18.14.1 Problem
18.14.2 Solution
Use parse_ini_file( ):
$config = parse_ini_file('/etc/myapp.ini');
18.14.3 Discussion
The function parse_ini_file( )
reads configuration files structured like PHP's main php.ini file. Instead of
applying the settings in the configuration file to PHP's configuration, however,
parse_ini_file( ) returns the values from the file in an array.
For example, when parse_ini_file( ) is given a file
with these contents:
; physical features eyes=brown hair=brown glasses=yes ; other features name=Susannah likes=monkeys,ice cream,reading
The array it returns is:
Array
(
[eyes] => brown
[hair] => brown
[glasses] => 1
[name] => Susannah
[likes] => monkeys,ice cream,reading
)
Blank lines and lines that begin with ; in the
configuration file are ignored. Other lines with name=value pairs are
put into an array with the name as the key and the value, appropriately, as the
value. Words such as on and yes as values are returned as 1,
and words such as off and no are returned as the empty string.
To parse sections from the configuration file, pass 1
as a second argument to parse_ini_file( ).
Sections are set off by words in square brackets in the file:
[physical] eyes=brown hair=brown glasses=yes [other] name=Susannah likes=monkeys,ice cream,reading
If this file is in /etc/myapp.ini, then:
$conf = parse_ini_file('/etc/myapp.ini',1);
Array
(
[physical] => Array
(
[eyes] => brown
[hair] => brown
[glasses] => 1
)
[other] => Array
(
[name] => Susannah
[likes] => monkeys,ice cream,reading
)
)
Your configuration file can also be a valid PHP file that you
load with require instead of parse_ini_file( ). If the file
config.php contains:
<?php
// physical features
$eyes = 'brown';
$hair = 'brown';
$glasses = 'yes';
// other features
$name = 'Susannah';
$likes = array('monkeys','ice cream','reading');
?>
You can set the variables $eyes, $hair,
$glasses, $name, and $likes with:
require 'config.php';
The configuration file loaded by require needs to be
valid PHP — including the <?php start tag and
the ?> end tag. The variables named in config.php are set explicitly, not inside an array, as
in parse_ini_file( ). For simple configuration files, this technique
may not be worth the extra attention to syntax, but it is useful for embedding
logic in the configuration file:
<?php
$time_of_day = (date('a') == 'am') ? 'early' : 'late';
?>
The ability to embed logic in
configuration files is a good reason to make the files PHP code, but it is
helpful also to have all the variables set in the configuration file inside an
array. Upcoming versions of PHP will have a feature called namespaces, which is the ability to group variables hierarchically in
different bunches; you can have a variable called $hair in two
different namespaces with two different values. With namespaces, all the values
in a configuration file can be loaded into the Config namespace so they
don't interfere with other variables.
