PHP Parser

This is a PHP 5.5 (and older) parser written in PHP. It's purpose is to simplify static code analysis and manipulation.

Documentation for version 0.9.x (current stable).

Documentation for version 1.0-dev (for >= PHP 5.3, using namespaced names, but compatible with old names).

Note: This project is experimental, so the API is subject to change.

In a Nutshell

Basically, the parser does nothing more than turn some PHP code into an abstract syntax tree. ("nothing more" is kind of sarcastic here as PHP has a ... uhm, let's just say "not nice" ... grammar, which makes parsing PHP very hard.)

For example, if you stick this code in the parser:

<?phpecho'Hi', 'World';
hello\world('foo', 'bar' . 'baz');

You'll get a syntax tree looking roughly like this:

array(
0: Stmt_Echo(
exprs: array(
0: Scalar_String(
value: Hi
)
1: Scalar_String(
value: World
)
)
)
1: Expr_FuncCall(
name: Name(
parts: array(
0: hello
1: world
)
)
args: array(
0: Arg(
value: Scalar_String(
value: foo
)
byRef: false
)
1: Arg(
value: Expr_Concat(
left: Scalar_String(
value: bar
)
right: Scalar_String(
value: baz
)
)
byRef: false
)
)
)
)

You can then work with this syntax tree, for example to statically analyze the code (e.g. to find programming errors or security issues).

Additionally, you can convert a syntax tree back to PHP code. This allows you to do code preprocessing (like automatedly porting code to older PHP versions).

So, that's it, in a nutshell. You can find everything else in the docs.