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Helpers / Functions

As the name suggests, it will help you build your system. It is divided into small functions to serve different functionality. A number of helpers are available in CodeIgniter, which are listed in the table below. We can build our own helpers too.

Helpers are typically stored in yoursystem/helpers, orapplication/helpers directory. Custom helpers are stored inapplication/helpersdirectory and systems' helpers are stored insystem/helpersdirectory. CodeIgniter will look first in yourapplication/helpers directory. If the directory does not exist or the specified helper is not located, CodeIgniter will instead, look in your globalsystem/helpers/ directory. Each helper, whether it is custom or system helper, must be loaded before using it.

There are URL Helpers, that assist in creating links, there are Form Helpers that help you create form elements, Text Helpers perform various text formatting routines, Cookie Helpers set and read cookies, File Helpers help you deal with files, etc.

Loading a Helper​

$this->load->helper('name');

Where name is the name of the helper. For example, if you want to load the URL Helper, then it can be loaded as −

$this->load->helper('url');

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/codeigniter/codeigniter_basic_concepts.htm

Global Functions and Constants​

  • Global Functions

    • Service Accessors
      • cache([$key])
      • env($key [,$default=null])
      • esc($data,$context='html'[,$encoding])
      • helper($filename)
      • lang($line [,$args [,$locale]])
      • model($name [,$getShared = true [,&$conn = null]])
      • old($key [,$default = null [,$escape = 'html']])
      • session([$key])
      • timer([$name])
      • view($name [,$data [,$options]])
      • view_cell($library [,$params = null [,$ttl = 0 [,$cacheName = null]]])

  • Miscellaneous Functions

    • app_timezone()
    • csrf_token()
    • csrf_header()
    • csrf_hash()
    • csrf_field()
    • csrf_meta()
    • force_https($duration = 31536000 [,$request = null [,$response = null]])
    • function_usable($function_name)
    • is_cli()
    • is_really_writable($file)
    • log_message($level,$message [,$context])
    • redirect(string $uri)

// Go back to the previous page return redirect()->back();

// Go to specific UI

return redirect()->to('/admin')​

// Go to a named/reverse-routed URI return redirect()->route('named_route');

// Keep the old input values upon redirect so they can be used by the old() function return redirect()->back()->withInput();

// Set a flash message return redirect()->back()->with('foo', 'message');

// Copies all cookies from global response instance return redirect()->back()->withCookies();

// Copies all headers from the global response instance return redirect()->back()->withHeaders();

  • remove_invisible_characters($str [,$urlEncoded = TRUE])

  • route_to($method [,...$params])

  • service($name [,...$params])

  • single_service($name [,...$params])

  • slash_item($item)

  • stringify_attributes($attributes [,$js])

  • Global Constants

    • Core Constants
      • constant APPPATH
      • constant ROOTPATH
      • constant SYSTEMPATH
      • constant FCPATH
      • constant WRITEPATH

  • Time Constants

    • constant SECOND
    • constant MINUTE
    • constant HOUR
    • constant DAY
    • constant WEEK
    • constant MONTH
    • constant YEAR
    • constant DECADE

https://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/common_functions.html