Most obsure and hard to use core function?

[tibberous]

I while ago I would have said variable variables. Now I'm going with:

 

__halt_compiler

 

Seriously, has anyone ever used this? I read the docs for five minutes and still don't know what it does or when I would ever use it. Variable variables are at least useful, just kind of hard to explain.

[448191]

Hard to use? No. Obscure? A little. Basically __halt_compiler() is used to insert binary data into the same file PHP code is in. Apparently it's pretty useful in combination with Phar. I've never used it though.

[tibberous]

Really, that's all it does? Maybe it's just poorly named and documented?

[448191]

No, it's perfectly named. It halts the compiler, so you can insert arbitrary data after it. It also defines a constant which corresponds to the line number the compiler is halted at. I think the example from the manual is pretty clear about it:

 

<?php

// open this file
$fp = fopen(__FILE__, 'r');

// seek file pointer to data
fseek($fp, __COMPILER_HALT_OFFSET__);

// and output it
var_dump(stream_get_contents($fp));

// the end of the script execution
__halt_compiler();the installation data (eg. tar, gz, PHP, etc.)

[tibberous]

So the file opens itself, then outputs itself...

 

I still don't get it...

[corbin]

No.

 

In that example, it would output

 

the installation data (eg. tar, gz, PHP, etc.)

[tibberous]

I tried it - I kind of get what it does... it lets you print <?php without escaping it. Why would you use it though?

 

I think I might get how you'd use it... I still stand by my claim