Challenge: Data Manipulation of Foreign Function Interface in PHP

This challenge will extensively test your understanding of the new PHP 8 feature of making direct C-language calls. We will use these concepts to establish a connection between C and PHP languages.

Task

Use the FFI extension in PHP to work with C data types and functions. It allows you to allocate and populate arrays of characters (char) using FFI, perform byte-level comparisons between arrays, and obtain information about the size and alignment of the allocated arrays.

Instructions

Fulfill the following to complete the challenge:

• Use the FFI new() method to initialize four character arrays with a length of 6.

• Use $populate function to populate the arrays with random ASCII values.

• Print out the arrays using printf() and other FFI methods.

• Use FFI comparison methods to compare the values of the arrays, both for the full length of the arrays and for a shorter length.

• Finally, use FFI infrastructural methods to get the size and alignment of the arrays.

Coding playground

Attempt the challenge in the coding playground below. Good luck!