CodeIgniter Helpers – Create and Use Helper Functions in MVC

In CodeIgniter, a Helper is simply a collection of PHP functions (not classes) that make your work easier by providing shortcuts for common tasks.

They are not tied to Models, Views, or Controllers.
They don’t maintain state — they are just simple utility functions.
You load them when you need them, and then you can call their functions directly.

👉 Think of a helper like a toolbox: whenever you need a small tool (like a URL formatter, string handler, or date formatter), you just open the toolbox and use it.

Where Helpers Live in CodeIgniter

Helpers are stored in:

system/Helpers/    (Core helpers provided by CodeIgniter itself)
app/Helpers/      (Custom helpers you create for your own project)

Loading a Helper

You can load a helper in two ways:

1. Load in a Controller

helper('url');

After this, you can immediately use URL functions like base_url().

2. Auto-load in Config

Edit this file:

app/Config/Autoload.php

public $helpers = ['url', 'form'];

Now, the url and form helpers will load automatically for all controllers/views.

Commonly Used CodeIgniter Helpers

Helper Name	Purpose	Example Function
url	Work with URLs	base_url('path')
form	Create form elements	form_open('route')
text	Format and work with text	word_limiter($string, 5)
html	Generate HTML elements	img('path/to/image.jpg')
date	Format and manage dates	now()
number	Format numbers	number_to_currency(1500, 'USD')

Example: Using URL Helper

public function index()

{

helper('url');

echo base_url('products/view/10');

}

👉 This is useful when generating links dynamically.

Example: Using Form Helper

public function index()

{

helper('form');

echo form_open('products/save');

echo form_input('name', 'Product Name');

echo form_submit('submit', 'Save');

echo form_close();

}

👉 Instead of writing long HTML forms, helpers give you shortcuts.

Creating a Custom Helper in CodeIgniter

You can create your own helpers if you need custom utility functions.

Example: app/Helpers/custom_helper.php

<?php

function greet($name)

{

return "Hello, " . ucfirst($name) . "!";

}

Load & Use:

public function index()

{

helper('custom');

echo greet('john'); // Output: Hello, John!

}

Advantages of Helpers

Simple to use — just load and call functions.
Keeps code DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).
Faster development for common repetitive tasks.
Easy to create your own helpers.

❮ Previous

Next ❯

Whereisstuff is simple learing platform for beginer to advance level to improve there skills in technologies.we will provide all material free of cost.you can write a code in runkit workspace and we provide some extrac features also, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use, cookie and privacy policy.