iconv_mime_decode_headers()

iconv_mime_decode_headers() — Decodes multiple MIME header fields at once.

Built-in function of PHP 8.5. The manual lists it as available in PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8. This page is the reference card: signature, parameters and return value, plus the changelog and the example the manual provides.

Signature

iconv_mime_decode_headers(string $headers, int $mode = 0, ?string $encoding = null): array|false

Parameters

Parameter	Type	What it takes
$headers	string	The encoded headers, as a string.
$mode	int	mode determines the behaviour in the event iconv_mime_decode_headers() encounters a malformed MIME header field. You can specify any combination of the following bitmasks. Bitmasks acceptable to iconv_mime_decode_headers() Value Constant Description 1 ICONV_MIME_DECODE_STRICT If set, the given header is decoded in full conformance with the standards defined in RFC2047. This option is disabled by default because ...
$encoding	?string	The optional encoding parameter specifies the character set to represent the result by. If omitted or null, iconv.internal_encoding will be used.

Return value

Returns an associative array that holds a whole set of MIME header fields specified by headers on success, or false if an error occurs during the decoding. Each key of the return value represents an individual field name and the corresponding element represents a field value. If more than one field of the same name are present, iconv_mime_decode_headers() automatically incorporates them into a numerically indexed array in the order of occurrence. Note that header names are not case-insensitive.

Example

A runnable snippet:

$headers_string = <<<EOF Subject: =?UTF-8?B?UHLDvGZ1bmcgUHLDvGZ1bmc=?= To: example@example.com Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Message-Id: <example@example.com> Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost with SMTP id example for <example@example.com>; Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from example-return-0000-example=example.com@example.com) Received: (qmail 0 invoked by uid 65534); 1 Thu 2003 00:00:00 +0000 EOF; $headers = iconv_mime_decode_headers($headers_string, 0, "ISO-8859-1"); print_r($headers);

Output:

Array ( [Subject] => Prüfung Prüfung [To] => example@example.com [Date] => Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 [Message-Id] => <example@example.com> [Received] => Array ( [0] => from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost with SMTP id example for <example@example.com>; Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from example-return-0000-example=example.com@example.com) [1] => (qmail 0 invoked by uid 65534); 1 Thu 2003 00:00:00 +0000 ) )

Changelog

Version	Change
8.0.0	encoding is nullable now.