04-04-19-functions.md

title	isChild	anchor
Functions	true	functions

Functions {#functions}

Laravel comes with a lot of useful helper functions, but you can also define your own helper functions, given the following conditions:

You SHOULD place your custom helper functions by creating a file called helper.php

Good

project_folder/app/helper.php
project_folder/app/Http/helper.php

Bad

project_folder/functions.php

You MUST use Composer's autoloading capability to load your functions

Good

// file composer.json
...
"autoload": {
    "files": [
        "app/helpers.php"
    ],
...

Bad

// file app/Http/Controllers/HomeController.php

class HomeController.php
{
    function index(){
        require_once(app_path("helpers.php"));
    }
}

You MUST check if the the function exists before defining it

Good

if (! function_exists('my_custom_helper')) {
    function my_custom_helper($key, $default = null) {
        // ...
    }
}

Bad

function my_custom_helper($key, $default = null) {
    // ...
}

Other General guides with functions

• If the function length exceeds 25 lines, you SHOULD break it down to multiple functions
• Each function SHOULD have a Unit Test associated with it