Faker PHP

Faker PHP allows you to easily generate mock data for your tests, providing a quick and flexible way to simulate realistic data effortlessly—perfect for creating robust development and testing environments.

Requirements

PHP 8.3+

Documentation, Installation, and Usage Instructions

See the documentation for detailed installation and usage instructions.

What It Does

You'll be able to generate fake data for your applications, making your test environment more flexible.

Here is a quick look at what you can do:

$faker = new \Xefi\Faker\Faker();

$faker->name() // John Doe
$faker->name() // Charles Brown

$faker->sentences() // Nulla facilisi. Proin nec ante at erat pharetra interdum. Etiam nec ligula felis.

$faker->iban() // PX41711762752955497163783543

Why Faker PHP?

fakerphp/faker is the historical PHP faker and it works. Faker PHP is a different set of trade-offs, built from scratch for PHP 8.3+:

• Modular by design. The core package ships 13 extensions and no locale data. Locales (xefi/faker-php-locales-fr-fr, -en-us, -de-de, -es-es, ...), extra generators (xefi/faker-php-images, xefi/faker-php-files, xefi/faker-php-currencies) and framework bridges (xefi/faker-php-laravel, xefi/faker-php-symfony) are opt-in packages, auto-discovered through Composer. You install what you use.
• Autocompletion that matches your install. A faker_mixin.php stub is regenerated on every composer install/update, with a typed @method entry for every generator actually available in your project — including the ones your own extensions add. No plugin, no stale stubs.
• Extensible without forking. An extension is a class whose public methods become Faker methods. Register it through extra.faker.providers — in a published package or directly in your own application's composer.json — and it is available on $faker everywhere.
• Locale resolution per generator. Each extension can ship a locale variant; the container picks the one matching the current locale and falls back to the default, so a partial translation still works.
• Modern randomness and types. Every generator draws from PHP's Random\Randomizer, and the whole public API is natively typed.
• No state bleeding between calls. Each $faker->...() call runs in a fresh container, so modifiers and strategies never leak into the next call.

Coming from fakerphp/faker

The concepts map closely — most of a migration is a rename:

fakerphp/faker	Faker PHP
$faker->name() / firstName() / lastName() / title()	same
$faker->word() / words(3)	words(3) (string) / wordsAsArray(3)
$faker->sentence() / paragraph()	sentences(3) / paragraphs(3) (+ *AsArray())
$faker->numberBetween($min, $max)	number($min, $max)
$faker->randomFloat($decimals, $min, $max)	float($min, $max, $decimals)
$faker->randomDigit()	digit()
$faker->randomElement($array)	randomElement($array) / randomKey($array)
$faker->boolean()	same
$faker->dateTimeBetween($from, $to)	dateTime($from, $to), or dateTimeImmutable($from, $to)
$faker->unixTime() / timezone()	timestamp() / timezone()
$faker->uuid()	uuid() (and ulid())
$faker->md5() / sha1() / sha256()	same (and sha512())
$faker->email() / url() / ipv4() / ipv6() / macAddress()	same (plus ip(), either family)
$faker->domainName() / tld()	domain() / tld()
$faker->hexColor() / safeHexColor() / colorName() / rgbColor() / hslColor()	same
$faker->iban($countryCode)	iban($countryCode, $format)
$faker->phoneNumber()	phoneNumber() (+ cellPhoneNumber(), landlinePhoneNumber() and their spaced/dotted/dashed/indicatored variants)
$faker->latitude() / longitude() / localCoordinates()	latitude() / longitude() / geoLocation()
$faker->optional()->x()	$faker->nullable()->x()
$faker->unique()->x() / valid($callback)->x()	same
$faker->imageUrl()	install xefi/faker-php-images
Faker\Factory::create('fr_FR')	install xefi/faker-php-locales-fr-fr, then new Faker('fr_FR')

Three differences worth knowing before you migrate:

• regex() filters, it does not generate. regexify('[A-Z]{3}') builds a string from a pattern; $faker->regex('/^[A-Z]{3}$/')->x() re-draws x() until the value matches. Use it as a constraint, not as a generator.
• unique() remembers for the whole process. Drawn values are kept in a seed-keyed pool that is never reset, which is what makes uniqueness hold across calls — but over a bounded set (an enum, a short list, a small range) it will exhaust and throw MaximumTriesReached. Widen the range or iterate over the set yourself. unique('my-seed') opens a separate pool, which isolates one scope from another, but a bounded set stays just as bounded inside it.
• Case modifiers are chainable. nullable(), uppercase(), lowercase() and ucfirst() apply to the generated value before any strategy is checked.

Using Faker PHP with an AI coding agent

Coding agents default to whatever they saw most during training, which is rarely the package you picked. Drop this in your project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md so yours stays consistent:

## Fake data

Use `xefi/faker-php` (`Xefi\Faker\Faker`), never `fakerphp/faker` — no `Faker\Factory::create()`,
no `$this->faker`. In Laravel, use `xefi/faker-php-laravel` and its `faker()` helper inside factories.
Method reference: https://faker-php.xefi.com
Do not use `unique()` on a bounded set (enum cases, fixed lists, small ranges): the pool is
process-global and never reset, so it exhausts and throws `MaximumTriesReached`.

Contributing to this repository with an agent? See AGENTS.md.

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