Flesch-Kincaid Readability: Improve PHP function

Question

I wrote this PHP code to implement the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score as a function:

function readability($text) {
    $total_sentences = 1; // one full stop =         


        

Answer 1

Please have a look at following two classes and its usage information. It will surely help you.

Readability Syllable Count Pattern Library Class:

 4,
    'abare' => 3,
    'abed' => 2,
    'abruzzese' => 4,
    'abbruzzese' => 4,
    'aborigine' => 5,
    'acreage' => 3,
    'adame' => 3,
    'adieu' => 2,
    'adobe' => 3,
    'anemone' => 4,
    'apache' => 3,
    'aphrodite' => 4,
    'apostrophe' => 4,
    'ariadne' => 4,
    'cafe' => 2,
    'calliope' => 4,
    'catastrophe' => 4,
    'chile' => 2,
    'chloe' => 2,
    'circe' => 2,
    'coyote' => 3,
    'epitome' => 4,
    'forever' => 3,
    'gethsemane' => 4,
    'guacamole' => 4,
    'hyperbole' => 4,
    'jesse' => 2,
    'jukebox' => 2,
    'karate' => 3,
    'machete' => 3,
    'maybe' => 2,
    'people' => 2,
    'recipe' => 3,
    'sesame' => 3,
    'shoreline' => 2,
    'simile' => 3,
    'syncope' => 3,
    'tamale' => 3,
    'yosemite' => 4,
    'daphne' => 2,
    'eurydice' => 4,
    'euterpe' => 3,
    'hermione' => 4,
    'penelope' => 4,
    'persephone' => 4,
    'phoebe' => 2,
    'zoe' => 2
];

public $addSyllablePatterns = [
    "([^s]|^)ia",
    "iu",
    "io",
    "eo($|[b-df-hj-np-tv-z])",
    "ii",
    "[ou]a$",
    "[aeiouym]bl$",
    "[aeiou]{3}",
    "[aeiou]y[aeiou]",
    "^mc",
    "ism$",
    "asm$",
    "thm$",
    "([^aeiouy])\1l$",
    "[^l]lien",
    "^coa[dglx].",
    "[^gq]ua[^auieo]",
    "dnt$",
    "uity$",
    "[^aeiouy]ie(r|st|t)$",
    "eings?$",
    "[aeiouy]sh?e[rsd]$",
    "iell",
    "dea$",
    "real",
    "[^aeiou]y[ae]",
    "gean$",
    "riet",
    "dien",
    "uen"
];

public $prefixSuffixPatterns = [
    "^un",
    "^fore",
    "^ware",
    "^none?",
    "^out",
    "^post",
    "^sub",
    "^pre",
    "^pro",
    "^dis",
    "^side",
    "ly$",
    "less$",
    "some$",
    "ful$",
    "ers?$",
    "ness$",
    "cians?$",
    "ments?$",
    "ettes?$",
    "villes?$",
    "ships?$",
    "sides?$",
    "ports?$",
    "shires?$",
    "tion(ed)?$"
];

public $subSyllablePatterns = [
    "cia(l|$)",
    "tia",
    "cius",
    "cious",
    "[^aeiou]giu",
    "[aeiouy][^aeiouy]ion",
    "iou",
    "sia$",
    "eous$",
    "[oa]gue$",
    ".[^aeiuoycgltdb]{2,}ed$",
    ".ely$",
    "^jua",
    "uai",
    "eau",
    "[aeiouy](b|c|ch|d|dg|f|g|gh|gn|k|l|ll|lv|m|mm|n|nc|ng|nn|p|r|rc|rn|rs|rv|s|sc|sk|sl|squ|ss|st|t|th|v|y|z)e$",
    "[aeiouy](b|c|ch|dg|f|g|gh|gn|k|l|lch|ll|lv|m|mm|n|nc|ng|nch|nn|p|r|rc|rn|rs|rv|s|sc|sk|sl|squ|ss|th|v|y|z)ed$",
    "[aeiouy](b|ch|d|f|gh|gn|k|l|lch|ll|lv|m|mm|n|nch|nn|p|r|rn|rs|rv|s|sc|sk|sl|squ|ss|st|t|th|v|y)es$",
    "^busi$"
]; } ?>

Another class which is readability algorithm class having two methods to calculate score:

{'probWords'}[$strWord])) {
        return $pattern->{'probWords'}[$strWord];
    }

    // Check prefix, suffix
    $strWord = str_replace($pattern->{'prefixSuffixPatterns'}, '', $strWord, $tmpPrefixSuffixCount);

    // Removed non word characters from word
    $arrWordParts = preg_split('`[^aeiouy]+`', $strWord);
    $wordPartCount = 0;
    foreach ($arrWordParts as $strWordPart) {
        if ($strWordPart <> '') {
            $wordPartCount++;
        }
    }
    $intSyllableCount = $wordPartCount + $tmpPrefixSuffixCount;

    // Check syllable patterns 
    foreach ($pattern->{'subSyllablePatterns'} as $strSyllable) {
        $intSyllableCount -= preg_match('`' . $strSyllable . '`', $strWord);
    }

    foreach ($pattern->{'addSyllablePatterns'} as $strSyllable) {
        $intSyllableCount += preg_match('`' . $strSyllable . '`', $strWord);
    }

    $intSyllableCount = ($intSyllableCount == 0) ? 1 : $intSyllableCount;
    return $intSyllableCount;
}

function calculateReadabilityScore($stringText) {
    # Calculate score
    $totalSentences = 1;
    $punctuationMarks = array('.', '!', ':', ';');

    foreach ($punctuationMarks as $punctuationMark) {
        $totalSentences += substr_count($stringText, $punctuationMark);
    }

    // get ASL value
    $totalWords = str_word_count($stringText);
    $ASL = $totalWords / $totalSentences;

    // find syllables value
    $syllableCount = 0;
    $arrWords = explode(' ', $stringText);
    $intWordCount = count($arrWords);
    //$intWordCount = $totalWords;

    for ($i = 0; $i < $intWordCount; $i++) {
        $syllableCount += $this->countSyllable($arrWords[$i]);
    }

    // get ASW value
    $ASW = $syllableCount / $totalWords;

    // Count the readability score
    $score = 206.835 - (1.015 * $ASL) - (84.6 * $ASW);
    return $score;
} } ?>

// Example: how to use

calculateReadabilityScore("Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into: electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently; with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum!");
?>