HTTP status codes

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.

[php]/**
* 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]}”;
}[/php]

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

[php]/**
* 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;
}
}
}[/php]

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

[php]h(403);[/php]