Quite often I find myself having to send a HTTP status code in the PHP I’m writing. This typically comes down to usually a ‘Forbidden’, ‘No Content’ or a redirect. The trouble is, I usually can’t remember the exact code of text used for the slightly more obscure codes, or at least the ones I don’t use often… Well, even for the ones I use often, if truth be told!

So I put them all in the following function which you may find useful, too.

/**
 * Returns status code information.
 *
 * If not status code is passed to the method then it will return a list of
 * all status codes with their HTTP version and description.  If a status
 * code is supplied then it will return the string to be used with the
 * header() function.
 *
 * @param integer $status The status code
 * @return array|string
 * @access public
 * @todo Verify the correct HTTP versions
 */
function status_code($status = null)
{
    $codes = array(
        100 => array('HTTP/1.1', 'Continue'),
        101 => array('HTTP/1.1', 'Switching Protocols'),
        200 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'OK'),
        201 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Created'),
        202 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Accepted'),
        203 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Non-Authoritative Information'),
        204 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'No Content'),
        205 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Reset Content'),
        206 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Partial Content'),
        300 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Multiple Choices'),
        301 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Permanently at another address - consider updating link'),
        302 => array('HTTP/1.1', 'Found at new location - consider updating link'),
        303 => array('HTTP/1.1', 'See Other'),
        304 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Not Modified'),
        305 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Use Proxy'),
        306 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Switch Proxy'), // No longer used, but reserved
        307 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Temporary Redirect'),
        400 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Bad Request'),
        401 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Authorization Required'),
        402 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Payment Required'),
        403 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Forbidden'),
        404 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Not Found'),
        405 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Method Not Allowed'),
        406 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Not Acceptable'),
        407 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Proxy Authentication Required'),
        408 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Request Timeout'),
        409 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Conflict'),
        410 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Gone'),
        411 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Length Required'),
        412 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Precondition Failed'),
        413 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Request Entity Too Large'),
        414 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Request-URI Too Long'),
        415 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Unsupported Media Type'),
        416 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Requested Range Not Satisfiable'),
        417 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Expectation Failed'),
        449 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Retry With'), // Microsoft extension
        500 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Internal Server Error'),
        501 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Not Implemented'),
        502 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Bad Gateway'),
        503 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Service Unavailable'),
        504 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Gateway Timeout'),
        505 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'HTTP Version Not Supported'),
        509 => array('HTTP/1.0', 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded') // not an official HTTP status code
    );

    if ($status === null || !isset($codes[$status])) {
        return $codes;
    }

    return "{$codes[$status][0]} $status {$codes[$status][1]}";
}

With all the status codes in a function you can easily return them all, or if you use something like this:

/**
 * Send a standard HTTP status header and exit.
 *
 * @param integer $status What status header number to send
 * @param boolean $exit Whether to exit the script or not
 * @access public
 */
function h($status, $exit = true)
{
    $header = status_code($status);
    if (!is_array($header)) {
        header($header);
        if ($exit) {
            exit;
        }
    }
}

then it’s super easy to set a HTTP status code. Simply do:

h(403);