Here are some of the collection of cool coding techniques in PHP and at times in other programming platform from all around the web. Hope you enjoy it.

Array – Best way to clear a PHP array values.
Use unset, if you need the array later on just instantiate it again.

unset($foo);
$foo = array();

Array – Return an array from a function.
If you have a function and you would like to return multiple values from it, then you would code like this.

function someFunc( ) {
  $aVariable = 10;
  $aVariable2 = 20;
  return array($aVariable, $aVariable2);
}

And to retrieve the values returned from a function, you would use this code.

list($var1, $var2) = SomeFunction( );
echo "$var1 $var2";  // Print out the values

Value from $aVar1 is assigned to $var1 and value from $aVar2 is assigned to $var2.

Alternatively, you can store it as an array.

$returnVar = SomeFunction();
echo $returnVar[0];
echo $returnVar[1];

Value from $aVar1 is assigned to $returnVar[0] and value from $aVar2 is assigned to $returnVar[1].

Shorthand If/Else in PHP.
Basic True/False Declaration

$returnVar = SomeFunction();
echo $returnVar[0];
echo $returnVar[1];

Conditional Greeting Message

echo 'Hello '.($user['isLoggedIn'] ? $user['useFirstName'] : 'Guest').'!!';

Conditional Error Reporting Level

error_reporting($WEBSITE_IS_LIVE ? 0 : E_STRICT);

Conditional Basepath

echo '<base href="http'.($PAGE_IS_SECURE ? 's' : '').'://www.xybernetics.com" />';

Nested PHP Shorthand

echo 'Your grade is '.($grade > 10 ? ($age > 10 ? 'Average' : 'Exceptional') : ($age > 10 ? 'Horrible' : 'Average') );

Leap Year Check

$isLeapYear = ((($year % 4) == 0) && ((($year % 100) != 0) || (($year %400) == 0)));

Conditional PHP Redirect

header('Location: '.($valid_login ? '/users/index.php' : 'login.php?errors=1')); exit();

Reference

• Clear PHP array
• PHP Shorthand If / Else Examples