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](https://rubygems.org/gems/faker).
- [Language specific formatters](#language-specific-formatters)
- [Third-Party Libraries Extending/Based On Faker](#third-party-libraries-extendingbased-on-faker)
- [License](#license)
## Installation
```sh
composer require fzaninotto/faker
```
## 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
<?php
// require the Faker autoloader
require_once '/path/to/Faker/src/autoload.php';
// alternatively, use another PSR-0 compliant autoloader (like the Symfony2 ClassLoader for instance)
// use the factory to create a Faker\Generator instance
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();
// generate data by accessing properties
echo $faker->name;
// 'Lucy Cechtelar';
echo $faker->address;
// "426 Jordy Lodge
// Cartwrightshire, SC 88120-6700"
echo $faker->text;
// Dolores sit sint laboriosam dolorem culpa et autem. Beatae nam sunt fugit
// et sit et mollitia sed.
// Fuga deserunt tempora facere magni omnis. Omnis quia temporibus laudantium
// sit minima sint.
```
Even if this example shows a property access, each call to `$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
<?php
for ($i=0; $i <10;$i++){
echo $faker->name, "\n";
}
// Adaline Reichel
// Dr. Santa Prosacco DVM
// Noemy Vandervort V
// Lexi O'Conner
// Gracie Weber
// Roscoe Johns
// Emmett Lebsack
// Keegan Thiel
// Wellington Koelpin II
// Ms. Karley Kiehn V
```
**Tip**: For a quick generation of fake data, you can also use Faker as a command line tool thanks to [faker-cli](https://github.com/bit3/faker-cli).
## Formatters
Each of the generator properties (like `name`, `address`, and `lorem`) are called "formatters". A faker generator has many of them, packaged in "providers". Here is a list of the bundled formatters in the default locale.
sentence($nbWords = 6, $variableNbWords = true) // 'Sit vitae voluptas sint non voluptates.'
sentences($nb = 3, $asText = false) // array('Optio quos qui illo error.', 'Laborum vero a officia id corporis.', 'Saepe provident esse hic eligendi.')
paragraph($nbSentences = 3, $variableNbSentences = true) // 'Ut ab voluptas sed a nam. Sint autem inventore aut officia aut aut blanditiis. Ducimus eos odit amet et est ut eum.'
paragraphs($nb = 3, $asText = false) // array('Quidem ut sunt et quidem est accusamus aut. Fuga est placeat rerum ut. Enim ex eveniet facere sunt.', 'Aut nam et eum architecto fugit repellendus illo. Qui ex esse veritatis.', 'Possimus omnis aut incidunt sunt. Asperiores incidunt iure sequi cum culpa rem. Rerum exercitationem est rem.')
text($maxNbChars = 200) // 'Fuga totam reiciendis qui architecto fugiat nemo. Consequatur recusandae qui cupiditate eos quod.'
address // '8888 Cummings Vista Apt. 101, Susanbury, NY 95473'
country // 'Falkland Islands (Malvinas)'
latitude($min = -90, $max = 90) // 77.147489
longitude($min = -180, $max = 180) // 86.211205
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\PhoneNumber`
phoneNumber // '201-886-0269 x3767'
tollFreePhoneNumber // '(888) 937-7238'
e164PhoneNumber // '+27113456789'
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\Company`
catchPhrase // 'Monitored regional contingency'
bs // 'e-enable robust architectures'
company // 'Bogan-Treutel'
companySuffix // 'and Sons'
jobTitle // 'Cashier'
### `Faker\Provider\en_US\Text`
realText($maxNbChars = 200, $indexSize = 2) // "And yet I wish you could manage it?) 'And what are they made of?' Alice asked in a shrill, passionate voice. 'Would YOU like cats if you were never even spoke to Time!' 'Perhaps not,' Alice replied."
Methods accepting a `$timezone` argument default to `date_default_timezone_get()`. You can pass a custom timezone string to each method, or define a custom timezone for all time methods at once using `$faker::setDefaultTimezone($timezone)`.
//Generate HTML document which is no more than 2 levels deep, and no more than 3 elements wide at any level.
randomHtml(2,3) // <html><head><title>Aut illo dolorem et accusantium eum.</title></head><body><formaction="example.com"method="POST"><labelfor="username">sequi</label><inputtype="text"id="username"><labelfor="password">et</label><inputtype="password"id="password"></form><b>Id aut saepe non mollitia voluptas voluptas.</b><table><thead><tr><tr>Non consequatur.</tr><tr>Incidunt est.</tr><tr>Aut voluptatem.</tr><tr>Officia voluptas rerum quo.</tr><tr>Asperiores similique.</tr></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Sapiente dolorum dolorem sint laboriosam commodi qui.</td><td>Commodi nihil nesciunt eveniet quo repudiandae.</td><td>Voluptates explicabo numquam distinctio necessitatibus repellat.</td><td>Provident ut doloremque nam eum modi aspernatur.</td><td>Iusto inventore.</td></tr><tr><td>Animi nihil ratione id mollitia libero ipsa quia tempore.</td><td>Velit est officia et aut tenetur dolorem sed mollitia expedita.</td><td>Modi modi repudiandae pariatur voluptas rerum ea incidunt non molestiae eligendi eos deleniti.</td><td>Exercitationem voluptatibus dolor est iste quod molestiae.</td><td>Quia reiciendis.</td></tr><tr><td>Inventore impedit exercitationem voluptatibus rerum cupiditate.</td><td>Qui.</td><td>Aliquam.</td><td>Autem nihil aut et.</td><td>Dolor ut quia error.</td></tr><tr><td>Enim facilis iusto earum et minus rerum assumenda quis quia.</td><td>Reprehenderit ut sapiente occaecati voluptatum dolor voluptatem vitae qui velit.</td><td>Quod fugiat non.</td><td>Sunt nobis totam mollitia sed nesciunt est deleniti cumque.</td><td>Repudiandae quo.</td></tr><tr><td>Modi dicta libero quisquam doloremque qui autem.</td><td>Voluptatem aliquid saepe laudantium facere eos sunt dolor.</td><td>Est eos quis laboriosam officia expedita repellendus quia natus.</td><td>Et neque delectus quod fugit enim repudiandae qui.</td><td>Fugit soluta sit facilis facere repellat culpa magni voluptatem maiores tempora.</td></tr><tr><td>Enim dolores doloremque.</td><td>Assumenda voluptatem eum perferendis exercitationem.</td><td>Quasi in fugit deserunt ea perferendis sunt nemo consequatur dolorum soluta.</td><td>Maxime repellat qui numquam voluptatem est modi.</td><td>Alias rerum rerum hic hic eveniet.</td></tr><tr><td>Tempore voluptatem.</td><td>Eaque.</td><td>Et sit quas fugit iusto.</td><td>Nemo nihil rerum dignissimos et esse.</td><td>Repudiandae ipsum numquam.</td></tr><tr><td>Nemo sunt quia.</td><td>Sint tempore est neque ducimus harum sed.</td><td>Dicta placeat atque libero nihil.</td><td>Et qui aperiam temporibus facilis eum.</td><td>Ut dolores qui enim et maiores nesciunt.</td></tr><tr><td>Dolorum totam sint debitis saepe laborum.</td><td>Quidem corrupti ea.</td><td>Cum voluptas quod.</td><td>Possimus consequatur quasi dolorem ut et.</td><td>Et velit non hic labore repudiandae quis.</td></tr></tbody></table></body></html>
## Modifiers
Faker provides three special providers, `unique()`, `optional()`, and `valid()`, to be called before any provider.
```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
If you would like to use a modifier with a value not generated by Faker, use the `passthrough()` method. `passthrough()` simply returns whatever value it was given.
`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_US).
```php
<?php
$faker = Faker\Factory::create('fr_FR'); // create a French faker
for ($i=0; $i <10;$i++){
echo $faker->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://docs.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm/en/latest/), [CakePHP](http://cakephp.org), [Spot2](https://github.com/vlucas/spot2), [Mandango](https://github.com/mandango/mandango) and [Eloquent](https://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent) 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
<?php
$generator = \Faker\Factory::create();
$populator = new Faker\ORM\Propel\Populator($generator);
$populator->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
<?php
$populator->addEntity('Book', 5, array(
'ISBN' => function() use ($generator) { return $generator->ean13(); }
));
```
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
<?php
$populator->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:
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
<?php
$populator->addEntity('Book', 5, array(), array(
function($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
<?php
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();
$faker->seed(1234);
echo $faker->name; // 'Jess Mraz I';
```
> **Tip**: DateTime formatters won't reproduce the same fake data if you don't fix the `$max` value:
>
> ```php
> <?php
> // even when seeded, this line will return different results because $max varies
> $faker->dateTime(); // equivalent to $faker->dateTime($max = 'now')
> // make sure you fix the $max parameter
> $faker->dateTime('2014-02-25 08:37:17'); // will return always the same date when seeded
> ```
>
> **Tip**: Formatters won't reproduce the same fake data if you use the `rand()` php function. Use `$faker` or `mt_rand()` instead:
>
> ```php
> <?php
> // bad
> $faker->realText(rand(10,20));
> // good
> $faker->realText($faker->numberBetween(10,20));
> ```
## 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:
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:
Alias accusantium voluptatum autem nobis cumque neque modi. Voluptatem error molestiae consequatur alias.
Illum commodi molestiae aut repellat id. Et sit consequuntur aut et ullam asperiores. Cupiditate culpa voluptatem et mollitia dolor. Nisi praesentium qui ut.
<companyname="Lebsack, Bernhard and Kiehn"catchPhrase="Persevering actuating framework">
<offer>grow sticky portals</offer>
</company>
<details>
<![CDATA[
Quia dolor ut quia error libero. Enim facilis iusto earum et minus rerum assumenda. Quia doloribus et reprehenderit ut. Occaecati voluptatum dolor voluptatem vitae qui velit quia.
Fugiat non in itaque sunt nobis totam. Sed nesciunt est deleniti cumque alias. Repudiandae quo aut numquam modi dicta libero.
]]>
</details>
</contact>
</contacts>
```
## Language specific formatters
### `Faker\Provider\ar_SA\Person`
```php
<?php
echo $faker->idNumber; // ID number
echo $faker->nationalIdNumber // Citizen ID number
echo $faker->foreignerIdNumber // Foreigner ID number
* [BazingaFakerBundle](https://github.com/willdurand/BazingaFakerBundle): Put the awesome Faker library into the Symfony2 DIC and populate your database with fake data.
* [AliceBundle](https://github.com/hautelook/AliceBundle), [AliceFixturesBundle](https://github.com/h4cc/AliceFixturesBundle): Bundles for using [Alice](https://packagist.org/packages/nelmio/alice) and Faker with data fixtures. Able to use Doctrine ORM as well as Doctrine MongoDB ODM.
* [FakerServiceProvider](https://github.com/EmanueleMinotto/FakerServiceProvider): Faker Service Provider for Silex
* [faker-cli](https://github.com/bit3/faker-cli): Command Line Tool for the Faker PHP library
* [Factory Muffin](https://github.com/thephpleague/factory-muffin): enable the rapid creation of objects (PHP port of factory-girl)
* [CompanyNameGenerator](https://github.com/fzaninotto/CompanyNameGenerator): Generate names for English tech companies with class
* [PlaceholdItProvider](https://github.com/EmanueleMinotto/PlaceholdItProvider): Generate images using placehold.it
* [datalea](https://github.com/spyrit/datalea) A highly customizable random test data generator web app
* [newage-ipsum](https://github.com/frequenc1/newage-ipsum): A new aged ipsum provider for the faker library inspired by http://sebpearce.com/bullshit/
* [xml-faker](https://github.com/prewk/xml-faker): Create fake XML with Faker
* [faker-context](https://github.com/denheck/faker-context): Behat context using Faker to generate testdata
* [CronExpressionGenerator](https://github.com/swekaj/CronExpressionGenerator): Faker provider for generating random, valid cron expressions.
* [pragmafabrik/Pomm2Faker](https://github.com/pragmafabrik/Pomm2Faker): Faker client for Pomm database framework (PostgreSQL)
* [nelmio/alice](https://packagist.org/packages/nelmio/alice): Fixtures/object generator with a yaml DSL that can use Faker as data generator.
* [CakePHP 2.x Fake Seeder Plugin](https://github.com/ravage84/cakephp-fake-seeder) A CakePHP 2.x shell to seed your database with fake and/or fixed data.
* [images-generator](https://github.com/bruceheller/images-generator): An image generator provider using GD for placeholder type pictures
* [pattern-lab/plugin-php-faker](https://github.com/pattern-lab/plugin-php-faker): Pattern Lab is a Styleguide, Component Library, and Prototyping tool. This creates unique content each time Pattern Lab is generated.
* [guidocella/eloquent-populator](https://github.com/guidocella/eloquent-populator): Adapter for Laravel's Eloquent ORM.
* [tamperdata/exiges](https://github.com/tamperdata/exiges): Faker provider for generating random temperatures
