In Laravel, strings and fluent strings are related concepts that deal with string manipulation and transformation. Strings provide the basic infrastructure for working with textual data, fluent strings aim to improve the readability and maintainability of code that involves string manipulation by chaining operations in a more human-friendly manner. Let’s quickly look at examples and differences between strings and fluent strings in Laravel.
Strings in Laravel refer to the basic text data type used to represent a sequence of characters. Laravel provides various built-in functions and methods for manipulating strings, such as concatenation, substrings, case conversions, and more. These functions are part of the core PHP string manipulation capabilities and can be used in Laravel applications like any other PHP application.
Here’s an example of regular string manipulation in Laravel:
cGhwOgogIHByZXNldDogbGFyYXZlbAogIHZlcnNpb246IDgKICBkaXNhYmxlZDoKICAgIC0gbm9fdW51c2VkX2ltcG9ydHMKICBmaW5kZXI6CiAgICBub3QtbmFtZToKICAgICAgLSBpbmRleC5waHAKICAgICAgLSBzZXJ2ZXIucGhwCmpzOgogIGZpbmRlcjoKICAgIG5vdC1uYW1lOgogICAgICAtIHdlYnBhY2subWl4LmpzCmNzczogdHJ1ZQo=
In line 8, the public function strings() is defined. The input string to be processed is stored in the $string variable in line 10. In line 12, the ucfirst() and lower() functions from the Str class capitalize the first character and lowercase all the remaining characters of the input string and stores the result in the $result variable. Finally, in line 14, the result is sent to view to be displayed on the output screen.
Fluent strings were first introduced in Laravel 7, an object-oriented interface for working with string values. Here, we’re using the Laravel 8.83.27 version to discuss fluent strings. Fluent strings in Laravel refer to an additional set of string manipulation methods provided by Laravel’s Str class. The Str class extends the core PHP string functions and offers a fluent interface for performing various string manipulations more expressively and conveniently.
For example, instead of chaining multiple traditional PHP string functions like this:
$result = Str::ucfirst(Str::lower($string));
We can use fluent strings like this:
$result = Str::of($string)->lower()->ucfirst();
The ucfirst() function capitalize the first character of a given string, and the lower() method lowercase all the characters of a given string. Using the Str::of($string)->lower()->ucfirst() chain method in fluent string capitalizes the first character and lowercases the rest of the characters of the string. The result is finally stored in the $result variable.
Here’s an example of fluent string manipulation in Laravel:
php:
preset: laravel
version: 8
disabled:
- no_unused_imports
finder:
not-name:
- index.php
- server.php
js:
finder:
not-name:
- webpack.mix.js
css: true
The public function fluentstring() is defined in line 8. The input string to be processed is stored in the $string variable in line 10. In line 12, the ucfirst() and lower() functions from the Str class are applied to the input string and the result is stored in the $result variable. Finally, in line 14, the result is sent to view to be displayed on the output screen.
This makes the code more readable and allows us to chain methods together. Laravel’s fluent string methods cover many operations, including transformations, truncations, replacements, and encoding. Some examples of fluent string methods are ucfirst, camel, snake, limit, replace, startsWith, endsWith, and so on.
In Laravel, strings and fluent strings are two different ways to work with and manipulate strings. Let’s observe the following comparison table to highlight the differences between them:
Aspect | Strings | Fluent strings |
Syntax | Normal procedural syntax | Method chaining |
Functionality | Basic string manipulation using native PHP functions such as | It covers most normal string functions and provides enhanced string manipulation methods such as |
Readability | Can become cluttered with multiple function calls and concatenations | Provides clear and expressive method names for string operations, enhancing readability |
Availability | Supported in major versions of Laravel | Only supported with Laravel 7 and onwards |
Use case | Simple and independent operations | Complex and multistep manipulations |
In summary, while both regular strings and fluent strings deal with text manipulation, fluent strings in Laravel offer a more readable and expressive way to perform string transformations by chaining methods together from the Str class. Fluent strings also provide more manipulation methods than regular strings. This enhances code readability and maintainability, especially when dealing with complex string manipulations.
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