Ranking of the 100 most commonly used PHP functions

The following list is the top 100 most commonly used PHP functions: they are the most commonly used functions that come with PHP.

#The functions are named and ordered from 1 to 100. The other 4500 functions are not currently ranked. The following frequency list represents how often this function is used in PHP code: References come from 1900 PHP open source projects.

They used Exakat static analysis engine version 1.2.5 of the static analysis engine for the review. The average is the number of times this function is called in a project. Some functions are used by wrappers, while others are main functions.

For example, 4 out of 5 projects use the count function, and the function is called about 150 times. It shows that it is very popular and widely used.

Click on the function name to jump to related Analysis and examples. There are some summary insights at the bottom of the Top 100 article.

##672.32 %101.057##implode898.32964.011078.18preg_matchsprintftrimstrtolowerfile_existsis_string##17preg_replace60.27 %18file_get_contents59.96 %19array_key_exists59.70 %20array_keys59.35 %21dirname56.44 %function_existsarray_mapget_classclass_existsis_objecttimejson_encode

Ranking	Function	Frequency	Average
1	count	81.41 %	147.67
2	is_array	77.32 %	117.86
3	substr	74.62 %	142.92
4	in_array	74.16 %	79.55
5	explode	73.19 %	71.51
	str_replace
	72.27 %	66.59
##strlen	70.07 %
array_merge	69.46 %
strpos	67.98 %		##11
	67.31 %76.60		12
	67.16 % 119.46		13
	66.75 %81.28		14
	65.99 %59.62		15
	65.12 %45.13		16
	61.39 %45.10
	54.28
	20.71
	57.50
	39.59
	54.84	##22
53.58 %	42.62	23
53.22 %	19.45	24
53.12 %	33.07	25
52.50 %	23.13	26
51.94 %	35.35	27
51.79 %	41.42	28
51.48 %	24.81
29	date	50.72 %	52.18
30	is_null	49.69 %	60.52
31	is_numeric	49.49 %	40.69
32	array_shift	49.49 %	23.28
33	defined	48.72 %	86.82
34	is_dir	48.57 %	22.86
35	json_decode	48.42 %	17.39
36	header	48.16 %	59.71
37	strtoupper	47.80 %	30.95
38	array_values	47.24 %	17.27
39	md5	46.88 %	23.74
40	method_exists	46.73 %	19.05
41	file_put_contents	46.68 %	12.49
42	rtrim	45.91 %	18.08
43	array_pop	45.51 %	20.60
44	unlink	44.59 %	23.55
45	basename	44.59 %	27.23
46	realpath	44.08 %	15.90
47	call_user_func	43.97 %	16.41
48	call_user_func_array	43.92 %	18.40
49	fopen	43.77 %	25.61
50	microtime	43.46 %	14.41
51	fclose	42.85 %	28.36
52	is_int	42.75 %	15.78
53	is_file	42.08 %	20.52
54	array_slice	41.83 %	13.20
55	preg_match_all	40.55 %	14.66
56	ucfirst	40.25 %	17.02
57	intval	40.19 %	88.13
58	str_repeat	40.14 %	19.51
59	serialize	40.14 %	22.05
60	array_filter	39.99 %	13.87
61	mkdir	39.79 %	11.17
62	is_callable	39.43 %	11.94
63	ltrim	39.17 %	10.90
64	ob_start	39.12 %	13.26
65	round	39.07 %	28.56
66	fwrite	38.97 %	23.39
67	array_unique	38.87 %	15.96
68	array_search	38.82 %	14.19
69	reset	38.71 %	20.79
70	array_unshift	38.10 %	10.32
71	parse_url	37.90 %	9.61
72	func_get_args	37.79 %	28.33
73	end	37.49 %	12.70
74	base64_encode	37.39 %	14.15
75	unserialize	37.18 %	18.35
76	max	36.98 %	22.88
77	preg_split	36.98 %	13.27
78	gettype	36.93 %	16.16
79	strrpos	36.67 %	11.95
80	version_compare	36.67 %	14.87
81	array_push	36.67 %	26.18
82	floor	36.11 %	18.78
83	strtotime	36.01 %	27.94
84	htmlspecialchars	35.96 %	51.08
85	ini_get	35.85 %	19.25
86	ini_set	35.60 %	14.49
87	chr	35.34 %	186.97
88	extension_loaded	35.29 %	14.17
89	is_bool	35.24 %	11.44
90	ksort	34.98 %	10.82
91	array_reverse	34.93 %	8.27
92	ord	34.73 %	53.17
93	uniqid	34.68 %	9.83
94	strtr	34.47 %	12.90
95	array_diff	34.32 %	11.13
96	error_reporting	34.17 %	8.99
97	ceil	33.35 %	11.99
98	urlencode	33.30 %	29.63
99	min	32.69 %	18.31
100	print_r	32.64 %	14.12

Top 100 Analysis

• The most commonly used PHP functions are string functions, followed by array functions, followed by file functions. (Operation functions are not listed here mainly because they are usually based on operators)

• The link for each function points to its corresponding documentation. In fact, many functions have been developed and received many new features. Properties, such as: the second parameter of count(), the second parameter of dirname(), and preg_match() and str_replace() Accepts arrays as parameters, etc. There are many easter eggs.

• The above 100 functions have no plans to be abandoned in the near future.

• Among the non-built-in libraries, mbstring ranks first, curl second, followed by gd, filter and iconv.

• md5 is the most commonly used encryption function, followed by Sha1 (#147).

• print_r appears somewhere in 1/3 of the project codes, anywhere...

• Due to dirname(dirname(dirname())) is called, dirname is used very frequently.

• array、echo、print、empty、isset These are not included in this ranking, their usage is definitely very high.

• The following functions should be replaced by operators: array_push, is_object, func_get_arg, chr , call_user_func.

• Quite a few calls are made to know the type of the value.

• Database functions are not ranked here: they use classes frequently, but the functionality is still frequent. Maybe another top 100?

• PHP is more used for reading files than writing files. It also decodes base64.

• Sort by key more often than by value or by key.

• Usually use file_get_contents to read files and fwrite to write files.

Postscript

If you are learning PHP, it’s a good idea to review the 100 features ranked here. They're the features you'll find most often when you join a coding team. They're not unique, but you'll be less surprised when you encounter them.

Recommended related PHP video tutorials: "PHP Video Tutorial"

Related articles:

Commonly used in php Detailed summary of more than 100 functions (with code)