libphonenumber for PHP is a PHP library for parsing, formatting, storing, and validating international phone numbers.
The library solves the problem of handling phone numbers across different countries and formats by providing a PHP port of Google's libphonenumber. It parses phone number strings into structured objects, validates them against country-specific rules, and formats them for display or storage. The tool handles the complexity of international dialing conventions, area codes, and number patterns that vary by region.
Developers should choose this library if they need robust phone number validation and formatting in PHP applications serving international users. It suits projects ranging from user registration systems to telecommunications platforms. The README mentions a lighter variant for projects that only need core phone number parsing without additional features like geocoding or carrier mapping. Beyond basic validation, the tool offers geocoding to map numbers to locations, carrier identification, timezone mapping, and short number information for emergency and service numbers.
The project maintains alignment with Google's libphonenumber versioning rather than semantic versioning, meaning major version bumps may not indicate breaking changes. The library supports PHP versions within the official support window without requiring major version updates to track PHP releases. Development includes continuous integration testing and code coverage tracking. The project provides comprehensive documentation across multiple utility classes and maintains an online demo for testing functionality.
