Using Faker to Generate Filler Data for Automated Testing

The development of many websites and applications requires various types of data to simulate how real life works. During the testing and development stages of a project, we often use fake data to fill databases, UI elements, and so on.

Writing your own code to generate fake data for your project can be very cumbersome. In this tutorial, you will learn how to generate fake data using the proven Faker library in PHP.

Beginner

I want to clarify a few points before continuing.

The original fake library was fzaninotto/Faker. However, it was archived by the owner on December 11, 2020. Now, the library branch called FakerPHP/Faker is continuing its development work. If you are trying to decide which one you should use in your project, select FakerPHP.

Faker from FakerPHP requires that your PHP version be greater than or equal to 7.4. This is in contrast to PHP >= 5.3.3 supported by the original library.

From now on, all references to Faker in this tutorial will refer to newer branch versions.

You can install Faker using composer by running the following command:

<code>composer require fakerphp/faker</code>

This will create a composer.json file for you and install all the required packages in the vendor directory.

After the installation is complete, you can start using the library in your project by adding these two lines to your code:

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();

The first line includes the faker library in our project.

In the second line, we initialize a faker generator using a call to the static Factory class of the Generator instance, which we can use to generate various fake data.

Generate false names, addresses and phone numbers

Provider object is used to generate random data. Calls to the Generator instance that we bundled with the default provider.

The default provider generates name, address, phone number, company details, etc. based on the United States. These calls add providers in the background:

$faker = new Faker\Generator();
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Person($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Address($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\PhoneNumber($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\en_US\Company($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\Lorem($faker));
$faker->addProvider(new Faker\Provider\Internet($faker));

You can generate fake names in the faker by simply calling the name attribute. Each call will output a different random name. Here is an example:

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();

$fake_names = [];
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++){
    $fake_names[] = $faker->name;
}

/*
Array
(
    [0] => Gabe Mann Jr.
    [1] => Lazaro Leuschke
    [2] => Angie Welch Sr.
    [3] => Prof. Kirk Krajcik III
    [4] => Sadye Mosciski
    [5] => Danyka Braun
    [6] => Jacinthe Dickinson
    [7] => Clifton Beahan
    [8] => Dr. Jan Casper MD
    [9] => Adelia Schimmel
)
*/
print_r($fake_names);

If you are not interested in your full name, you can also request only your first or last name.

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();

$first_names = [];
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++){
    $first_names[] = $faker->firstName;
}

// Outputs: Dylan, Ariane, Doris, Reilly, Jamar, Merl, Maverick, Frederik, Lucius, Madyson
echo implode(', ', $first_names);

Suppose you only need male or female names. In this case, you can simply call the firstNameMale() and address() methods or access phoneNumber(), phoneNumberWithExtension().

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();

/*
Phone Number: +1-724-494-3101
Phone Number (Extension): (475) 499-3999 x9969
Phone Number (Toll Free): 855.618.0155

Phone Number: 1-660-934-8668
Phone Number (Extension): 351-533-3301 x1602
Phone Number (Toll Free): 844-530-4671
*/
for($i = 0; $i < 2; $i++){
    echo "Phone Number: ".$faker->phoneNumber()."\n";
    echo "Phone Number (Extension): ".$faker->phoneNumberWithExtension()."\n";
    echo "Phone Number (Toll Free): ".$faker->tollFreePhoneNumber()."\n\n";
}

Generate fake details specific to locale settings

Suppose you are developing an application that is targeted at a specific region. In this case, you may want to use data that reflects the target market. For example, an application for Nigerians will benefit from owning a Nigerian name. Similarly, applications for Indian users may wish to use Indian addresses.

The trick to generate locale-specific data is to pass the locale to the randomNumber() method, which by default generates a random number with a specified number of digits. You can pass the unixTime() method to get the Unix timestamp value between 0 and the current time or the specified time. Random dateTime() methods can also be generated. Again, the default maximum is the current date and time.

If you want to generate the dateTimeAD() method, it returns the date between January 1, 1, and the given maximum value.

You can use the time() method to generate random dates and times in a specific format.

Suppose you need to get the dateTimeBetween() method.

<code>composer require fakerphp/faker</code>

Generate tags using fake data

Now that we know how to use Faker to generate different types of numeric values, we can combine their results to create XML or HTML documents, fill the database with numeric values, and so on. For example, consider the following code, which generates random configuration files for different people.

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();

After generating random values, you can do anything to them. In this case, we output them in the Base class to generate the data type we want. If you are looking for a library that generates random data, Faker is definitely worth a try.

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