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I come from update my Coder module to the v1.3 and when I go to check one custom module I see the following message:

Line 71: in most cases, replace the string function with the drupal_ equivalent string functions

$node_type = substr($form_id, 0, -10);

Line 187: in most cases, replace the string function with the drupal_ equivalent string functions

$info->language = ($info->language == 'und' || empty($info->language)) ? t('Undetermined') : ucfirst($info->language);

So, why I need to use the drupal_substr() and drupal_ucfirst() in this case? And in general why to use the drupal_ equivalent functions when we have the php functions?

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Most PHP string function don't handle unicode characters. For this you need to use their mb_* variants, which are (were?) not always available on some host. The drupal_* variants ensure unicode compatibility. They wrap mb_* functions and provide pure PHP implementations for when they are not available.

So, this recommendation is there to ensure portability of your code across hosts.

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  • This is the right answer.
    – Kevin
    Commented Sep 22, 2016 at 17:44
  • It's a rule of thumb to use the Drupal API functions instead of PHP functions when available.
    – No Sssweat
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 0:29
  • @NoSssweat Even if I don't use unicode?
    – Adrian Cid Almaguer
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 1:07
  • @AdrianCidAlmaguer I just noticed in drupal_substr() it says "the usage of PHP's normal strpos/substr is safe and much faster." Hmmm this is probably the exception to the rule of thumb.
    – No Sssweat
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 2:11
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    The complete sentence is "Note that for cutting off a string at a known character/substring location, the usage of PHP's normal strpos/substr is safe and much faster.", so that's a specific usage of the function where the original PHP function is considered safe. You always use unicode when working with Drupal as it use only UTF-8.
    – Pierre Buyle
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 19:46

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