnumAnnotation as Enum; use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM; /** * @ORM\Entity() */ class Car { /** * @Enum(class=BodyType::class) * @ORM\Column(type="string_enum") * @var BodyType */ private $bodyType; public function __construct(BodyType $bodyType) { $this->bodyType = $bodyType; } public function getBodyType(): BodyType { return $this->bodyType; } }

If you need to represent multiple values, have a look at the MultiEnums.

If the Consistence only provided the Enums, it would be enough reason for me to use it.

Planning to use Consistence with Symfony forms? I have created ConsistenceBundle which adds translator service, translator twig filter and form type for Consistence Enums.

Use ObjectPrototype to disable magic methods

In PHP you can write to undefined object properties. If the property is not defined and you assign a value to it, it is created in runtime.

I think it is a bad idea because it can hide subtle bugs and typos. Consider the following example, where I made a several mistakes in the code, but PHP almost did not complain.

<?php class MyClass { public $foo; } $a = new MyClass(); $a->boo = 'bb'; // I made a typo, but PHP is fine with that var_dump($a->foo); // NULL var_dump($a->boo); // string(2) "bb" var_dump($a->otherProperty); // Notice: Undefined property: MyClass::$otherProperty

If you want a more real-world example, consider this:

<?php $finalPrice = $product->price * $customer->distountRate;

There is a typo in a property name, so the $finalPrice would be 0 , because undefined property has null value which is converted to 0 and used in multiplication.

Consistence provides a straightforward way to mitigate this type of bugs. There is an ObjectPrototype class which you can extend your classes from. If you try to assign or read something from an undefined property, an exception is thrown. Calling undefined methods throws an exception too. Those exceptions are not meant to be caught, but they should be fixed directly in your code.

<?php class MyClass extends \Consistence\ObjectPrototype { public $foo; } $a = new MyClass(); $a->boo = 'bb'; // throws Consistence\UndefinedPropertyException var_dump($a->foo); // NULL, but that does not matter, an exception would be thrown before var_dump($a->boo); // throws Consistence\UndefinedPropertyException var_dump($a->otherProperty); // throws Consistence\UndefinedPropertyException $a->foo(); // throws Consistence\UndefinedMethodException

You're probably thinking, that using a base class for all classes is an awful code-smell!

I agree in general, but this case is different. If you consider the Consistence library to be an extension or augmentation of the standard PHP library, ObjectPrototype class is more like Object base class in Java. And nobody complains about it there.

The unseen advantage of this is that when you extend ObjectPrototype , you can't extend anything else, which is a good thing. You should be using composition as a code reuse mechanism anyway. In cases when the inheritance makes sense, you can use ObjectMixinTrait which enables the strict behaviour. Good example are the exceptions (they are objects too!):

<?php class MyCustomException extends \Exception { use \Consistence\Type\ObjectMixinTrait; } $exception = new MyCustomException(); $exception->foo = 'a'; // throws Consistence\UndefinedPropertyException

Speaking of exceptions, there is a PhpException which can be used as their base class. It has a shorter constructor without the mostly useless $code argument.

Strict type checking

PHP type-hints are powerful, but there are still a lot of things they can't check. You can put the detailed type info into the PHPDoc, but it is ignored at runtime. It only helps other developers and the IDE to better understand the code.

In the following example, IDE understands that the array contains int values, but PHP only checks that it is an array :

<?php /** * @param int[] $data */ function foo(array $data) { var_dump($data); } foo([0, 1, 2]); // OK, foo(['0', '1', '2']); // OK foo(1); // not OK: Argument 1 passed to foo() must be of the type array, integer given

You can use Type class to manually check that the variable contains expected type:

<?php use Consistence\Type\Type; /** * @param int[] $data */ function foo(array $data) { Type::checkType($data, 'int[]'); var_dump($data); } foo([0, 1, 2]); // OK foo(['0', '1', '2']); // throws Consistence\InvalidArgumentTypeException: int[] expected, [array] given

Type::checkType() throws an exception when the type-check fails. If you want to throw the exception yourself, you can use Type::hasType($data, 'int[]') which returns boolean value.

Here are some examples what else you can use as an expected type:

object : useful in < PHP 7.2

: useful in < PHP 7.2 Union types: int|string or int[]|string[]

or Collection of objects: Product::class . '[]'

Array keys type: int:string[] (array of string values indexed by int keys)

Consistent array manipulation functions

Standard PHP functions for array manipulation aren't very consistent or strict:

most of them are not using strict comparison - they do automatic type conversion

most of them do not accept callbacks to create more complicated logic

some accept the source array as first parameter, some as a second parameter

Consistence provides several array manipulation functions in the ArrayType namespace. Let's have a look at the examples.

In the first example you can see how the implicit type conversion in in_array function can lead to unexpected results:

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = ['1', '2']; // automatic type conversion in_array('1', $data); // bool(true) in_array(1, $data); // bool(true) <- unexpected result! in_array(true, $data); // bool(true) <- unexpected result! // strict flag set to true in_array('1', $data, true); // bool(true) in_array(1, $data, true); // bool(false) <- works as expected in_array(true, $data, true); // bool(false) <- works as expected // ArrayType::containsValue() works as expected by default ArrayType::containsValue($data, '1'); // bool(true) ArrayType::containsValue($data, 1); // bool(false) ArrayType::containsValue($data, true); // bool(false)

In this case you can get away with just making sure to always add true as a third parameter.

The code gets more complicated when you need more complex logic, e.g. you want to check if the array contains a value larger than 3. You can iterate through the array and determine if some value matches the condition:

<?php $data = [1, 2, 3, 4]; $result = false; foreach ($data as $value) { if ($value > 3) { $result = true; break; } } var_dump($result); // bool(true)

Consistence provides more succinct way of doing it with containsValueByValueCallback() , where you only need to write the actual business logic and not the repetitive boilerplate code:

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = [1, 2, 3, 4]; $result = ArrayType::containsValueByValueCallback($data, function (int $value) { return $value > 3; }); var_dump($result); // bool(true);

I often use array filtering by callback:

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = [1, 2, 3, 4]; $result = ArrayType::filterValuesByCallback($data, function (int $value): bool { return $value > 2; }); var_dump($result); // [3, 4]

And mapping values by callback:

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = [1, 2, 3, 4]; // map values using callback $result = ArrayType::mapValuesByCallback($data, function (int $value) { return $value * 2; }); var_dump($result); // [2, 4, 6, 8]

Sometimes it may be convenient to use filterByCallback() and mapByCallback() that pass both key and value to the callback function (they use the KeyValuePair value object internally).

Did you know, that array_unique() is always comparing loosely? Therefore, I prefer to use strict ArrayType::uniqueValues() :

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = [1, '1', true]; var_dump(array_unique($data)); // ['1'] var_dump(ArrayType::uniqueValues($data)); // [1, '1', true]

Last thing I want to show you regarding the arrays is the find / get convention. If the method name starts with find (e.g. findValue() ), it can either return the value or null . But if the method name starts with get (e.g. getValue() ), it either returns the value or throws an exception.

<?php use Consistence\Type\ArrayType\ArrayType; $data = [1, 2, 3, 4]; // we want to get a value at key ArrayType::findValue($data, 3); // int(4) ArrayType::findValue($data, 5); // null ArrayType::getValue($data, 3); // int(4) ArrayType::getValue($data, 5); // throws ElementDoesNotExistException

And there is more, have a look at the available methods for yourself.

Regex

This chapter is going to be a short one. Consistence provides a preg_match wrapper with more sensible API and exceptions error handling:

<?php use Consistence\RegExp\RegExp; // you can either check if the string matches the pattern RegExp::matches('abc', '/bc+/'); // bool(true) // or get the matches back $matches = RegExp::match('abcde', '/[b-d]+/'); var_dump($matches); // ['bcd']

PHPStan integration

There is a static analysis tool called PHPStan (you can read more about it in Ondřej's blogpost.

I have created PHPStan rules for the Consistence library. There is one which checks that the class extends ObjectPrototype or uses ObjectMixinTrait . And second which checks that you are using safer Consistence array manipulation functions instead of the plain native PHP ones.

Conclusion

In the article I've described the most interesting parts of the Consistence library. My favourite are enums and strict types everywhere.

If you are not using the Consistence library yet, give it a try!