Php all functions lists
date() dba_close() dba_delete() dba_exists() dba_fetch() dba_firstkey() dba_handlers() dba_insert() dba_key_split() dba_list() dba_nextkey() dba_open() dba_optimize() dba_popen() dba_replace() dba_sync() dbase_add_record() dbase_close() dbase_create() dbase_delete_record() dbase_get_header_info() dbase_get_record() dbase_get_record_with_names() dbase_numfields() dbase_numrecords() dbase_open() dbase_pack() dbase_replace_record() dblist() dbmclose() dbmdelete() dbmexists() dbmfetch() dbmfirstkey() dbminsert() dbmnextkey() dbmopen() dbmreplace() dbplus_add() dbplus_aql() dbplus_chdir() dbplus_close() dbplus_curr() dbplus_errcode() dbplus_errno() dbplus_find() dbplus_first() dbplus_flush() dbplus_freealllocks() dbplus_freelock() dbplus_freerlocks() dbplus_getlock() dbplus_getunique() dbplus_info() dbplus_last() dbplus_lockrel() dbplus_next() dbplus_open() dbplus_prev() dbplus_rchperm() dbplus_rcreate() dbplus_rcrtexact() dbplus_rcrtlike() dbplus_resolve() dbplus_restorepos() dbplus_rkeys() dbplus_ropen() dbplus_rquery() dbplus_rrename() dbplus_rsecindex() dbplus_runlink() dbplus_rzap() dbplus_savepos() dbplus_setindex() dbplus_setindexbynumber() dbplus_sql() dbplus_tcl() dbplus_tremove() dbplus_undo() dbplus_undoprepare() dbplus_unlockrel() dbplus_unselect() dbplus_update() dbplus_xlockrel() dbplus_xunlockrel() dbx_close() dbx_compare() dbx_connect() dbx_error() dbx_escape_string() dbx_fetch_row() dbx_query() dbx_sort() dcgettext() dcngettext() deaggregate() debug_backtrace() debug_print_backtrace() debugger_off() debugger_on() decbin() dechex() decoct() define() define_syslog_variables() defined() deg2rad() delete() descriptor->free() dgettext() die() dio_close() dio_fcntl() dio_open() dio_read() dio_seek() dio_stat() dio_tcsetattr() dio_truncate() dio_write() dir() directoryiterator::__construct() directoryiterator::current() directoryiterator::fileatime() directoryiterator::filectime() directoryiterator::filegroup() directoryiterator::fileinode() directoryiterator::filemtime() directoryiterator::fileowner() directoryiterator::fileperms() directoryiterator::filesize() directoryiterator::filetype() directoryiterator::getfilename() directoryiterator::getpath() directoryiterator::getpathname() directoryiterator::hasmore() directoryiterator::isdir() directoryiterator::isdot() directoryiterator::isexecutable() directoryiterator::isfile() directoryiterator::islink() directoryiterator::isreadable() directoryiterator::iswritable() directoryiterator::key() directoryiterator::next() directoryiterator::rewind() dirname() disk_free_space() disk_total_space() diskfreespace() dl() dngettext() dns_check_record() dns_get_mx() dns_get_record() domattribute->name() domattribute->specified() domattribute->value() domdocument->add_root() domdocument->create_attribute() domdocument->create_cdata_section() domdocument->create_comment() domdocument->create_element() domdocument->create_element_ns() domdocument->create_entity_reference() domdocument->create_processing_instruction() domdocument->create_text_node() domdocument->doctype() domdocument->document_element() domdocument->dump_file() domdocument->dump_mem() domdocument->get_element_by_id() domdocument->get_elements_by_tagname() domdocument->html_dump_mem() domdocument->xinclude() domdocumenttype->entities() domdocumenttype->internal_subset() domdocumenttype->name() domdocumenttype->notations() domdocumenttype->public_id() domdocumenttype->system_id() domelement->get_attribute() domelement->get_attribute_node() domelement->get_elements_by_tagname() domelement->has_attribute() domelement->remove_attribute() domelement->set_attribute() domelement->tagname() domnode->add_namespace() domnode->append_child() domnode->append_sibling() domnode->attributes() domnode->child_nodes() domnode->clone_node() domnode->dump_node() domnode->first_child() domnode->get_content() domnode->has_attributes() domnode->has_child_nodes() domnode->insert_before() domnode->is_blank_node() domnode->last_child() domnode->next_sibling() domnode->node_name() domnode->node_type() domnode->node_value() domnode->owner_document() domnode->parent_node() domnode->prefix() domnode->previous_sibling() domnode->remove_child() domnode->replace_child() domnode->replace_node() domnode->set_content() domnode->set_name() domnode->set_namespace() domnode->unlink_node() domprocessinginstruction->data() domprocessinginstruction->target() domxml_new_doc() domxml_open_file() domxml_open_mem() domxml_version() domxml_xmltree() domxml_xslt_stylesheet() domxml_xslt_stylesheet_doc() domxml_xslt_stylesheet_file() domxsltstylesheet->process() domxsltstylesheet->result_dump_file() domxsltstylesheet->result_dump_mem() dotnet_load() doubleval()
The 100 PHP functions that you have to know
There is a newer top PHP functions in 2022 here!.
Here is the top 100 PHP functions : it is the list of the most often used PHP native functions.
The functions are named, and ranked from 1 to 100. The other 4500 functions are not ranked now. The frequency column represents how often this function is used across PHP code : the reference corpus is a list of 1900 PHP open source projects. They were audited with Exakat static analysis engine, version 1.2.5. The average is the number of time a function is called within one project. Some function are used in isolation, and others are a staple.
For example, 4 project out of 5 uses the count function, and when used, the function is called around 150 times. It is both a popular and heavily used function.
Click on the link to go to the documentation. Some insight at the bottom of the top 100.
| Rank | Function | Frequency | Average |
| 1 | count | 81.41 % | 147.67 |
| 2 | is_array | 77.32 % | 117.86 |
| 3 | substr | 74.62 % | 142.92 |
| 4 | in_array | 74.16 % | 79.55 |
| 5 | explode | 73.19 % | 71.51 |
| 6 | str_replace | 72.32 % | 101.05 |
| 7 | implode | 72.27 % | 66.59 |
| 8 | strlen | 70.07 % | 98.32 |
| 9 | array_merge | 69.46 % | 64.01 |
| 10 | strpos | 67.98 % | 78.18 |
| 11 | preg_match | 67.31 % | 76.60 |
| 12 | sprintf | 67.16 % | 119.46 |
| 13 | trim | 66.75 % | 81.28 |
| 14 | strtolower | 65.99 % | 59.62 |
| 15 | file_exists | 65.12 % | 45.13 |
| 16 | is_string | 61.39 % | 45.10 |
| 17 | preg_replace | 60.27 % | 54.28 |
| 18 | file_get_contents | 59.96 % | 20.71 |
| 19 | array_key_exists | 59.70 % | 57.50 |
| 20 | array_keys | 59.35 % | 39.59 |
| 21 | dirname | 56.44 % | 54.84 |
| 22 | function_exists | 53.58 % | 42.62 |
| 23 | array_map | 53.22 % | 19.45 |
| 24 | get_class | 53.12 % | 33.07 |
| 25 | class_exists | 52.50 % | 23.13 |
| 26 | is_object | 51.94 % | 35.35 |
| 27 | time | 51.79 % | 41.42 |
| 28 | json_encode | 51.48 % | 24.81 |
| 29 | date | 50.72 % | 52.18 |
| 30 | is_null | 49.69 % | 60.52 |
| 31 | is_numeric | 49.49 % | 40.69 |
| 32 | array_shift | 49.49 % | 23.28 |
| 33 | defined | 48.72 % | 86.82 |
| 34 | is_dir | 48.57 % | 22.86 |
| 35 | json_decode | 48.42 % | 17.39 |
| 36 | header | 48.16 % | 59.71 |
| 37 | strtoupper | 47.80 % | 30.95 |
| 38 | array_values | 47.24 % | 17.27 |
| 39 | md5 | 46.88 % | 23.74 |
| 40 | method_exists | 46.73 % | 19.05 |
| 41 | file_put_contents | 46.68 % | 12.49 |
| 42 | rtrim | 45.91 % | 18.08 |
| 43 | array_pop | 45.51 % | 20.60 |
| 44 | unlink | 44.59 % | 23.55 |
| 45 | basename | 44.59 % | 27.23 |
| 46 | realpath | 44.08 % | 15.90 |
| 47 | call_user_func | 43.97 % | 16.41 |
| 48 | call_user_func_array | 43.92 % | 18.40 |
| 49 | fopen | 43.77 % | 25.61 |
| 50 | microtime | 43.46 % | 14.41 |
| 51 | fclose | 42.85 % | 28.36 |
| 52 | is_int | 42.75 % | 15.78 |
| 53 | is_file | 42.08 % | 20.52 |
| 54 | array_slice | 41.83 % | 13.20 |
| 55 | preg_match_all | 40.55 % | 14.66 |
| 56 | ucfirst | 40.25 % | 17.02 |
| 57 | intval | 40.19 % | 88.13 |
| 58 | str_repeat | 40.14 % | 19.51 |
| 59 | serialize | 40.14 % | 22.05 |
| 60 | array_filter | 39.99 % | 13.87 |
| 61 | mkdir | 39.79 % | 11.17 |
| 62 | is_callable | 39.43 % | 11.94 |
| 63 | ltrim | 39.17 % | 10.90 |
| 64 | ob_start | 39.12 % | 13.26 |
| 65 | round | 39.07 % | 28.56 |
| 66 | fwrite | 38.97 % | 23.39 |
| 67 | array_unique | 38.87 % | 15.96 |
| 68 | array_search | 38.82 % | 14.19 |
| 69 | reset | 38.71 % | 20.79 |
| 70 | array_unshift | 38.10 % | 10.32 |
| 71 | parse_url | 37.90 % | 9.61 |
| 72 | func_get_args | 37.79 % | 28.33 |
| 73 | end | 37.49 % | 12.70 |
| 74 | base64_encode | 37.39 % | 14.15 |
| 75 | unserialize | 37.18 % | 18.35 |
| 76 | max | 36.98 % | 22.88 |
| 77 | preg_split | 36.98 % | 13.27 |
| 78 | gettype | 36.93 % | 16.16 |
| 79 | strrpos | 36.67 % | 11.95 |
| 80 | version_compare | 36.67 % | 14.87 |
| 81 | array_push | 36.67 % | 26.18 |
| 82 | floor | 36.11 % | 18.78 |
| 83 | strtotime | 36.01 % | 27.94 |
| 84 | htmlspecialchars | 35.96 % | 51.08 |
| 85 | ini_get | 35.85 % | 19.25 |
| 86 | ini_set | 35.60 % | 14.49 |
| 87 | chr | 35.34 % | 186.97 |
| 88 | extension_loaded | 35.29 % | 14.17 |
| 89 | is_bool | 35.24 % | 11.44 |
| 90 | ksort | 34.98 % | 10.82 |
| 91 | array_reverse | 34.93 % | 8.27 |
| 92 | ord | 34.73 % | 53.17 |
| 93 | uniqid | 34.68 % | 9.83 |
| 94 | strtr | 34.47 % | 12.90 |
| 95 | array_diff | 34.32 % | 11.13 |
| 96 | error_reporting | 34.17 % | 8.99 |
| 97 | ceil | 33.35 % | 11.99 |
| 98 | urlencode | 33.30 % | 29.63 |
| 99 | min | 32.69 % | 18.31 |
| 100 | print_r | 32.64 % | 14.12 |
top 100 insights
- The most commonly used PHP functions are string functions, and then arrays, then files. (Math is probably out of the scope, as it is mostly based on operators)
- The links leads to the documentation : many of those functions actually evolved and acquired new features : for example, count() ‘s second argument, dirname() ‘s second argument, preg_match() and str_replace() accepting arrays as argument… There are many easter eggs.
- No recently deprecated function is in the top 100.
- ext/mbstring is the first non-core extension to show up; ext/curl is the second; then Gd, filter and iconv.
- md5 is the only widely used crypto function. Sha1 is the second (#147).
- print_r is used somewhere in the code of 1 project out of 3. Somewhere…
- dirname has a high level of usage, due to dirname(dirname(dirname())) calls
- array , echo , print , empty , isset and other language constructs were not counted as functions in this ranking. They are probably trusting the first ranks anyway.
- Several functions should be replaced by operators : array_push , is_object , func_get_arg , chr , call_user_func .
- Quite a lot of calls are devoted to knowing a value’s type
- Databases are not ranked here : they are often using classes, though functions are still frequent. May be another top 100 ?
- PHP code tends to read files more than write them. It also decodes base64
- sorting with keys is more frequent than on values or with keys.
- files are read with file_get_contents , and written with fwrite
Challenges
If you are learning PHP, it is a good idea to review the 100 functions ranked here : they are the features you’ll find the most often when landing on a coding team. They are not the only ones, but you’ll be less surprised when meeting them.