PHP Parser
This is a PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.1 parser written in PHP. Its purpose is to simplify static code analysis and manipulation.
<strong>Documentation for version 3.x</strong> (stable; for running on PHP >= 5.5; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.1).
Documentation for version 2.x (stable; for running on PHP >= 5.4; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.0).
Documentation for version 1.x (unsupported; for running on PHP >= 5.3; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 5.6).
In a Nutshell
The parser turns PHP source code into an abstract syntax tree. For example, if you pass the following code into the parser:
<?php
echo 'Hi', 'World';
hello\world('foo', 'bar' . 'baz');
You'll get a syntax tree looking roughly like this:
array(
0: Stmt_Echo(
exprs: array(
0: Scalar_String(
value: Hi
)
1: Scalar_String(
value: World
)
)
)
1: Expr_FuncCall(
name: Name(
parts: array(
0: hello
1: world
)
)
args: array(
0: Arg(
value: Scalar_String(
value: foo
)
byRef: false
)
1: Arg(
value: Expr_Concat(
left: Scalar_String(
value: bar
)
right: Scalar_String(
value: baz
)
)
byRef: false
)
)
)
)
You can then work with this syntax tree, for example to statically analyze the code (e.g. to find programming errors or security issues).
Additionally, you can convert a syntax tree back to PHP code. This allows you to do code preprocessing (like automatedly porting code to older PHP versions).
Installation
The preferred installation method is composer:
php composer.phar require nikic/php-parser
Documentation
Component documentation: