PHP.rb: A Ruby to PHP Code Generator

"Will write code that writes code that writes code that writes code for money."

-- Anonymous on comp.lang.lisp

PHP.rb translates Ruby code into PHP code by obtaining the parse tree for a Ruby expression, transforming that into an abstract syntax tree (AST) compatible with PHP, and then generating valid PHP code as the final output.

• http://github.com/bendiken/php

Usage

require 'php'

Generating PHP code using a Ruby block

PHP.generate returns the translated AST for a given Ruby block. The AST can be turned into runnable PHP code by calling the #to_s method on the resulting PHP::Program instance.

PHP.generate { echo "Hello, world!\n" }   #=> PHP::Program(...)

Evaluating generated PHP on the fly

PHP.eval translates Ruby code into PHP utilizing PHP.generate and then executes it using the php executable (which must be available in ENV['PATH']).

PHP.eval { echo "Hello, world!\n" }

Checking the available PHP version

PHP.version utilizes PHP.eval to obtain the currently available PHP version (if any).

PHP.version                               #=> "5.3.1"

Examples

The following snippets demonstrate the PHP output generated by PHP.rb for the given Ruby code. Look in the doc/examples/ directory for runnable Ruby scripts containing many of these examples.

Function definitions

def unid
  return md5(uniqid(mt_rand, true))
end

<?php
function unid() {
  return md5(uniqid(mt_rand(), TRUE));
}

String construction

$url = "#{$scheme}://#{$host}:#{$port}" << $path

<?php
$url = $scheme . "://" . $host . ":" . $port . $path;

foreach loops (1)

for $fruit in ['apple', 'banana', 'cranberry']
  echo "#{$fruit}\n"
end

<?php
foreach (array("apple", "banana", "cranberry") as $fruit) {
  echo($fruit . "\n");
}

foreach loops (2)

for $key, $value in {'a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3}
  echo "#{$key} => #{$value}\n"
end

<?php
foreach (array("a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3) as $key => $value) {
  echo($key . " => " . $value . "\n");
}

while loops

$result = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM user")
while $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)
  echo "User.name = #{$row['name']}\n"
end

<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM user");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
  echo("User.name = " . $row["name"] . "\n");
}

Reference

The following cheat sheet demonstrates the PHP output generated for various types of Ruby expressions. The rows marked with an asterisk, (*), may have special semantics that need to be taken into account.

Literals

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
nil                                  | NULL
false                                | FALSE
true                                 | TRUE
42                                   | 42
3.1415                               | 3.1415
"Hello, world!"                      | "Hello, world!"
"<#{$url}>"                          | "<" . $url . ">"
/a-z/                                | '/a-z/'
(1..10)                              | range(1, 10)
(1...10)                             | range(1, 9)
[]                                   | array()
[1, 2, 3]                            | array(1, 2, 3)
{}                                   | array()
{"a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3}       | array("a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3)

Variables

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
$foo                                 | $foo
$foo = 123                           | $foo = 123

Functions

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
lambda { |$x, $y| }                  | function($x, $y) {}
def foo(x, y); end                   | function foo($x, $y) {}
time                                 | time()
time()                               | time()

Methods

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
$array[$index]                       | $array[$index]
$object[:property]                   | $object->property                 (*)
$object.method                       | $object->method()

String operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
$a << $b                             | $a . $b                           (*)

Arithmetic operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
-$a                                  | -$a
$a + $b                              | $a + $b
$a - $b                              | $a - $b
$a * $b                              | $a * $b
$a / $b                              | $a / $b
$a % $b                              | $a % $b

Assignment operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
$a = $b                              | $a = $b

Bitwise operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
~$a                                  | ~$a
$a & $b                              | $a & $b
$a | $b                              | $a | $b
$a ^ $b                              | $a ^ $b

Comparison operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
$a == $b                             | $a == $b
$a === $b                            | $a === $b                         (*)
$a != $b                             | $a != $b
$a < $b                              | $a < $b
$a > $b                              | $a > $b
$a <= $b                             | $a <= $b
$a >= $b                             | $a >= $b

Execution operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
`hostname`                           | `hostname`

Logical operators

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
!$a                                  | !$a
$a and $b                            | $a && $b
$a && $b                             | $a && $b
$a or $b                             | $a || $b
$a || $b                             | $a || $b

Control structures

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
... if true                          | if (TRUE) { ... }
if true then ... else ... end        | if (TRUE) { ... } else { ... }
... unless true                      | if (!TRUE) { ... }
unless true then ... else ... end    | if (!TRUE) { ... } else { ... }
while $x; ...; end                   | while ($x) { ... }
until $x; ...; end                   | while (!$x) { ... }
for $x in $y; ...; end               | foreach ($y as $x) { ... }
for $k, $v in $z; ...; end           | foreach ($z as $k => $v) { ... }
return                               | return
return $x                            | return $x

Classes and objects

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
MyClass.new                          | new MyClass
MyClass.new($options)                | new MyClass($options)
MyClass.new("abc" => 123)            | new MyClass(array("abc" => 123))

Regular expressions

Ruby input                           | PHP output
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------
/^\d+$/ =~ "123"                     | preg_match('/^\d+$/', "123")
/^\d+$/ !~ "123"                     | !preg_match('/^\d+$/', "123")
"123" =~ /^\d+$/                     | preg_match('/^\d+$/', "123")
"123" !~ /^\d+$/                     | !preg_match('/^\d+$/', "123")
$pattern =~ $string                  | preg_match($pattern, $string)
$pattern !~ $string                  | !preg_match($pattern, $string)

Limitations

This is not a Ruby runtime

PHP.rb is not Ruby for PHP, merely PHP for Ruby.

You don't have the Ruby standard library available in your generated code. To generate runnable PHP code, you can't expect e.g. "foobar".size to work, but must rather say strlen("foobar").

Method calls vs property access

Ruby method calls, e.g. $user.name, are in principle ambiguous when translated into PHP, because they could resolve into either a property access as in $user->name or a method call as in $user->name().

Therefore PHP.rb defines $user.name to be equivalent to the latter (the method call), and defines the syntax $user[:name] to be equivalent to the former (the property access).

Note that this does not conflict with array subscript access since Ruby symbol objects have no semantic equivalent in PHP.

Documentation

• http://php.rubyforge.org/

Methods

• {PHP.eval}
• {PHP.exec}
• {PHP.dump}
• {PHP.generate}
• {PHP.version}

Classes

• {PHP::Generator}
• {PHP::Program}
• {PHP::Expression}

Dependencies

• Open4 (>= 1.0.1)
• ParseTree (>= 3.0.4)
• RubyParser (>= 2.0.4)
• SexpProcessor (>= 3.0.3)

Installation

The recommended installation method is via RubyGems. To install the latest official release from Gemcutter, do:

% [sudo] gem install php

Download

To get a local working copy of the development repository, do:

% git clone git://github.com/bendiken/php.git

Alternatively, you can download the latest development version as a tarball as follows:

% wget http://github.com/bendiken/php/tarball/master

Resources

• http://php.rubyforge.org/
• http://github.com/bendiken/php
• http://gemcutter.org/gems/php
• http://rubyforge.org/projects/php/
• http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/php/

Authors

• Arto Bendiken - http://ar.to/

License

PHP.rb is free and unencumbered public domain software. For more information, see http://unlicense.org/ or the accompanying UNLICENSE file.