PHP

Install polytypo with Composer, call Polytypo::transform and Polytypo::analyze with named arguments, catch PolytypoException codes, and see which modes PHP covers.

Updated 21 October 2026 · spec 1.12.0

PHP versions License

The PHP package is polytypo/polytypo on Packagist; the source is in polytypo/polytypo-php. It claims spec 1.8.0. The text, html and yaml modes are fully conformant. The markdown mode is not implemented for either dialect: mode: 'markdown' always raises POLYTYPO_INVALID_DIALECT, whatever dialect is given. league/commonmark, the standard PHP CommonMark library, reports no position data on inline text nodes, and the mode needs the exact source extent of every text span.

Install #

composer require polytypo/polytypo

Calling it #

Polytypo::transform($input, $locale, ...) is a static method. $input and $locale are positional and required; every later parameter is best passed as a named argument.

use Polytypo\Polytypo;

$output = Polytypo::transform($input, 'de');

// html mode
Polytypo::transform($input, 'fr', mode: 'html');

// mode 'yaml' requires the keys whose values hold prose
Polytypo::transform($input, 'en-US', mode: 'yaml', keys: ['description']);

// switch one rule off, or switch ranges on
Polytypo::transform($input, 'en-US', rules: ['dashes' => false]);
Polytypo::transform($input, 'fr', mode: 'html', rules: ['ranges' => true]);

Parameter	Notes
`$input`	The string to typeset.
`$locale`	Required. No fallback to English.
`mode:`	`'text'` (default), `'html'`, `'yaml'`. `'markdown'` raises `POLYTYPO_INVALID_DIALECT`.
`keys:`	Array of strings, required for `yaml`.
`rules:`	Array of rule id to bool. `ranges` is off unless `true`.

The contract is on Options.

Reporting without changing #

Polytypo::analyze($input, $locale, ...) takes the same parameters and returns a list of Polytypo\Change objects (ruleId, start, end, before, after) with code-point offsets, not byte offsets. See analyze.

Errors #

Every failure is a Polytypo\PolytypoException. The stable code comes from getErrorCode(); branch on it, never on the message.

use Polytypo\Polytypo;
use Polytypo\PolytypoException;

try {
    Polytypo::transform($input, 'xx');
} catch (PolytypoException $error) {
    $error->getErrorCode(); // 'POLYTYPO_UNKNOWN_LOCALE'
}

The eight codes are listed on Error codes.

Complete example #

<?php
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Polytypo\Polytypo;
use Polytypo\PolytypoException;

$input = 'She said, "it\'s fine" -- but I wasn\'t sure...';

echo Polytypo::transform($input, 'en-US'), "\n";
// She said, “it’s fine”—but I wasn’t sure…

echo Polytypo::transform($input, 'de-DE'), "\n";
// She said, „it’s fine“ – but I wasn’t sure…

echo Polytypo::transform($input, 'en-US', rules: ['dashes' => false]), "\n";
// She said, “it’s fine” -- but I wasn’t sure…

try {
    Polytypo::transform($input, 'xx');
} catch (PolytypoException $error) {
    echo $error->getErrorCode(), "\n"; // POLYTYPO_UNKNOWN_LOCALE
}

The same call, measured:

transform(input, { locale: "de-DE" })

Input

She said, "it's fine" -- but I wasn't sure...

Output

She said, „it’s fine“ – but I wasn’t sure…

Polytypo::transform is a pure static method; it keeps no mutable static state beyond memoised spec data, so it needs no synchronisation.

Conformance #

Spec 1.8.0. Modes: text, html, yaml. markdown is not implemented in either dialect. All nine rules. See spec/CONFORMANCE.md.

Conformance matrix: spec/CONFORMANCE.md.

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