PHP: Basic question about __FILE__

If you're getting tired of typing anything, you're in the wrong profession.  Programmers are actually secretary / typists with additional skills as programmers.

As for your function to 'know' where it's being invoked from?  I've never heard of such a thing.  But then I never use '__FILE__' anyway.  After looking it up, I see why.  On shared hosting where most of my customers are, an absolute path is useless because shared hosting frequently blocks access thru an absolute path.  All you can use is paths relative to your web root.

http://php.net/manual/en/language.constants.predefined.php

The day I cease getting tired of repetition is the day I stop making function libraries to make my life and future projects easier. Programming is one of the few professions where laziness is a virtue. All I'm trying to do here is streamline tasks, trying to do things in less steps than more. If I can create a function with two arguments than three, I'd choose that.

With PHP being so rich and numerous in functions, I was hoping people more knowledgeable in PHP than I might know of a function that allows an invoked function to somehow detect where it was invoked from. If that sounds like a bizarre expectation, remember the magic functions of PHP that allow one to create classes with no getters or setters and somehow end up populated in full.

I don't need an absolute path, just some indication where the function was invoked that I could output to my log file, just so I'd know which file the function was invoked from.

JulianH, now that's what I'm talking about!

Since debug_backtrace() returns an array, I think I might be able to programmatically construct a "bread crumb" and output it into my log file; this way, I can do away with __FILE__ altogether. Thanks, JulianH!

You are welcome

By the way. Dave, regarding what you said:

Programmers are actually secretary / typists with additional skills as programmers.

If all you do are forms and database calls, then you'd be a glorified secretary with great copy/paste skills, and you probably wouldn't deserve good pay.

I have yet to find a programmer job like that though. In all the work I've done, there always some challenge. Just in the application I'm currently working on, I had to make a series of JavaScript constructor functions that act as self-contained components (e.g. an elaborate highly-customizable tooltip, validator functions that work with my tooltip() function for highly flexible field validation, reusable constructor functions for slide shows, reusable functions for <div> overlays on any section of the page, etc.), things I don't think secretaries would even imagine doing. These are the stuff I've done since I started my transitioned to the PHP platform. Prior to that when I was doing java with Adobe Flex, I was making reusable custom components for clients, as well as dealing with Adobe Flex's tree and datagrid components while employing drag and drop. If you can find a secretary who can do all that at a near-secretary's pay scale, please send him/her my way, I will hire the individual.

Good riddance to __FILE__. fo() will always tell you what file and line number it's in. Anywhere in your application, no matter which function level your program execution is in, you can output any string to an output file for debugging.

/**
 * 'fo' stands for file output. Writes specified text output to a specified filename, providing a top to
 * bottom execution stacktrace path.
 * @param String $output    The text content to be outputted to the file.
 * @param String $filename  The output filename. Defaults to '/_foLog' if not
 *                          provided.
 * 
 * Example: fo("Hello World"); // outputs "Hello World" to "/_foLog"
 *          fo("Boo", "/myFile"); // outputs "Boo" to "/myFile"
 */
function fo($output, $filename='/_foLog') {
    $desc = "";
    $arr = debug_backtrace();

    $desc .= "PROGRAM EXECUTION ORDER:\n";
    for ($i=count($arr)-1; $i>=0; $i--) {
        /* If 'file' is undefined, an error is output to php_error_log. 
         * Assigning a value of '<unknown>' to prevent the error. */
        if (!isset($arr[$i]['file'])) {
            $arr[$i]['file'] = '<unknown>';
        }
        /* If 'line' is undefined, it will bomb out. Assigning '0' to prevent 
         * an error */
        if (!isset($arr[$i]['line'])) {
            $arr[$i]['line'] = '0';
        }
        if ($i == count($arr)-1) {
            $desc .= count($arr)-$i . ':' . $arr[$i]['file'] . ' at line ' . $arr[$i]['line'] . "\n";
        } else {
            $desc .= count($arr)-$i . ':' . $arr[$i]['file'] . ' at line ' . $arr[$i]['line'] . 
                 ' inside ' . $arr[$i+1]['function'] . "()\n"; 
        }
    }

    $time = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", time());
    $handle = fopen($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/" . $filename, "a");
    fwrite($handle, '[' . $time . ']' . "\n");
    fwrite($handle, $desc);
    fwrite($handle, 'OUTPUT: ' . "\n");
    fwrite($handle, $output . "\n\n");
    fclose($handle);
}

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