php-parser/README.md

PHP Parser

This is a PHP 5.6 (and older) parser written in PHP. It's purpose is to simplify static code analysis and manipulation.

Documentation for version 0.9.x (stable; for running on PHP 5.2).

Documentation for version 1.0.x (beta; for running on PHP >= 5.3).

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:

<?php
echo '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.