note 115309 added to function.printf

I made a function that wraps around printf to help me when working on codebases that don't use a standard templating system. I found that interpolating variables and class properties gets pretty ugly when mixing the data with presentation, so I made this as a sort of in-line template helper so I can easily add tabs to the result html with less mess. It also really helps with looping to build templates. This requires PHP 5+ since it uses the ReflectionFunction class. <?php /** * Works similarly to printf, but the first parameter is the number of tabs to indent the whole block. * This function will output directly to the browser, and terminate each call with a \n line break. * The third parameter can be an array of values instead of one parameter for each * printf parameter. * * Usage with args: * int htmlf ( int $tabs, string $format [, mixed $arg [, mixed $... ]] ) * * Usage with array: * int htmlf ( int $tabs, string $format, array $args) */ if(!function_exists('htmlf')) { function htmlf() { $arg_list = func_get_args(); $format = ''; foreach (explode("\n",$arg_list[1]) as $line) { if ($line) for ($i = 0; $i < $arg_list[0]; $i++) $format.="\t"; $format.=$line."\n"; } // Use reflection to make a wrapper around printf $ref = new ReflectionFunction('printf'); // Check if the third parameter is an array, if use the array input style if (($arg_num = func_num_args()) === 3 && is_array($arg_list[2])) // invoke printf $ref -> invokeArgs(array_merge( array($format), $arg_list[2] )); // Run as normal argument style else // invoke printf $ref -> invokeArgs(array_merge( array($format), array_slice($arg_list, 2, func_num_args() - 2) )); } } ?> Here is an example usage: <?php // top part echo '<div class="container"> <div class="sub-container"> <div class="content"> '; // Define the template using numbered argument swapping $template = '<li> <div class="thumbnail"> <div class="thumbnail-wrapper"> <a href="%1$s"> <img src="%2$s" class="img"> </a> </div> <div class="caption"> <a href="%1$s" class="name">%3$s</a><br> </div> </div> </li>'; // start 3 tabs in htmlf(3,'<ul>'); // Output using normal argument style // 4 tabs in htmlf(4, $template, "link/one.html", "image/one.jpg", "Image One"); // Output next group using array input style $myArray = array( "link/two.html", "image/two.jpg", "Image Two" ); htmlf(4, $template, $myArray); // close <ul> 3 tabs in htmlf(3,'<\ul>'); // bottom part echo ' </div> </div> </div>'; ?> The above will output: <div class="container"> <div class="sub-container"> <div class="content"> <ul> <li> <div class="thumbnail"> <div class="thumbnail-wrapper"> <a href="link/one.html"> <img src="image/one.jpg" class="img"> </a> </div> <div class="caption"> <a href="link/one.html" class="name">Image One</a><br> </div> </div> </li> <li> <div class="thumbnail"> <div class="thumbnail-wrapper"> <a href="link/two.html"> <img src="image/two.jpg" class="img"> </a> </div> <div class="caption"> <a href="link/two.html" class="name">Image Two</a><br> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> ---- Server IP: 216.194.115.244 Probable Submitter: 107.3.191.108 ---- Manual Page -- http://php.net/manual/en/function.printf.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/115309 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/115309 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/115309 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php