# Faker #
Faker is a PHP library that generates fake data for you. Whether you need to bootstrap your database, create good-looking XML documents, fill-in your persistence to stress test it, or anonymize data taken from a production service, Faker is for you.
Faker is heavily inspired by Perl's [Data::Faker](http://search.cpan.org/~jasonk/Data-Faker-0.07/), and by ruby's [Faker](http://faker.rubyforge.org/).
Faker requires PHP >= 5.3.3.
[](http://travis-ci.org/fzaninotto/Faker) [](https://insight.sensiolabs.com/projects/eceb78a9-38d4-4ad5-8b6b-b52f323e3549)
## Basic Usage
Use `Faker\Factory::create()` to create and initialize a faker generator, which can generate data by accessing properties named after the type of data you want.
```php
name;
// 'Lucy Cechtelar';
echo $faker->address;
// "426 Jordy Lodge
// Cartwrightshire, SC 88120-6700"
echo $faker->text;
// Sint velit eveniet. Rerum atque repellat voluptatem quia rerum. Numquam excepturi
// beatae sint laudantium consequatur. Magni occaecati itaque sint et sit tempore. Nesciunt
// amet quidem. Iusto deleniti cum autem ad quia aperiam.
// A consectetur quos aliquam. In iste aliquid et aut similique suscipit. Consequatur qui
// quaerat iste minus hic expedita. Consequuntur error magni et laboriosam. Aut aspernatur
// voluptatem sit aliquam. Dolores voluptatum est.
// Aut molestias et maxime. Fugit autem facilis quos vero. Eius quibusdam possimus est.
// Ea quaerat et quisquam. Deleniti sunt quam. Adipisci consequatur id in occaecati.
// Et sint et. Ut ducimus quod nemo ab voluptatum.
```
Even if this example shows a property access, each call to `$faker->name` yields a different (random) result. This is because Faker uses `__get()` magic, and forwards `Faker\Generator->$property` calls to `Faker\Generator->format($property)`.
```php
name, "\n";
}
// Adaline Reichel
// Dr. Santa Prosacco DVM
// Noemy Vandervort V
// Lexi O'Conner
// Gracie Weber
// Roscoe Johns
// Emmett Lebsack
// Keegan Thiel
// Wellington Koelpin II
// Ms. Karley Kiehn V
```
## Formatters
Each of the generator properties (like `name`, `address`, and `lorem`) are called "formatters". A faker generator has many of them, packaged in "providers". Here is a list of the bundled formatters in the default locale.
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\Person`
prefix // 'Ms.'
suffix // 'Jr.'
name // 'Dr. Zane Stroman'
firstName // 'Maynard'
lastName // 'Zulauf'
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\Address`
cityPrefix // 'Lake'
secondaryAddress // 'Suite 961'
state // 'NewMexico'
stateAbbr // 'OH'
citySuffix // 'borough'
streetSuffix // 'Keys'
buildingNumber // '484'
city // 'West Judge'
streetName // 'Keegan Trail'
streetAddress // '439 Karley Loaf Suite 897'
postcode // '17916'
address // '8888 Cummings Vista Apt. 101, Susanbury, NY 95473'
country // 'Falkland Islands (Malvinas)'
latitude // '77.147489'
longitude // '86.211205'
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\PhoneNumber`
phoneNumber // '132-149-0269x3767'
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\Company`
catchPhrase // 'Monitored regional contingency'
bs // 'e-enable robust architectures'
company // 'Bogan-Treutel'
companySuffix // 'and Sons'
### `Faker\Provider\Payment`
creditCardType // 'MasterCard'
creditCardNumber // '4485480221084675'
creditCardExpirationDate // 04/13
creditCardExpirationDateString // '04/13'
creditCardDetails // array('MasterCard', '4485480221084675', 'Aleksander Nowak', '04/13')
### `Faker\Provider\Lorem`
word // 'aut'
words($nb = 3) // array('porro', 'sed', 'magni')
sentence($nbWords = 6) // 'Sit vitae voluptas sint non voluptates.'
sentences($nb = 3) // array('Optio quos qui illo error.', 'Laborum vero a officia id corporis.', 'Saepe provident esse hic eligendi.')
paragraph($nbSentences = 3) // 'Ut ab voluptas sed a nam. Sint autem inventore aut officia aut aut blanditiis. Ducimus eos odit amet et est ut eum.'
paragraphs($nb = 3) // array('Quidem ut sunt et quidem est accusamus aut. Fuga est placeat rerum ut. Enim ex eveniet facere sunt.', 'Aut nam et eum architecto fugit repellendus illo. Qui ex esse veritatis.', 'Possimus omnis aut incidunt sunt. Asperiores incidunt iure sequi cum culpa rem. Rerum exercitationem est rem.')
text($maxNbChars = 200) // 'Fuga totam reiciendis qui architecto fugiat nemo. Consequatur recusandae qui cupiditate eos quod.'
### `Faker\Provider\Internet`
email // 'tkshlerin@collins.com'
safeEmail // 'king.alford@example.org'
freeEmail // 'bradley72@gmail.com'
companyEmail // 'russel.durward@mcdermott.org'
freeEmailDomain // 'yahoo.com'
safeEmailDomain // 'example.org'
userName // 'wade55'
domainName // 'wolffdeckow.net'
domainWord // 'feeney'
tld // 'biz'
url // 'http://www.strackeframi.com/'
ipv4 // '109.133.32.252'
ipv6 // '8e65:933d:22ee:a232:f1c1:2741:1f10:117c'
### `Faker\Provider\DateTime`
unixTime // 58781813
dateTime // DateTime('2008-04-25 08:37:17')
dateTimeAD // DateTime('1800-04-29 20:38:49')
iso8601 // '1978-12-09T10:10:29+0000'
date($format = 'Y-m-d') // '1979-06-09'
time($format = 'H:i:s') // '20:49:42'
dateTimeBetween($startDate = '-30 years', $endDate = 'now') // DateTime('2003-03-15 02:00:49')
dateTimeThisCentury // DateTime('1915-05-30 19:28:21')
dateTimeThisDecade // DateTime('2007-05-29 22:30:48')
dateTimeThisYear // DateTime('2011-02-27 20:52:14')
dateTimeThisMonth // DateTime('2011-10-23 13:46:23')
amPm // 'pm'
dayOfMonth // '04'
dayOfWeek // 'Friday'
month // '06'
monthName // 'January'
year // '1993'
century // 'VI'
timezone // 'Europe/Paris'
### `Faker\Provider\Miscellaneous`
boolean($chanceOfGettingTrue = 50) // true
md5 // 'de99a620c50f2990e87144735cd357e7'
sha1 // 'f08e7f04ca1a413807ebc47551a40a20a0b4de5c'
sha256 // '0061e4c60dac5c1d82db0135a42e00c89ae3a333e7c26485321f24348c7e98a5'
locale // en_UK
countryCode // UK
languageCode // en
### `Faker\Provider\Base`
randomDigit // 7
randomDigitNotNull // 5
randomNumber($nbDigits = NULL) // 79907610
randomNumber($from, $to) // 39049
randomFloat($nbMaxDecimals = NULL, $min = 0, $max = NULL) // 48.8932
randomLetter // 'b'
randomElement($array = array ('a','b','c')) // 'b'
numerify($string = '###') // '609'
lexify($string = '????') // 'wgts'
bothify($string = '## ??') // '42 jz'
### `Faker\Provider\UserAgent`
userAgent // 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows CE) AppleWebKit/5350 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/13.0.888.0 Safari/5350'
chrome // 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; PPC Mac OS X 10_6_5) AppleWebKit/5312 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.894.0 Safari/5312'
firefox // 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linuxi686; rv:7.0) Gecko/20101231 Firefox/3.6'
safari // 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_7_1 rv:3.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/534.11.3'
opera // 'Opera/8.25 (Windows NT 5.1; en-US) Presto/2.9.188 Version/10.00'
internetExplorer // 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Trident/3.0)'
### `Faker\Provider\Uuid`
uuid // '7e57d004-2b97-0e7a-b45f-5387367791cd'
### `Faker\Provider\File`
fileExtension // 'avi'
mimeType // 'video/x-msvideo'
### `Faker\Provider\Color`
hexcolor // '#fa3cc2'
rgbcolor // '0,255,122'
rgbColorAsArray // array(0,255,122)
rgbCssColor // 'rgb(0,255,122)'
safeColorName // 'fuchsia'
colorName // 'Gainsbor'
### `Faker\Provider\Image`
/**
* Image generation provided by LoremPixel (http://lorempixel.com/)
*
* @param $dir An absolute path to a local directory
* @param $width/$height Size (in pixel) of the generated image (defaults to 640x480)
* @param $category One of 'abstract','animals','business','cats','city','food','nightlife','fashion','people','nature','sports','technics', and 'transport'
*/
image($dir) // '/path/to/dir/13b73edae8443990be1aa8f1a483bc27.jpg'
image($dir, $width, $height) // '/path/to/dir/13b73edae8443990be1aa8f1a483bc27.jpg'
image($dir, $width, $height, $category) // '/path/to/dir/13b73edae8443990be1aa8f1a483bc27.jpg'
imageUrl // 'http://lorempixel.com/640/480/'
imageUrl($width, $height) // 'http://lorempixel.com/800/600/'
imageUrl($width, $height, $category) // 'http://lorempixel.com/800/600/person/'
### `Faker\Provider\Payment`
creditCardType // 'MasterCard'
creditCardNumber($type = null) // '4485480221084675'
creditCardExpirationDate($valid = true) // DateTime('2014-10-23 13:46:23')
creditCardExpirationDateString($valid = true) // '10/14'
## Unique and Optional modifiers
Faker provides two special providers, `unique()` and `optional()`, to be called before any provider. `optional()` can be useful for seeding non-required fields, like a mobile telephone number ; `unique()` is required to populate fields that cannot accept twice the same value, like primary identifiers.
```php
// unique() forces providers to return unique values
$values = array();
for ($i=0; $i < 10; $i++) {
// get a random digit, but always a new one, to avoid duplicates
$values []= $faker->unique()->randomDigit;
}
print_r($values); // [4, 1, 8, 5, 0, 2, 6, 9, 7, 3]
// providers with a limited range will throw an exception when no new unique value can be generated
$values = array();
try {
for ($i=0; $i < 10; $i++) {
$values []= $faker->unique()->randomDigitNotNull;
}
} catch (\OverflowException $e) {
echo "There are only 9 unique digits not null, Faker can't generate 10 of them!";
}
// you can reset the unique modifier for all providers by passing true as first argument
$faker->unique($reset = true)->randomDigitNotNull; // will not throw OverflowException since unique() was reset
// tip: unique() keeps one array of values per provider
// optional() sometimes bypasses the provider to return null instead
$values = array();
for ($i=0; $i < 10; $i++) {
// get a random digit, but also null sometimes
$values []= $faker->optional()->randomDigit;
}
print_r($values); // [1, 4, null, 9, 5, null, null, 4, 6, null]
// optional takes a weight argument to make the null occurrence impossible (value 0) or systematic (value 1)
$faker->optional($weight = 0.1)->randomDigit; // 10% chance to get null
$faker->optional($weight = 0.9)->randomDigit; // 90% chance to get null
// the default $weight value is 0.5
```
## Localization
`Faker\Factory` can take a locale as an argument, to return localized data. If no localized provider is found, the factory fallbacks to the default locale (en_EN).
```php
name, "\n";
}
// Luce du Coulon
// Auguste Dupont
// Roger Le Voisin
// Alexandre Lacroix
// Jacques Humbert-Roy
// Thérèse Guillet-Andre
// Gilles Gros-Bodin
// Amélie Pires
// Marcel Laporte
// Geneviève Marchal
```
You can check available Faker locales in the source code, [under the `Provider` directory](https://github.com/fzaninotto/Faker/tree/master/src/Faker/Provider). The localization of Faker is an ongoing process, for which we need your help. Don't hesitate to create localized providers to your own locale and submit a PR!
## Populating Entities Using an ORM or an ODM
Faker provides adapters for Object-Relational and Object-Document Mappers (currently, [Propel](http://www.propelorm.org), [Doctrine2](http://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/orm/2.0/docs/en), and [Mandango](https://github.com/mandango/mandango) are supported). These adapters ease the population of databases through the Entity classes provided by an ORM library (or the population of document stores using Document classes provided by an ODM library).
To populate entities, create a new populator class (using a generator instance as parameter), then list the class and number of all the entities that must be generated. To launch the actual data population, call the `execute()` method.
Here is an example showing how to populate 5 `Author` and 10 `Book` objects:
```php
addEntity('Author', 5);
$populator->addEntity('Book', 10);
$insertedPKs = $populator->execute();
```
The populator uses name and column type guessers to populate each column with relevant data. For instance, Faker populates a column named `first_name` using the `firstName` formatter, and a column with a `TIMESTAMP` type using the `dateTime` formatter. The resulting entities are therefore coherent. If Faker misinterprets a column name, you can still specify a custom closure to be used for populating a particular column, using the third argument to `addEntity()`:
```php
addEntity('Book', 5, array(
'ISBN' => function() use ($generator) { return $generator->randomNumber(13); }
));
```
In this example, Faker will guess a formatter for all columns except `ISBN`, for which the given anonymous function will be used.
**Tip**: To ignore some columns, specify `null` for the column names in the third argument of `addEntity()`. This is usually necessary for columns added by a behavior:
```php
addEntity('Book', 5, array(
'CreatedAt' => null,
'UpdatedAt' => null,
));
```
Of course, Faker does not populate autoincremented primary keys. In addition, `Faker\ORM\Propel\Populator::execute()` returns the list of inserted PKs, indexed by class:
```php
(34, 35, 36, 37, 38),
// 'Book' => (456, 457, 458, 459, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475)
// )
```
In the previous example, the `Book` and `Author` models share a relationship. Since `Author` entities are populated first, Faker is smart enough to relate the populated `Book` entities to one of the populated `Author` entities.
Lastly, if you want to execute an arbitrary function on an entity before insertion, use the fourth argument of the `addEntity()` method:
```php
addEntity('Book', 5, array(), array(
function($book) { $book->publish(); },
));
```
## Seeding the Generator
You may want to get always the same generated data - for instance when using Faker for unit testing purposes. The generator offers a `seed()` method, which seeds the random number generator. Calling the same script twice with the same seed produces the same results.
```php
seed(1234);
echo $faker->name; // 'Jess Mraz I';
```
## Faker Internals: Understanding Providers
A `Faker\Generator` alone can't do much generation. It needs `Faker\Provider` objects to delegate the data generation to them. `Faker\Factory::create()` actually creates a `Faker\Generator` bundled with the default providers. Here is what happens under the hood:
```php
addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Person($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Address($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\PhoneNumber($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Company($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\Lorem($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\Internet($faker));
````
Whenever you try to access a property on the `$faker` object, the generator looks for a method with the same name in all the providers attached to it. For instance, calling `$faker->name` triggers a call to `Faker\Provider\Person::name()`. And since Faker starts with the last provider, you can easily override existing formatters: just add a provider containing methods named after the formatters you want to override.
That means that you can easily add your own providers to a `Faker\Generator` instance. A provider is usually a class extending `\Faker\Provider\Base`. This parent class allows you to use methods like `lexify()` or `randomNumber()`; it also gives you access to formatters of other providers, through the protected `$generator` property. The new formatters are the public methods of the provider class.
Here is an example provider for populating Book data:
```php
generator->sentence($nbWords);
return substr($sentence, 0, strlen($sentence) - 1);
}
public function ISBN()
{
return $this->generator->randomNumber(13);
}
}
```
To register this provider, just add a new instance of `\Faker\Provider\Book` to an existing generator:
```php
addProvider(new \Faker\Provider\Book($faker));
```
Now you can use the two new formatters like any other Faker formatter:
```php
setTitle($faker->title);
$book->setISBN($faker->ISBN);
$book->setSummary($faker->text);
$book->setPrice($faker->randomNumber(2));
```
**Tip**: A provider can also be a Plain Old PHP Object. In that case, all the public methods of the provider become available to the generator.
## Real Life Usage
The following script generates a valid XML document:
```php
boolean(25)): ?>
streetAddress ?>
city ?>
postcode ?>
state ?>
boolean(33)): ?>
bs ?>
boolean(33)): ?>
boolean(15)): ?>
text(400) ?>
]]>
```
Running this script produces a document looking like:
```xml
182 Harrison Cove
North Lloyd
45577
Alabama
orchestrate compelling web-readiness
90111 Hegmann Inlet
South Geovanymouth
69961-9311
Colorado
9791 Nona Corner
Harberhaven
74062-8191
RhodeIsland
11161 Schultz Via
Feilstad
98019
NewJersey
6106 Nader Village Suite 753
McLaughlinstad
43189-8621
Missouri
expedite viral synergies
7546 Kuvalis Plaza
South Wilfrid
77069
Georgia
478 Daisha Landing Apt. 510
West Lizethhaven
30566-5362
WestVirginia
orchestrate dynamic networks
1251 Koelpin Mission
North Revastad
81620
Maryland
6396 Langworth Hills Apt. 446
New Carlos
89399-0268
Wyoming
2246 Kreiger Station Apt. 291
Kaydenmouth
11397-1072
Wyoming
grow sticky portals
```
## Language specific formatters
### `Faker\Provider\fr_FR\Company`
```php
siren; // 082 250 104
// Generates a random SIRET number
echo $faker->siret; // 347 355 708 00224
// Generates a random SIRET number (controlling the number of sequential digits)
echo $faker->siret(3); // 438 472 611 01513
```
### `Faker\Provider\fr_FR\Address`
```php
departmentName; // "Haut-Rhin"
// Generates a random department number
echo $faker->departmentNumber; // "2B"
// Generates a random department info (department number => department name)
$faker->department; // array('18' => 'Cher');
// Generates a random region
echo $faker->region; // "Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon"
```
### `Faker\Provider\da_DK\Person`
```php
cpr; // "051280-2387"
```
### `Faker\Provider\da_DK\Address`
```php
kommune; // "Frederiksberg"
// Generates a random region name
echo $faker->region; // "Region Sjælland"
```
### `Faker\Provider\da_DK\Company`
```php
cvr; // "32458723"
// Generates a random P number
echo $faker->p; // "5398237590"
```
### `Faker\Provider\pl_PL\Person`
```php
pesel; // "40061451555"
// Generates a random personal identity card number
echo $faker->personalIdentityNumber; // "AKX383360"
// Generates a random taxpayer identification number (NIP)
echo $faker->taxpayerIdentificationNumber; // '8211575109'
```
### `Faker\Provider\pl_PL\Company`
```php
regon; // "714676680"
// Generates a random local REGON number
echo $faker->regonLocal; // "15346111382836"
```
### `Faker\Provider\pl_PL\Payment`
```php
bank; // "Narodowy Bank Polski"
// Generates a random bank account number
echo $faker->bankAccountNumber; // "PL14968907563953822118075816"
```
## License
Faker is released under the MIT Licence. See the bundled LICENSE file for details.