Category: PHP

PHP

PHP: Counting Occurrences with PCRE

Post author By masnun
Post date September 5, 2009

While playing with PHP, I have found a fact that we can determine how many times a string occurs inside another string quite easily by using PCRE. In fact, we can use preg_match_all() to match a string (instead of a complex pattern) to another string and get the matches as an array. Then we count() the array’s first key to know how many times the string has been found in the other one.

We feed preg_match_all() a solid string as a pattern as the first parameter. And it’d do the job for us.

Here’s the code snippet:

<?php

$string = "my name is masnun. i am Masnun. my website is maSnun.com";
preg_match_all("/masnun/i",$string,$m);
print_r($m);

echo "\n";
echo count($m[0])." occurrences found \n\n";

?>

<?php

$string = "my name is masnun. i am Masnun. my website is maSnun.com";

preg_match_all("/masnun/i",$string,$m);

print_r($m);

echo "\n";

echo count($m[0])." occurrences found \n\n";

In the above example, we add an “i” modifier for case insensitive matching. If you want it to be a case sensitive matching, just ignore the “i” modifier.

Results:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => masnun
            [1] => Masnun
            [2] => maSnun
        )

)

3 occurrences found

Array

(

[0] => Array

(

[0] => masnun

[1] => Masnun

[2] => maSnun

)

3 occurrences found

Additionally this method can be used instead of strpos() when we try to find if a string exists in another.

PHP

Interactive PHP Shell

You might have seen the cool interactive shell of python. And/Or the IDLE that comes with Python for Windows and as an add on for Python on Linux ? That’s really handy for prototyping. Isn’t that ? Well, I always counted the interactive shell of python as one of the many key strengths of Python over PHP. I knew that PHP did have interactive mode as well, but that didn’t look pretty to me. Well, I was using Windows then.

A long time has passed meanwhile and today, while trying to find out something to do in my leisure, guess what, I stumbled upon PHP again. I was using the Python shell that I launched from my Ubuntu’s “Applications > Programming ” menu. I was playing with the base64 module of Python when I came to think about the base64_encode() function of PHP and immediately chose to experiment with PHP leaving Python.

I was going to write a script when suddenly an idea struck me. Why not try the interactive mode in Linux? Does it have anything different in Linux ?

I opened up a terminal and typed in:

php -a

php -a

Oh, I forgot to tell you that, I did have php5-cli package installed on my Linux. To try php from command line, you must have this package installed. To install it, use your default package manager or type on your Ubuntu terminal:

sudo apt-get install php5-cli

1	sudo apt-get install php5-cli

In case of some other distro of Linux, follow your manual to install php5-cli.

Now that I had php command line interpreter installed, I got this message:

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php >

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a

Interactive shell

php >

Wow… !! Did you see that “php >” line ? It’s a real shell prompt then ? I didn’t see that on Windows.

Still more surprises were left for me. I had to spend a bit of time to figure out how it works. It’s very plain. You don’t need the <?php and ?> delimiters. Just complete a pure php statement and press enter. Like this:

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php > echo "hello world";
hello world
php >

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a

Interactive shell

php > echo "hello world";

hello world

php >

PHP has been always very well accepted for it’s flexibility and I don’t miss that in the interactive shell either. 😉

You can easily expand php statements over multiple lines:

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php > echo
php > "hello"
php > ;
hello
php >

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a

Interactive shell

php > echo

php > "hello"

php > ;

hello

php >

Here, you can see that I have spread the following statement into three lines:

echo "hello";

1	echo "hello";

The first line contains — echo.
The second line has the string — “hello”.
And the final terminates and completes the statement with the semicolon.

It’s simple. Isn’t it ?

Let’s see some examples:

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php > //using as a calculator
php > echo 5*6;
30
php > //declare a variable
php > $var ="masnun";
php > // print the variable
php > echo $var;
masnun
php > //for loop
php > for($i=0;$i<3;$i++)
php > { echo $i."\n"; }
0
1
2
php > //lets quit now
php > exit()
php > //aha... I forgot the semicolon
php > ;
masnun@ubuntu:~$

masnun@ubuntu:~$ php -a

Interactive shell

php > //using as a calculator

php > echo 5*6;

php > //declare a variable

php > $var ="masnun";

php > // print the variable

php > echo $var;

masnun

php > //for loop

php > for($i=0;$i<3;$i++)

php > { echo $i."\n"; }

php > //lets quit now

php > exit()

php > //aha... I forgot the semicolon

php > ;

masnun@ubuntu:~$

Cool, eh ? 😀

Now, if you are Using Ubuntu or any other distro with Gnome desktop, launch the menu editor and add a new item into the Programming sub menu.

On Ubuntu:
— Right click on the main menu bar.
— Click “Edit Menus”.
— In the “Menus” section, select “Programming”.
— Click “New Item”.
— A “Create Launcher” dialog box will pop up.
— Fill it as below:
Type: Application in Terminal
Name: PHP Shell
Command: php -a
Comment: Interactive PHP Shell
— Press “OK”.
— Press “Close” on the “Main Menu” dialog box.

You’re finally done adding a fancy PHP shell directly to your main menu. You can of course run PHP shell from terminal just by typing:

php -a

php -a

But having an item in the main menu does help, doesn’t it ? 😉

Have fun, have a nice time !! 😀

PHP

Fun with Twitter OAuth: The Source Code

Post author By masnun
Post date August 30, 2009

In my previous post, I mentioned about the twitter OAuth app hosted at: https://masnun.com/twitter-app/ . Here it comes, the source code.

I am not going to include the Twitter OAuth Library source. You have to download it from Github. The link is available in my previous post.

consumer.php

<?php
// Filename: consumer.php
// contains the consumer key and consumer secret
// works as a configuration file that can be included in other
// scripts.
$consumer_key = 'Ll0Sq8HyJzBOqXqksH7N4w';
$consumer_secret = 'WwMdrN13UTJL79KyI6unm3xTm5tdF8E4U3FMKE7i5co';
?>

<?php

// Filename: consumer.php

// contains the consumer key and consumer secret

// works as a configuration file that can be included in other

// scripts.

$consumer_key = 'Ll0Sq8HyJzBOqXqksH7N4w';

$consumer_secret = 'WwMdrN13UTJL79KyI6unm3xTm5tdF8E4U3FMKE7i5co';

index.php

<?php
// Filename: index.php
// The file that gets called when you visit the app home page

// require twitterOAuth lib
require_once('twitterOAuth.php');
// require the consumer details -- consumer key and consumer secret
require_once('consumer.php');

//construct a new twitter object
$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret);
// get the token to make an authorization request
$token = $twitter->getRequestToken();
// store the token for further use
file_put_contents("token",$token['oauth_token']);
file_put_contents("token_secret",$token['oauth_token_secret']);
// build the authorization url
$url = $twitter->getAuthorizeURL($token['oauth_token']);
// redirect the user to the authorization url automatically
header("Location: $url ");
?>

<?php

// Filename: index.php

// The file that gets called when you visit the app home page

// require twitterOAuth lib

require_once('twitterOAuth.php');

// require the consumer details -- consumer key and consumer secret

require_once('consumer.php');

//construct a new twitter object

$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret);

// get the token to make an authorization request

$token = $twitter->getRequestToken();

// store the token for further use

file_put_contents("token",$token['oauth_token']);

file_put_contents("token_secret",$token['oauth_token_secret']);

// build the authorization url

$url = $twitter->getAuthorizeURL($token['oauth_token']);

// redirect the user to the authorization url automatically

header("Location: $url ");

return.php

<?php
//Filename: return.php
// It's the callback file -- gets called
// the user is returned to this file on authorization

// include twitter OAuth library as usual
include('twitterOAuth.php');
// include the consumer details
include('consumer.php');

// retrieve the tokens
$tok = file_get_contents("token");
$tok_sec = file_get_contents("token_secret");

// construct the twitter object
$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret,$tok,$tok_sec);
// retrieve the access token set by the authorization
$access_token = $twitter->getAccessToken();
// parse the tokens and seperate them
$tok = $access_token['oauth_token'];
$tok_secret = $access_token['oauth_token_secret'];

// print_r($access_token);
// construct the twitter object
// this time with the access tokens
$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret,$tok,$tok_secret);
// make API call
$req = $twitter ->OAuthRequest('https://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml', array('status' => 'Check out: https://masnun.com/twitter-app/ :)'), 'POST');

// print_r($req);

//redirect the user to twitter home page
header("Location: http://twitter.com ");

?>

<?php

//Filename: return.php

// It's the callback file -- gets called

// the user is returned to this file on authorization

// include twitter OAuth library as usual

include('twitterOAuth.php');

// include the consumer details

include('consumer.php');

// retrieve the tokens

$tok = file_get_contents("token");

$tok_sec = file_get_contents("token_secret");

// construct the twitter object

$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret,$tok,$tok_sec);

// retrieve the access token set by the authorization

$access_token = $twitter->getAccessToken();

// parse the tokens and seperate them

$tok = $access_token['oauth_token'];

$tok_secret = $access_token['oauth_token_secret'];

// print_r($access_token);

// construct the twitter object

// this time with the access tokens

$twitter = new TwitterOAuth($consumer_key,$consumer_secret,$tok,$tok_secret);

// make API call

$req = $twitter ->OAuthRequest('https://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml', array('status' => 'Check out: https://masnun.com/twitter-app/ :)'), 'POST');

// print_r($req);

//redirect the user to twitter home page

header("Location: http://twitter.com ");

Notes On OAuth:
First we, construct the twitter object with the consumer details.
Then we ask for a request token. We build the authorization url with this token.
We send the user to the auth URL.
When the user returns, again construct a twitter object with consumer details and the request token we retrieved previously.
Now that the user is authorized, we ask for access tokens.
We have the access tokens now, so build a new twitter object that has full access to the API.

Now, we can make API calls.

The steps may seem a bit odd at first look. Just go through a couple of times and you’ll get it clearly.

Enjoy OAuthentication, Enjoy Twitter enginnering !!

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