String Helper

The String Helper file contains functions that assist in working with strings. This helper is loaded using the following code:

ee()->load->helper('string');

Available Functions

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

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, the second parameter specifies the length. The following choices are available:

• alpha: A string with lower and uppercase letters only.
• alnum: Alpha-numeric string with lower and uppercase characters.
• basic: A random number based on mt_rand().
• numeric: Numeric string.
• nozero: Numeric string with no zeros.
• md5: An encrypted random number based on md5() (fixed length of 32).
• sha1: An encrypted random number based on sha1() (fixed length of 40).

Usage example:

echo random_string('alnum', 16);

Note: Usage of the unique and encrypt types is DEPRECATED. They are just aliases for md5 and sha1 respectively.

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

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

Usage example:

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

alternator($args)

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

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.

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)

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

Example:

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

strip_slashes($data)

Removes any slashes from an array of strings.

Example:

$str = array(
    'question'  => 'Is your name O\'reilly?',
    'answer' => 'No, my name is O\'connor.'
);

$str = strip_slashes($str);

The above will return the following array:

array(
    '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. This however makes it just an alias for stripslashes().

trim_slashes($str)

Removes any leading/trailing slashes from a string. Example:

$string = "/this/that/theother/";
echo trim_slashes($string); // results in this/that/theother

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

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

$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:

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

quotes_to_entities($str)

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

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

strip_quotes($str)

Removes single and double quotes from a string. Example:

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

trim_nbs($string)

Just like trim, but also removes non-breaking spaces

surrounding_character($string)

Returns the surrounding character of a string, if it exists

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