How to Create and Use Helper in Codeigniter

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a custom helper in a CodeIgniter project and use it in Views, Controllers, Models, and globally.

How to Create and Use Helper in Codeigniter

Here are simple steps to create and use helper function:

• Create Custom Helper
• Load Helper in Controller
• Globally Load Helper
• To call the helper function in Codeigniter controller, Model and Views

Create Custom Helper

Create a new php file my_helper.php in application/helpers folder, and create your own function in it:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
if ( ! function_exists('random')){
   function random(){
         $number = rand(1111,9999);
         return $number;
       }
   }
if ( ! function_exists('current_utc_date_time')){
   function current_utc_date_time(){
         $dateTime = gmdate("Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z");;
         return $dateTime;
       }
   }   
}

Load Helper in Controller

Open your controller file from application/controllers/ folder, and add your custom helper in the constructor.

//load custom helper 

$this->load->helper('my_helper');

Globally Load Helper

Edit application/config/autoload.php file, and add your custom helper name to the helper array:

$autoload['helper'] = array('my_helper');

Use Custom Helper in controller, Model, and Views

Now, you can use your custom helper function in your controller, model and view like the following:

//just call the function name
 random();

This simple tutorial guide showed you how to create and use a custom helper function in CodeIgniter.