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# Faker

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Faker is a PHP library that generates fake data for you. Whether you need to bootstrap your database, create good-looking XML documents, fill-in your persistence to stress test it, or anonymize data taken from a production service, Faker is for you.

It's heavily inspired by Perl's [Data::Faker](https://metacpan.org/pod/Data::Faker), and by Ruby's [Faker](https://rubygems.org/gems/faker).

## Getting Started

### Installation

Faker requires PHP >= 7.1.

```shell
composer require fakerphp/faker
```

### Documentation

Full documentation can be found over on [fakerphp.github.io](https://fakerphp.github.io).

### Basic Usage

Use `Faker\Factory::create()` to create and initialize a Faker generator, which can generate data by accessing methods named after the type of data you want.

```php
<?php
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

// use the factory to create a Faker\Generator instance
$faker = Faker\Factory::create();
// generate data by calling methods
echo $faker->name();
// 'Vince Sporer'
echo $faker->email();
// 'walter.sophia@hotmail.com'
echo $faker->text();
// 'Numquam ut mollitia at consequuntur inventore dolorem.'
```

Each call to `$faker->name()` yields a different (random) result. This is because Faker uses `__call()` magic, and forwards `Faker\Generator->$method()` calls to `Faker\Generator->format($method, $attributes)`.

```php
<?php
for ($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
    echo $faker->name() . "\n";
}

// 'Cyrus Boyle'
// 'Alena Cummerata'
// 'Orlo Bergstrom'
```

## License

Faker is released under the MIT License. See [`LICENSE`](LICENSE) for details.

## Backward compatibility promise

Faker is using [Semver](https://semver.org/). This means that versions are tagged
with MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Only a new major version will be allowed to break backward
compatibility (BC).

Classes marked as `@experimental` or `@internal` are not included in our backward compatibility promise.
You are also not guaranteed that the value returned from a method is always the
same. You are guaranteed that the data type will not change.

PHP 8 introduced [named arguments](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/named_params), which
increased the cost and reduces flexibility for package maintainers. The names of the
arguments for methods in Faker is not included in our BC promise.