Using a keyword as variable name in an INI file

Question

I have the following in an INI file:

[country]
SE = Sweden
NO = Norway
FI = Finland

However, when var_dump()ing PHP's parse_ini_file() function, I get the following output:

PHP Warning:  syntax error, unexpected BOOL_FALSE in test.ini on line 2
in /Users/andrew/sandbox/test.php on line 1
bool(false)

It appears that "NO" is reserved. Is there any other way I can set a variable named "NO"?

Answer 1

Another hack would be to reverse your ini keys with their values and use array_flip:

<?php

$ini =
"
    [country]
    Sweden = 'SE'
    Norway = 'NO'
    Finland = 'FI'
";

$countries = parse_ini_string($ini, true);
$countries = array_flip($countries["country"]);
echo $countries["NO"];

Still you will need to use quotes around NO (at least), if you do

Norway = NO

you don't get an error but value for $countries["NO"] will be an empty string.

Answer 2

This propably comes a little late but the way PHPs parse_ini_file works bothered me so much that I wrote my own little parser.

Feel free to use it, but use with care it has only been shallowly tested!

// the exception used by the parser
class IniParserException extends \Exception {

    public function __construct($message, $code = 0, \Exception $previous = null) {
        parent::__construct($message, $code, $previous);
    }

    public function __toString() {
        return __CLASS__ . ": [{$this->code}]: {$this->message}\n";
    }

}

// the parser
function my_parse_ini_file($filename, $processSections = false) {
    $initext = file_get_contents($filename);
    $ret = [];
    $section = null;
    $lineNum = 0;
    $lines = explode("\n", str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $initext));
    foreach($lines as $line) {
        ++$lineNum;

        $line = trim(preg_replace('/[;#].*/', '', $line));
        if(strlen($line) === 0) {
            continue;
        }

        if($processSections && $line{0} === '[' && $line{strlen($line)-1} === ']') {
            // section header
            $section = trim(substr($line, 1, -1));
        } else {
            $eqIndex = strpos($line, '=');
            if($eqIndex !== false) {
                $key = trim(substr($line, 0, $eqIndex));
                $matches = [];
                preg_match('/(?<name>\w+)(?<index>\[\w*\])?/', $key, $matches);
                if(!array_key_exists('name', $matches)) {
                    throw new IniParserException("Variable name must not be empty! In file \"$filename\" in line $lineNum.");
                }
                $keyName = $matches['name'];
                if(array_key_exists('index', $matches)) {
                    $isArray = true;
                    $arrayIndex = trim($matches['index']);
                    if(strlen($arrayIndex) == 0) {
                        $arrayIndex = null;
                    }
                } else {
                    $isArray = false;
                    $arrayIndex = null;
                }

                $value = trim(substr($line, $eqIndex+1));
                if($value{0} === '"' && $value{strlen($value)-1} === '"') {
                    // too lazy to check for multiple closing " let's assume it's fine
                    $value = str_replace('\\"', '"', substr($value, 1, -1));
                } else {
                    // special value
                    switch(strtolower($value)) {
                        case 'yes':
                        case 'true':
                        case 'on':
                            $value = true;
                            break;
                        case 'no':
                        case 'false':
                        case 'off':
                            $value = false;
                            break;
                        case 'null':
                        case 'none':
                            $value = null;
                            break;
                        default:
                            if(is_numeric($value)) {
                                $value = $value + 0; // make it an int/float
                            } else {
                                throw new IniParserException("\"$value\" is not a valid value! In file \"$filename\" in line $lineNum.");
                            }
                    }
                }

                if($section !== null) {
                    if($isArray) {
                        if(!array_key_exists($keyName, $ret[$section])) {
                            $ret[$section][$keyName] = [];
                        }
                        if($arrayIndex === null) {
                            $ret[$section][$keyName][] = $value;
                        } else {
                            $ret[$section][$keyName][$arrayIndex] = $value;
                        }
                    } else {
                        $ret[$section][$keyName] = $value;
                    }
                } else {
                    if($isArray) {
                        if(!array_key_exists($keyName, $ret)) {
                            $ret[$keyName] = [];
                        }
                        if($arrayIndex === null) {
                            $ret[$keyName][] = $value;
                        } else {
                            $ret[$keyName][$arrayIndex] = $value;
                        }
                    } else {
                        $ret[$keyName] = $value;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return $ret;
}

What does it differently? Variable names may only consist of alphanumerical characters but other than that no restrictions to them. Strings must be encapsulated with " everything else has to be a special value like no, yes, true, false, on, off, null or none. For mapping see code.