PHP BOOTCAMP: Magic Constants

There are a lot of methods, classes and constants that PHP offers to developers for use.

We’ll talk about the MAGIC CONSTANTS today.

Note: These constants didn’t just appear in the standard PHP library, they were not dropped from heaven and a PHP developer doubling as a magician also didn’t write them. This was actually intended to be funny, so if you didn’t laugh, I might have to do a tutorial on recognizing humorous materials

There are about 8 useful and important MAGIC CONSTANTS you can use in PHP

1. __FILE__ – This returns the name and full path of the current file

2. __DIR__ – This returns the current directory

3. __TRAIT__ – This returns the trait name including the namespace it was defined in.

4. __NAMESPACE__ – This returns the namespace of the current file/script

5. __LINE__ – This returns the line number where this constant was used.

6. __METHOD__ – This returns the class method name

7. __CLASS__ – This returns the current class name

8. __FUNCTION__ – This returns the function name as it was declared where this constant was used.

CODE TIME

Create a file named magicConstant.php

magicConstant.php

<?php
namespace Busayo;
class MagicConstants
{
    public function getFile()
    {
        return __FILE__;
    }
    public function getDirectory()
    {
        return __DIR__;
    }
    public function getTrait()
    {
        return __TRAIT__;
    }
    public function getNamespace()
    {
        return __NAMESPACE__;
    }
    public function getLine()
    {
        return __LINE__;
    }
    public function getMethod()
    {
        return __METHOD__;
    }
    public function getClass()
    {
        return __CLASS__;
    }
    public function getFunction()
    {
        return __FUNCTION__;
    }
}
$app = new MagicConstants;
echo $app->getFile(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getDirectory(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getTrait(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getNamespace(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getLine(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getMethod(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getClass(). PHP_EOL;
echo $app->getFunction(). PHP_EOL;