php-cert-jun-2020.md

PHP Test Prep -- June 2020

Note to Self

• Check on when to deliver mock exams

Schedule

• Tue 02 Jun: 1 - 2
• Thu 04 Jun: 3
• Tue 09 Jun: 4 - 5
• Thu 11 Jun: 7 - 8 (finish up to and including "Magic Methods")
• Tue 16 Jun: 8 - 10 (finish up to and including "Escaping")
• Thu 17 Jun: 10 - 12

Notes

• General topic info: https://www.zend.com/training/php-certification-exam
• FAQ: https://www.zend.com/training/certification-faq
• Tutorial on PHP Bitwise Operators for the Exam:
  • https://www.w3resource.com/php/operators/bitwise-operators.php
• Bitwise "Truth Table":

Bitwise AND
0 & 0 = 0
0 & 1 = 0
1 & 0 = 0
1 & 1 = 1

Bitwise OR
0 | 0 = 0
0 | 1 = 1
1 | 0 = 1
1 | 1 = 1

Bitwise XOR
0 ^ 0 = 0
0 ^ 1 = 1
1 ^ 0 = 1
1 ^ 1 = 0

• php.ini config settings: https://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.changes.modes.php
• From the 1st in-class quiz:

echo ~(($a | $b) ^ $c) ? 'T' : 'F';
// from Catalin-Marius to All Participants:
(0010 | 0101) = 0111 ^ 0111 = ~0000 = 1111 => 'T'

XPath / XML

• Basic Usage Guide: https://www.php.net/manual/en/simplexml.examples-basic.php
• Tutorial: https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_intro.asp
• Tutorial: https://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

SOAP

• https://www.php.net/manual/en/soapclient.soapclient.php
• https://www.php.net/manual/en/soapserver.soapserver.php

DateTime

• NOTE: DateInterval also accepts "relative" formats: https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.formats.relative.php

Strings

• Be "glancingly familiar" with the string functions, especially those starting with str*
  • Letter i indicates case-insensitive
  • Letter r indicates in reverse
  • Letter u indicates user-defined callback
• printf family
  • Format codes documents under sprintf
  • Make sure you understand the basic format codes

Regex

Various preg* examples: https://github.com/dbierer/classic_php_examples/tree/master/regex

OOP

• Example on PDF page 297 (slide 8/16) generates warning, which was fixed in PHP 7.4:

Warning: Declaration of Container\ControllerServiceContainer::set(string $name, $value) should be compatible with Container\ServiceContainer::set($name, $value)

• Example on PDF page 308 (slide 8/27): use syntax should be as follows. Curly braces are not appropriate in this situation.

use FactoryInterface, IndexControllerFactory;

• Example on PDF page 308 (slide 8/27): the abstract method set() is not defined which means a fatal error will be generated

Magic Methods

You will be responsible for all magic methods except for:

• __serialize() : only available as of PHP 7.4
• __unserialize() : only available as of PHP 7.4
• See: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php

SPL

Make sure you are "glancingly familiar" with the SPL

• See: http://php.net/manual/en/book.spl.php
• Pay special attention to ArrayObject and ArrayIterator
• Don't have to know all the iterators, but have a general idea what they do

Late Static Binding

Read the explanation: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.late-static-bindings.php

Traits

• Traits are affected by namespace
• Make sure you're familiar with use / as / insteadof with reference to traits

Security

• http://localhost:9999/#/10/26 (PDF 433): needs 2 arguments:

random_int(int $min, int $max);

• Make sure you know the flags and defaults for htmlspecialchars()
  • https://www.php.net/htmlspecialchars

Database

Notes from PDO::bindValue():

• What the bindValue() docs fail to explain without reading them very carefully is that bindParam() is passed to PDO byref - whereas bindValue() isn't. Thus with bindValue() you can do something like $stmt->bindValue(":something", "bind this"); whereas with bindParam() it will fail because you can't pass a string by reference, for example.
• http://localhost:8888/#/9/26: PDOException is never thrown because the error mode is not set!

Exceptions

• http://localhost:8888/#/12/8: aggregate Exceptions are separated by "|"

ERRATA

• 4/42: correct answer: 255 255.000000
• 5/17: array_search(): Returns element key value, or boolean false. A third boolean parameter includes type checking.