README

If you've ever used fopen/SplFileObject and wanted the results to be idempotent¹ this is de way.

With this library you get a read-only immutable wrapper for the basic SplFileObject - which is essentially the OOP fopen.

You probably would only rarely have a use case for this but if you do you'll know...and it may be hecking useful.

^{1 = Only technically because the wrapper tracks a "canonical" position to always work from.}

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require mallardduck/immutable-read-file

Usage

use MallardDuck\ImmutableReadFile\ImmutableFile;

$fileName = __DIR__ . '/tests/stubs/json.txt'; // CONTENT: {"hello": "world"}

$step1 = ImmutableFile::fromFilePath($fileName);
echo $step1->fgetc(); // { - The first character of your file
echo $step1->fgetc(); // { - The first character of your file, again
$step2 = $step1->advanceBytePosition(); // A new r/o immutable entity advanced a single byte by default.
echo $step2->fgetc(); // " - The second character of your file
echo $step2->fgetc(); // " - The second character of your file, again

Why! I don't get it?

So, you were warned that this would only be useful rarely - but when it is useful it's hecking useful. You did read that right?

The main way to understand when this is useful is to understand how it's different from fopen or SplFileObject. Since this will be useful in cases when the default behavior of those is not desired.

So see for yourself! Examples...

How fopen works by default

The use of a second fopen, and the fseek, are to emulate what $step1->advanceBytePosition() does in the usage example.

$fileName = __DIR__ . '/tests/stubs/json.txt'; // CONTENT: {"hello": "world"}

$step1 = fopen($fileName, 'r');
echo fgetc($step1) . PHP_EOL; // { - The first character of your file
echo fgetc($step1) . PHP_EOL; // " - The second character of your file
$step2 = fopen($fileName, 'r');
fseek($step2, 1);
echo fgetc($step2) . PHP_EOL; // " - The second character of your file
echo fgetc($step2) . PHP_EOL; // h - The third character of your file

How SplFileObject works by default

The use of a second new SplFileObject, and the $step2->fseek(1), are to emulate what $step1->advanceBytePosition() does in the usage example.

$fileName = __DIR__ . '/tests/stubs/json.txt'; // CONTENT: {"hello": "world"}

$step1 = new SplFileObject($fileName, 'r');
echo $step1->fgetc() . PHP_EOL; // { - The first character of your file
echo $step1->fgetc() . PHP_EOL; // " - The second character of your file
$step2 = new SplFileObject($fileName, 'r');
$step2->fseek(1);
echo $step2->fgetc() . PHP_EOL; // " - The second character of your file
echo $step2->fgetc() . PHP_EOL; // h - The third character of your file

Summary

Comparing the ways that fopen and SplFileObject work we can see they are functionally identical to each other. However, this also highlights how they are different from ImmutableReadFile.

When you use a method on either fopen/SplFileObject that returns content, then the current cursor position is incremented. That means when you run fgetc on these you'll always get either: the next character, or the EOF.

However for ImmutableReadFile, these methods do not affect the cursor position. This means that if you run fgetc, you'll always get the same exact character. Only until you explicitly advance the byte position will you get a novel character. When that happens you're actually getting a new instance of ImmutableFile too.

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

• Dan Pock
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.