Default Classes

After installing the dependency in your project, you can generate the initial structure for helpers by running the following command:

php artisan helper:init

Helpers Folder

This will create a folder named Helpers inside the app/ directory, where you will find the standard classes suggested for creating your own helpers.

The structure of the Helpers folder will be as follows:

app/
└── Helpers/
    └── Arr.php
    └── Date.php
    └── File.php
    └── Number.php
    └── Str.php
    //...

These classes will replace the default classes exposed by the Laravel framework. For example, Illuminate\Support\Str will no longer need to be invoked. To use any of the helpers originally integrated into the framework, simply call the App\Helpers\Str class.

use App\Helpers\Str;

$string = Str::ucfirst('foo bar');

// Foo bar

Creating New Methods

In the corresponding App\Helpers\* class, you can create methods that are convenient for your project. For example, following this example, we will create a string class that brings a bit of Python flavor to PHP.

class Str extends BaseHelpers
{
    /**
     * Fill the string with zeros on the left to reach the specified length.
     *
     * @param string $input The input string.
     * @param int $width The desired width of the output string.
     * @return string The zero-filled string.
     */
    public static function zfill(string $input, int $width): string {

        /**
         * Check if the input string length is already
         * greater than or equal to the desired width
         */
        if (strlen($input) >= $width) {
            return $input;
        }

        /* Calculate the number of zeros needed */
        $zerosNeeded = $width - strlen($input);

        /* Pad the string with zeros on the left */
        return str_repeat('0', $zerosNeeded) . $input;
    }
}

You can now invoke the class whenever and wherever you need it.

use App\Helpers\Str;

Str::zfill('42', 5);
// Output: 00042