Command line argument parser. Very convenient, you can define your switches & parameters as if you were writing the help of your program. Handles string, integer and boolean types, supports numbered arguments (not counting the switches of course), and the same function can be used for declaration and parameter querying. No dependencies.

argumentParser.php

<?php

function arg($x="",$default=null) {

    static $argtext = "";
    static $arginfo = [];

    /* helper */ $contains = function($h,$n) {return (false!==strpos($h,$n));};
    /* helper */ $valuesOf = function($s) {return explode(",",$s);};

    //  called with a multiline string --> parse arguments
    if($contains($x,"\n")) {

        //  parse multiline text input
        $argtext = $x;
        $args = $GLOBALS["argv"] ?: [];
        $rows = preg_split('/\s*\n\s*/',trim($x));
        $data = $valuesOf("char,word,type,help");
        foreach($rows as $row) {
            list($char,$word,$type,$help) = preg_split('/\s\s+/',$row);
            $char = trim($char,"-");
            $word = trim($word,"-");
            $key  = $word ?: $char ?: ""; if($key==="") continue;
            $arginfo[$key] = compact($data);
            $arginfo[$key]["value"] = null;
        }

        $nr = 0;
        while($args) {

            $x = array_shift($args); if($x[0]<>"-") {$arginfo[$nr++]["value"]=$x;continue;}
            $x = ltrim($x,"-");
            $v = null; if($contains($x,"=")) list($x,$v) = explode("=",$x,2);
            $k = "";foreach($arginfo as $k=>$arg) if(($arg["char"]==$x)||($arg["word"]==$x)) break;
            $t = $arginfo[$k]["type"];
            switch($t) {
                case "bool" : $v = true; break;
                case "str"  : if(is_null($v)) $v = array_shift($args); break;
                case "int"  : if(is_null($v)) $v = array_shift($args); $v = intval($v); break;
            }
            $arginfo[$k]["value"] = $v;

        }

        return $arginfo;

    }

    if($x==="??") {
        $help = preg_replace('/\s(bool|int|str)\s+/'," ",$argtext);
        return $help;
    }

    //  called with a question --> read argument value
    if($x==="") return $arginfo;
    if(isset($arginfo[$x]["value"])) return $arginfo[$x]["value"];
    return $default;

}



'Example';{

    //  define your arguments with a multiline string, like this:

    arg('

            -q      --quiet-mode        bool        Suppress all error messages
            -f      --filename          str         Name of your input document
            -m      --max-lines         int         Maximum number of lines to read

    ');


    //  then read any value like this:

    $maxLines = arg("max-lines",99);
    $filename = arg("filename");
    $stfuMode = arg("quiet-mode");


    //  let's see what we got

    printf("Value of --max-lines: %s\n",$maxLines);
    printf("Value of --quiet-mode: %s\n",$stfuMode);
    printf("Value of first unnamed argument: %s\n",arg(1));


}