PHP wrapper functions

Functions that are wrappers or custom implementations of PHP functions.

Certain PHP functions should not be used in Drupal. Instead, Drupal's replacement functions should be used.

For example, for improved or more secure UTF8-handling, or RFC-compliant handling of URLs in Drupal.

For ease of use and memorizing, all these wrapper functions use the same name as the original PHP function, but prefixed with "drupal_". Beware, however, that not all wrapper functions support the same arguments as the original functions.

You should always use these wrapper functions in your code.

Wrong:

$my_substring = substr($original_string, 0, 5);

Correct:

$my_substring = drupal_substr($original_string, 0, 5);

File

drupal/includes/common.inc, line 11
Common functions that many Drupal modules will need to reference.

Functions

Name Locationsort descending Description
drupal_register_shutdown_function drupal/includes/bootstrap.inc Registers a function for execution on shutdown.
drupal_http_build_query drupal/includes/common.inc Parses an array into a valid, rawurlencoded query string.
drupal_parse_url drupal/includes/common.inc Parses a URL string into its path, query, and fragment components.
drupal_set_time_limit drupal/includes/common.inc Attempts to set the PHP maximum execution time.
drupal_json_encode drupal/includes/common.inc Converts a PHP variable into its JavaScript equivalent.
drupal_json_decode drupal/includes/common.inc Converts an HTML-safe JSON string into its PHP equivalent.
drupal_move_uploaded_file drupal/includes/file.inc Moves an uploaded file to a new location.
drupal_chmod drupal/includes/file.inc Sets the permissions on a file or directory.
drupal_unlink drupal/includes/file.inc Deletes a file.
drupal_realpath drupal/includes/file.inc Resolves the absolute filepath of a local URI or filepath.
drupal_dirname drupal/includes/file.inc Gets the name of the directory from a given path.
drupal_basename drupal/includes/file.inc Gets the filename from a given path.
drupal_mkdir drupal/includes/file.inc Creates a directory using Drupal's default mode.
drupal_rmdir drupal/includes/file.inc Removes a directory.
drupal_tempnam drupal/includes/file.inc Creates a file with a unique filename in the specified directory.
drupal_session_start drupal/includes/session.inc Starts a session forcefully, preserving already set session data.
drupal_session_regenerate drupal/includes/session.inc Called when an anonymous user becomes authenticated or vice-versa.
drupal_xml_parser_create drupal/includes/unicode.inc Prepares a new XML parser.
drupal_strlen drupal/includes/unicode.inc Counts the number of characters in a UTF-8 string.
drupal_strtoupper drupal/includes/unicode.inc Uppercase a UTF-8 string.
drupal_strtolower drupal/includes/unicode.inc Lowercase a UTF-8 string.
drupal_ucfirst drupal/includes/unicode.inc Capitalizes the first letter of a UTF-8 string.
drupal_substr drupal/includes/unicode.inc Cuts off a piece of a string based on character indices and counts.
php_eval drupal/modules/php/php.module Evaluates a string of PHP code.