PHP

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PHP Intermediate

Processing a 2 GB CSV in PHP Without Running Out of Memory

file() and fetchAll() load everything into RAM and die on big datasets. Generators stream one row at a time with constant memory - and the code barely changes.

Aug 31, 2024 2 min 3,556 Read →

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PHP Beginner

"First Day of Next Month": PHP Date Phrases You Should Steal

strtotime and DateTime parse a small English grammar - "last day of next month", "second friday of january" - that replaces whole functions of calendar math.

Oct 30, 2024 2 min 3,298 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

window.onerror + 20 Lines of PHP = Your Own Error Tracker

Users almost never report the JavaScript errors they hit. A global error handler, sendBeacon and a tiny PHP endpoint give you a self-hosted crash log for free.

May 22, 2024 2 min 3,271 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

A Real Upload Progress Bar with XMLHttpRequest and PHP

fetch() still cannot report upload progress reliably - but XMLHttpRequest has done it for fifteen years. The full pattern: progress events, a PHP receiver, and the config limits that silently break big uploads.

Dec 8, 2024 2 min 3,070 Read →

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PHP Advanced

Answer First, Work Later: Post-Response Processing in PHP

Sending the confirmation email should not make the customer stare at a spinner. PHP can close the HTTP response and keep working - if you know which runtime you are on.

Oct 9, 2024 2 min 2,737 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

The PDO Fetch Modes That Delete Half Your Data-Mapping Code

FETCH_KEY_PAIR, FETCH_UNIQUE, FETCH_GROUP and FETCH_COLUMN reshape query results at fetch time - the id-indexed maps and grouped arrays you keep building with foreach loops.

Sep 11, 2024 2 min 2,234 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

PHP's match(true) Pattern Replaces if/elseif Chains

match() is not just a stricter switch. Feed it true as the subject and every arm becomes an arbitrary condition - an elegant, exhaustive replacement for elseif ladders.

Sep 24, 2024 2 min 2,136 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

Never Trust a File Extension: Real MIME Detection in PHP

A PHP script renamed to photo.jpg sails past extension checks. finfo reads the actual bytes. Here is the upload validation layer cake that actually holds.

Oct 16, 2024 2 min 2,119 Read →

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PHP Advanced

Real-Time Updates with Plain PHP: Server-Sent Events

WebSockets need infrastructure. Polling hammers your server. SSE streams live updates over normal HTTP with a PHP file and the built-in EventSource API - reconnection included.

Nov 10, 2024 2 min 2,057 Read →

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PHP Beginner

array_column() Does Way More Than Grab a Column

The third parameter turns array_column into a re-indexing tool, it reads object properties, and combined with array_map it handles most of your collection reshaping.

Sep 15, 2024 2 min 1,558 Read →

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PHP Advanced

The Timing Attack Hiding in Your Token Comparison

Comparing secrets with === leaks how many leading characters matched, one microsecond at a time. hash_equals exists for exactly this, and knowing when to use it is the whole trick.

Oct 22, 2024 2 min 1,540 Read →

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PHP Beginner

The Null-Safe Operator and Friends: PHP's Quiet Ergonomics Wave

?->, ??=, throw as an expression, and the spaceship - four small operators from recent PHP that collectively delete the noisiest guard code in legacy files.

Dec 28, 2025 2 min 1,103 Read →