TLDR: I packaged up all the helper functions I use in my projects. They are cool. You can install it by running composer require calebporzio/awesome-helpers.
Let’s just jump right in and introduce the helper functions I included in the package and find uber-duber useful.
We’ll go in ascending order of awesome-ness, so you’re not overwhelmed with too much 🔥out of the gate.
For those times you just want to return a successful response from a controller without any data. However, you think return response() is either ugly, not semantic, or plain wrong (because it returns a 200 by default and the 204 status code (No Content) is more accurate).
Route::get('/', function () {
return ok();
);_Thanks to Logan Henson for the idea._
str_wrap('pigs', '-blanket-');
// returns: "-blanket-pigs-blanket-"str_between('--two-ferns--', '--');
// returns "two-ferns"
str_between('[two-ferns]', '[', ']');
// returns "two-ferns"Because every time I have to write $matches[1]using preg_match, I die a little inside.
str_match('persianwifefinder.com', '/(.*)\.com/');
// returns "persianwifefinder"A nice, simple way to harness the power of Laravel’s validator without writing something heavy like Validator::make(…), having to name the data you want to validate, and potentially dealing with a validation exception when all you want is a message or two.
str_validate('[email protected]', 'regex:/\.net$/|email|max:10');
// returns: ["Format is invalid.", "May not be greater than 10 characters."]If I had a nickel for every time I saw Error: Class ‘…\Carbon' not found because I forgot to import Carbon\Carbon, I could attend Laracon Online.
carbon('1 year ago');
// Same as:
Carbon::parse('1 year ago');Writing auth()-> before every user() is 8 characters of my apps I will never get back.
user();
// Same as:
auth()->user();If you’ve every stumbled on PHP’s money_format, function and thought you found a nice simple tool for converting ints, to dollar strings, and been fooled again? This one’s for you.
money(12); // returns "$12.00"
money(12.75); // returns "$12.75"
money(12.75, $withCents = false); // returns "$13"For debugging and profiling random stuff without looking on stack overflow to figure out how to get something sensible out of microtime(). stopwatch() is a simple way to time (in seconds) whatever code you run inside a callback.
stopwatch(function () {
sleep(4);
});
// returns 4.000....Why every class ever isn’t fluent… I just don’t know. chain() allows you to make any ole’ PHP object chainable (meaning you can chain methods one after the other). There is also a crazy handy feature added to this (the “{carry}” operator, for passing the result of one method into the next).
chain(new Str)
->singular('cars')
->upper('{carry}')
// If "{carry}" isn't Z enough for you, Taylor had the nify idea to make a "carry" constant available (see next line) with the function. The choice is yours.
->start(carry, 'the ')
->finish(carry, ' life!')();
// returns "the CAR life"
// Note: the "()" at the end get's the result returned from the last called method. You can also just cast the result to a string `(string)` if the result is a string.And now, for the most 🔥helper of them all (I have a tweet to prove it). A helper function so useful, it just may be in the same league as the infamous dd(). I give you…
$user = User::find($id);
tinker($user);
// Will open up an `artisan tinker` session with the `$user` object available for manipulation.
// Note: only works when run inside a console context, most commonly this will be your PHPUnit tests.Well there you go. 11 super-dee-duper useful helper functions to improve your Laravel workflow.
If you have some of your own you want to contribute to the package, you can submit PRs here.
TTFN, Caleb
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