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This library provides a simple way to convert a string of simple values to their PHP runtime equivalents.

This library will parse the following types of values:

• Numbers
• Strings
• Arrays
• Associative arrays
• true, false, null
• Built-in PHP constants

Unknown types will return null as their value.

Installation

This library can be installed with composer:

Example Usage

To use the library, create a new instance of the Parser class and call the parseString method:

would produce the following runtime result:

This library can also parse basic method details using the parseMethod method:

would produce the following runtime result:

Invalid input will produce a null value.

Parsing Nested Methods

A more advanced alternative of parseMethod is the parseMethods method:

Detected method calls will be returned as instances of Stillat\Primitives\MethodCall. Each instance of this class will contain the original method's name, as well as the parsed (and evaluated) runtime arguments. parseMethods will not run any methods for you.

Executing Runtime Methods

Primitives provides a utility MethodRunner class that can be used to execute the results of the parseMethods on any target class:

After the above code has executed, $result would contain the value Hello, Dave.

Important notes when using MethodRunner:

• There must only be one root method call
• If there is more than one root element, the run method returns null
• MethodRunner does not check for method existence, allowing __call to be invoked

Calling Native PHP Functions

The internal method runner does not support calling native PHP functions. However, we can create a class instance that can (and utilize whatever logic is appropriate for the current project to determine what is a "safe" function to call):

After the above code has executed, $methodResult would contain the value Hello, THIS IS LOWERCASE. This approach works because we are making use of PHP's __call magic method to perform method overloading. When we attempt to call a method on our class instance that does not exist, the __call method will receive the method name and arguments. If the list of safe functions contains the incoming method name, we will invoke it and return the results with the original arguments. If our safe list does not contain the function, we default to attempting to call it on our target class instance.

Context Variables

You may also supply an array of contextual data that can be used when evaluating the input string. Context variables utilize the $ syntax. The variable name in the input string will be replaced with their actual values once evaluated:

Once the previous example has executed, $result would contain a value similar to:

Nested variable paths can be utilized by using PHP's property fetcher syntax (array accessor syntax is not supported):

Like before, the $result variable would contain a value similar to the following:

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.MD