Chris@0: Usage of basic components
Chris@0: =========================
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: This document explains how to use the parser, the pretty printer and the node traverser.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Bootstrapping
Chris@0: -------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: To bootstrap the library, include the autoloader generated by composer:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: require 'path/to/vendor/autoload.php';
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Additionally you may want to set the `xdebug.max_nesting_level` ini option to a higher value:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: ini_set('xdebug.max_nesting_level', 3000);
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: This ensures that there will be no errors when traversing highly nested node trees. However, it is
Chris@0: preferable to disable XDebug completely, as it can easily make this library more than five times
Chris@0: slower.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Parsing
Chris@0: -------
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: In order to parse code, you first have to create a parser instance:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\ParserFactory;
Chris@0: $parser = (new ParserFactory)->create(ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7);
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The factory accepts a kind argument, that determines how different PHP versions are treated:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Kind | Behavior
Chris@0: -----|---------
Chris@0: `ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7` | Try to parse code as PHP 7. If this fails, try to parse it as PHP 5.
Chris@0: `ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP5` | Try to parse code as PHP 5. If this fails, try to parse it as PHP 7.
Chris@0: `ParserFactory::ONLY_PHP7` | Parse code as PHP 7.
Chris@0: `ParserFactory::ONLY_PHP5` | Parse code as PHP 5.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: Unless you have a strong reason to use something else, `PREFER_PHP7` is a reasonable default.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `create()` method optionally accepts a `Lexer` instance as the second argument. Some use cases
Chris@0: that require customized lexers are discussed in the [lexer documentation](component/Lexer.markdown).
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Subsequently you can pass PHP code (including the opening `<?php` tag) to the `parse` method in order to
Chris@0: create a syntax tree. If a syntax error is encountered, an `PhpParser\Error` exception will be thrown:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@13: <?php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Error;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\ParserFactory;
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: $code = <<<'CODE'
Chris@13: <?php
Chris@13: function printLine($msg) {
Chris@13:     echo $msg, "\n";
Chris@13: }
Chris@13: printLine('Hello World!!!');
Chris@13: CODE;
Chris@13: 
Chris@0: $parser = (new ParserFactory)->create(ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: try {
Chris@0:     $stmts = $parser->parse($code);
Chris@0:     // $stmts is an array of statement nodes
Chris@0: } catch (Error $e) {
Chris@0:     echo 'Parse Error: ', $e->getMessage();
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: A parser instance can be reused to parse multiple files.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: Node dumping
Chris@13: ------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: To dump the abstact syntax tree in human readable form, a `NodeDumper` can be used:
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: ```php
Chris@13: <?php
Chris@13: use PhpParser\NodeDumper;
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: $nodeDumper = new NodeDumper;
Chris@13: echo $nodeDumper->dump($stmts), "\n";
Chris@13: ```
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: For the sample code from the previous section, this will produce the following output:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: array(
Chris@13:     0: Stmt_Function(
Chris@13:         byRef: false
Chris@13:         name: Identifier(
Chris@13:             name: printLine
Chris@13:         )
Chris@13:         params: array(
Chris@13:             0: Param(
Chris@13:                 type: null
Chris@13:                 byRef: false
Chris@13:                 variadic: false
Chris@13:                 var: Expr_Variable(
Chris@13:                     name: msg
Chris@13:                 )
Chris@13:                 default: null
Chris@0:             )
Chris@13:         )
Chris@13:         returnType: null
Chris@13:         stmts: array(
Chris@13:             0: Stmt_Echo(
Chris@13:                 exprs: array(
Chris@13:                     0: Expr_Variable(
Chris@13:                         name: msg
Chris@13:                     )
Chris@13:                     1: Scalar_String(
Chris@13:                         value:
Chris@13: 
Chris@0:                     )
Chris@0:                 )
Chris@13:             )
Chris@13:         )
Chris@13:     )
Chris@13:     1: Stmt_Expression(
Chris@13:         expr: Expr_FuncCall(
Chris@13:             name: Name(
Chris@13:                 parts: array(
Chris@13:                     0: printLine
Chris@13:                 )
Chris@13:             )
Chris@13:             args: array(
Chris@13:                 0: Arg(
Chris@13:                     value: Scalar_String(
Chris@13:                         value: Hello World!!!
Chris@13:                     )
Chris@13:                     byRef: false
Chris@13:                     unpack: false
Chris@0:                 )
Chris@0:             )
Chris@0:         )
Chris@0:     )
Chris@0: )
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: You can also use the `php-parse` script to obtain such a node dump by calling it either with a file
Chris@13: name or code string:
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: ```sh
Chris@13: vendor/bin/php-parse file.php
Chris@13: vendor/bin/php-parse "<?php foo();"
Chris@13: ```
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: This can be very helpful if you want to quickly check how certain syntax is represented in the AST.
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: Node tree structure
Chris@13: -------------------
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: Looking at the node dump above, you can see that `$stmts` for this example code is an array of two
Chris@13: nodes, a `Stmt_Function` and a `Stmt_Expression`. The corresponding class names are:
Chris@13: 
Chris@13:  * `Stmt_Function -> PhpParser\Node\Stmt\Function_`
Chris@13:  * `Stmt_Expression -> PhpParser\Node\Stmt\Expression`
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: The additional `_` at the end of the first class name is necessary, because `Function` is a
Chris@13: reserved keyword. Many node class names in this library have a trailing `_` to avoid clashing with
Chris@13: a keyword.
Chris@13: 
Chris@13: As PHP is a large language there are approximately 140 different nodes. In order to make working
Chris@0: with them easier they are grouped into three categories:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:  * `PhpParser\Node\Stmt`s are statement nodes, i.e. language constructs that do not return
Chris@0:    a value and can not occur in an expression. For example a class definition is a statement.
Chris@0:    It doesn't return a value and you can't write something like `func(class A {});`.
Chris@0:  * `PhpParser\Node\Expr`s are expression nodes, i.e. language constructs that return a value
Chris@0:    and thus can occur in other expressions. Examples of expressions are `$var`
Chris@0:    (`PhpParser\Node\Expr\Variable`) and `func()` (`PhpParser\Node\Expr\FuncCall`).
Chris@0:  * `PhpParser\Node\Scalar`s are nodes representing scalar values, like `'string'`
Chris@0:    (`PhpParser\Node\Scalar\String_`), `0` (`PhpParser\Node\Scalar\LNumber`) or magic constants
Chris@0:    like `__FILE__` (`PhpParser\Node\Scalar\MagicConst\File`). All `PhpParser\Node\Scalar`s extend
Chris@0:    `PhpParser\Node\Expr`, as scalars are expressions, too.
Chris@0:  * There are some nodes not in either of these groups, for example names (`PhpParser\Node\Name`)
Chris@0:    and call arguments (`PhpParser\Node\Arg`).
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: The `Node\Stmt\Expression` node is somewhat confusing in that it contains both the terms "statement"
Chris@13: and "expression". This node distinguishes `expr`, which is a `Node\Expr`, from `expr;`, which is
Chris@13: an "expression statement" represented by `Node\Stmt\Expression` and containing `expr` as a sub-node.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Every node has a (possibly zero) number of subnodes. You can access subnodes by writing
Chris@0: `$node->subNodeName`. The `Stmt\Echo_` node has only one subnode `exprs`. So in order to access it
Chris@0: in the above example you would write `$stmts[0]->exprs`. If you wanted to access the name of the function
Chris@0: call, you would write `$stmts[0]->exprs[1]->name`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: All nodes also define a `getType()` method that returns the node type. The type is the class name
Chris@0: without the `PhpParser\Node\` prefix and `\` replaced with `_`. It also does not contain a trailing
Chris@0: `_` for reserved-keyword class names.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: It is possible to associate custom metadata with a node using the `setAttribute()` method. This data
Chris@0: can then be retrieved using `hasAttribute()`, `getAttribute()` and `getAttributes()`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: By default the lexer adds the `startLine`, `endLine` and `comments` attributes. `comments` is an array
Chris@0: of `PhpParser\Comment[\Doc]` instances.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The start line can also be accessed using `getLine()`/`setLine()` (instead of `getAttribute('startLine')`).
Chris@0: The last doc comment from the `comments` attribute can be obtained using `getDocComment()`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Pretty printer
Chris@0: --------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The pretty printer component compiles the AST back to PHP code. As the parser does not retain formatting
Chris@0: information the formatting is done using a specified scheme. Currently there is only one scheme available,
Chris@0: namely `PhpParser\PrettyPrinter\Standard`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Error;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\ParserFactory;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\PrettyPrinter;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $code = "<?php echo 'Hi ', hi\\getTarget();";
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $parser = (new ParserFactory)->create(ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7);
Chris@0: $prettyPrinter = new PrettyPrinter\Standard;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: try {
Chris@0:     // parse
Chris@0:     $stmts = $parser->parse($code);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     // change
Chris@0:     $stmts[0]         // the echo statement
Chris@0:           ->exprs     // sub expressions
Chris@0:           [0]         // the first of them (the string node)
Chris@0:           ->value     // it's value, i.e. 'Hi '
Chris@0:           = 'Hello '; // change to 'Hello '
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     // pretty print
Chris@0:     $code = $prettyPrinter->prettyPrint($stmts);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     echo $code;
Chris@0: } catch (Error $e) {
Chris@0:     echo 'Parse Error: ', $e->getMessage();
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The above code will output:
Chris@0: 
Chris@13:     echo 'Hello ', hi\getTarget();
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: As you can see the source code was first parsed using `PhpParser\Parser->parse()`, then changed and then
Chris@0: again converted to code using `PhpParser\PrettyPrinter\Standard->prettyPrint()`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `prettyPrint()` method pretty prints a statements array. It is also possible to pretty print only a
Chris@0: single expression using `prettyPrintExpr()`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `prettyPrintFile()` method can be used to print an entire file. This will include the opening `<?php` tag
Chris@0: and handle inline HTML as the first/last statement more gracefully.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: > Read more: [Pretty printing documentation](component/Pretty_printing.markdown)
Chris@13: 
Chris@0: Node traversation
Chris@0: -----------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The above pretty printing example used the fact that the source code was known and thus it was easy to
Chris@0: write code that accesses a certain part of a node tree and changes it. Normally this is not the case.
Chris@0: Usually you want to change / analyze code in a generic way, where you don't know how the node tree is
Chris@0: going to look like.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: For this purpose the parser provides a component for traversing and visiting the node tree. The basic
Chris@0: structure of a program using this `PhpParser\NodeTraverser` looks like this:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\NodeTraverser;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\ParserFactory;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\PrettyPrinter;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $parser        = (new ParserFactory)->create(ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7);
Chris@0: $traverser     = new NodeTraverser;
Chris@0: $prettyPrinter = new PrettyPrinter\Standard;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: // add your visitor
Chris@0: $traverser->addVisitor(new MyNodeVisitor);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: try {
Chris@0:     $code = file_get_contents($fileName);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     // parse
Chris@0:     $stmts = $parser->parse($code);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     // traverse
Chris@0:     $stmts = $traverser->traverse($stmts);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     // pretty print
Chris@0:     $code = $prettyPrinter->prettyPrintFile($stmts);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     echo $code;
Chris@0: } catch (PhpParser\Error $e) {
Chris@0:     echo 'Parse Error: ', $e->getMessage();
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The corresponding node visitor might look like this:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\NodeVisitorAbstract;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: class MyNodeVisitor extends NodeVisitorAbstract
Chris@0: {
Chris@0:     public function leaveNode(Node $node) {
Chris@0:         if ($node instanceof Node\Scalar\String_) {
Chris@0:             $node->value = 'foo';
Chris@0:         }
Chris@0:     }
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The above node visitor would change all string literals in the program to `'foo'`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: All visitors must implement the `PhpParser\NodeVisitor` interface, which defines the following four
Chris@0: methods:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: public function beforeTraverse(array $nodes);
Chris@0: public function enterNode(\PhpParser\Node $node);
Chris@0: public function leaveNode(\PhpParser\Node $node);
Chris@0: public function afterTraverse(array $nodes);
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `beforeTraverse()` method is called once before the traversal begins and is passed the nodes the
Chris@0: traverser was called with. This method can be used for resetting values before traversation or
Chris@0: preparing the tree for traversal.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `afterTraverse()` method is similar to the `beforeTraverse()` method, with the only difference that
Chris@0: it is called once after the traversal.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `enterNode()` and `leaveNode()` methods are called on every node, the former when it is entered,
Chris@0: i.e. before its subnodes are traversed, the latter when it is left.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: All four methods can either return the changed node or not return at all (i.e. `null`) in which
Chris@0: case the current node is not changed.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `enterNode()` method can additionally return the value `NodeTraverser::DONT_TRAVERSE_CHILDREN`,
Chris@17: which instructs the traverser to skip all children of the current node. To furthermore prevent subsequent
Chris@17: visitors from visiting the current node, `NodeTraverser::DONT_TRAVERSE_CURRENT_AND_CHILDREN` can be used instead.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The `leaveNode()` method can additionally return the value `NodeTraverser::REMOVE_NODE`, in which
Chris@0: case the current node will be removed from the parent array. Furthermore it is possible to return
Chris@0: an array of nodes, which will be merged into the parent array at the offset of the current node.
Chris@0: I.e. if in `array(A, B, C)` the node `B` should be replaced with `array(X, Y, Z)` the result will
Chris@0: be `array(A, X, Y, Z, C)`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Instead of manually implementing the `NodeVisitor` interface you can also extend the `NodeVisitorAbstract`
Chris@0: class, which will define empty default implementations for all the above methods.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: > Read more: [Walking the AST](component/Walking_the_AST.markdown)
Chris@13: 
Chris@0: The NameResolver node visitor
Chris@0: -----------------------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: One visitor that is already bundled with the package is `PhpParser\NodeVisitor\NameResolver`. This visitor
Chris@0: helps you work with namespaced code by trying to resolve most names to fully qualified ones.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: For example, consider the following code:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:     use A as B;
Chris@0:     new B\C();
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: In order to know that `B\C` really is `A\C` you would need to track aliases and namespaces yourself.
Chris@0: The `NameResolver` takes care of that and resolves names as far as possible.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: After running it, most names will be fully qualified. The only names that will stay unqualified are
Chris@0: unqualified function and constant names. These are resolved at runtime and thus the visitor can't
Chris@0: know which function they are referring to. In most cases this is a non-issue as the global functions
Chris@0: are meant.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Also the `NameResolver` adds a `namespacedName` subnode to class, function and constant declarations
Chris@0: that contains the namespaced name instead of only the shortname that is available via `name`.
Chris@0: 
Chris@13: > Read more: [Name resolution documentation](component/Name_resolution.markdown)
Chris@13: 
Chris@0: Example: Converting namespaced code to pseudo namespaces
Chris@0: --------------------------------------------------------
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: A small example to understand the concept: We want to convert namespaced code to pseudo namespaces
Chris@0: so it works on 5.2, i.e. names like `A\\B` should be converted to `A_B`. Note that such conversions
Chris@0: are fairly complicated if you take PHP's dynamic features into account, so our conversion will
Chris@0: assume that no dynamic features are used.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: We start off with the following base code:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\ParserFactory;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\PrettyPrinter;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\NodeTraverser;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\NodeVisitor\NameResolver;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $inDir  = '/some/path';
Chris@0: $outDir = '/some/other/path';
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $parser        = (new ParserFactory)->create(ParserFactory::PREFER_PHP7);
Chris@0: $traverser     = new NodeTraverser;
Chris@0: $prettyPrinter = new PrettyPrinter\Standard;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: $traverser->addVisitor(new NameResolver); // we will need resolved names
Chris@0: $traverser->addVisitor(new NamespaceConverter); // our own node visitor
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: // iterate over all .php files in the directory
Chris@0: $files = new \RecursiveIteratorIterator(new \RecursiveDirectoryIterator($inDir));
Chris@0: $files = new \RegexIterator($files, '/\.php$/');
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: foreach ($files as $file) {
Chris@0:     try {
Chris@0:         // read the file that should be converted
Chris@16:         $code = file_get_contents($file->getPathName());
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:         // parse
Chris@0:         $stmts = $parser->parse($code);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:         // traverse
Chris@0:         $stmts = $traverser->traverse($stmts);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:         // pretty print
Chris@0:         $code = $prettyPrinter->prettyPrintFile($stmts);
Chris@0: 
Chris@0:         // write the converted file to the target directory
Chris@0:         file_put_contents(
Chris@0:             substr_replace($file->getPathname(), $outDir, 0, strlen($inDir)),
Chris@0:             $code
Chris@0:         );
Chris@0:     } catch (PhpParser\Error $e) {
Chris@0:         echo 'Parse Error: ', $e->getMessage();
Chris@0:     }
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Now lets start with the main code, the `NodeVisitor\NamespaceConverter`. One thing it needs to do
Chris@0: is convert `A\\B` style names to `A_B` style ones.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: class NamespaceConverter extends \PhpParser\NodeVisitorAbstract
Chris@0: {
Chris@0:     public function leaveNode(Node $node) {
Chris@0:         if ($node instanceof Node\Name) {
Chris@13:             return new Node\Name(str_replace('\\', '_', $node->toString()));
Chris@0:         }
Chris@0:     }
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The above code profits from the fact that the `NameResolver` already resolved all names as far as
Chris@0: possible, so we don't need to do that. We only need to create a string with the name parts separated
Chris@13: by underscores instead of backslashes. This is what `str_replace('\\', '_', $node->toString())` does. (If you want to
Chris@0: create a name with backslashes either write `$node->toString()` or `(string) $node`.) Then we create
Chris@0: a new name from the string and return it. Returning a new node replaces the old node.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: Another thing we need to do is change the class/function/const declarations. Currently they contain
Chris@0: only the shortname (i.e. the last part of the name), but they need to contain the complete name including
Chris@0: the namespace prefix:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node\Stmt;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: class NodeVisitor_NamespaceConverter extends \PhpParser\NodeVisitorAbstract
Chris@0: {
Chris@0:     public function leaveNode(Node $node) {
Chris@0:         if ($node instanceof Node\Name) {
Chris@13:             return new Node\Name(str_replace('\\', '_', $node->toString()));
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Class_
Chris@0:                   || $node instanceof Stmt\Interface_
Chris@0:                   || $node instanceof Stmt\Function_) {
Chris@13:             $node->name = str_replace('\\', '_', $node->namespacedName->toString());
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Const_) {
Chris@0:             foreach ($node->consts as $const) {
Chris@13:                 $const->name = str_replace('\\', '_', $const->namespacedName->toString());
Chris@0:             }
Chris@0:         }
Chris@0:     }
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: There is not much more to it than converting the namespaced name to string with `_` as separator.
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: The last thing we need to do is remove the `namespace` and `use` statements:
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: ```php
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node;
Chris@0: use PhpParser\Node\Stmt;
Chris@13: use PhpParser\NodeTraverser;
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: class NodeVisitor_NamespaceConverter extends \PhpParser\NodeVisitorAbstract
Chris@0: {
Chris@0:     public function leaveNode(Node $node) {
Chris@0:         if ($node instanceof Node\Name) {
Chris@13:             return new Node\Name(str_replace('\\', '_', $node->toString()));
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Class_
Chris@0:                   || $node instanceof Stmt\Interface_
Chris@0:                   || $node instanceof Stmt\Function_) {
Chris@13:             $node->name = str_replace('\\', '_', $node->namespacedName->toString();
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Const_) {
Chris@0:             foreach ($node->consts as $const) {
Chris@13:                 $const->name = str_replace('\\', '_', $const->namespacedName->toString());
Chris@0:             }
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Namespace_) {
Chris@0:             // returning an array merges is into the parent array
Chris@0:             return $node->stmts;
Chris@0:         } elseif ($node instanceof Stmt\Use_) {
Chris@13:             // remove use nodes altogether
Chris@13:             return NodeTraverser::REMOVE_NODE;
Chris@0:         }
Chris@0:     }
Chris@0: }
Chris@0: ```
Chris@0: 
Chris@0: That's all.