TaLibHybrid

A hybrid PHP wrapper for TA-Lib that provides 161 technical analysis indicator functions with automatic pass-through to the C extension when available, and a pure-PHP fallback when it's not.

Installation

composer require robertgdev/ta-lib-hybrid

The C extension is optional but recommended for performance:

pecl install ta_lib

Add to php.ini:

extension=ta_lib.so

The library works without the extension — it will automatically fall back to the pure-PHP implementation.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3+
• ext-ta_lib ^1.0 (optional, recommended for 5-50x faster calculations)

Design

Goals

1. Transparent dual-backend — When ext-ta_lib is loaded, all calls go through the C extension for maximum speed. When it's absent, the pure-PHP fallback delivers identical results.
2. Zero-disruption migration — Procedural ta_* polyfill functions (ta_sma, ta_atr, etc.) and TA_* constants are defined only when the extension is not present, so existing code using ta_sma() works unchanged.
3. Consistent output format — Both backends return the same array structure: null-padded aligned arrays where leading positions (the lookback period) are null and actual values start at the correct offset. Multi-output indicators use lowercase string keys.
4. Full coverage — All 161 TA-Lib indicator functions are implemented, including imi and mom which are missing from the C extension.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  TaLibHybrid (static facade)                    │
│  TaLibHybrid::sma($values, 14)                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Functions.php (procedural polyfill)            │
│  ta_sma($values, 14)                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  BackendInterface                               │
│  ├── ExtensionBackend  → ext-ta-lib C calls    │
│  └── FallbackBackend   → pure PHP (Core/)      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Constants.php  (TA_* constants polyfill)       │
│  Enum/          (MovingAverageType, ReturnCode…)│
│  Exception/     (TaLibException hierarchy)      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Auto-detection: TaLibHybrid checks extension_loaded('ta_lib') on first call and selects the appropriate backend. You can override this with TaLibHybrid::setBackend().

Fallback delegation: ExtensionBackend delegates mom() and mama() to FallbackBackend because the C extension does not provide ta_mom, and ta_mama returns a broken flat array instead of the expected multi-output format.

Directory structure

src/
├── TaLibHybrid.php           # Static facade (167 methods)
├── Constants.php              # TA_* constant polyfill (per-constant guards)
├── Functions.php              # ta_* procedural polyfill (161 functions)
├── Backend/
│   ├── BackendInterface.php   # Contract: 4 utility + 161 indicator methods
│   ├── ExtensionBackend.php   # Pass-through to ext-ta-lib
│   └── FallbackBackend.php    # Pure PHP with null-padded output formatting
├── Enum/
│   ├── MovingAverageType.php  # 9 cases (SMA, EMA, WMA, …)
│   ├── FuncUnstId.php         # 25 cases (ADX, RSI, EMA, …)
│   ├── ReturnCode.php         # 6 cases (Success, BadParam, …)
│   ├── CandleSettingType.php  # 12 cases
│   ├── RangeType.php          # 3 cases
│   └── Compatibility.php      # 2 cases
├── Exception/
│   ├── TaLibException.php
│   ├── TaLibInputException.php
│   └── TaLibCalculationException.php
└── Fallback/
    ├── Classes/
    │   ├── CandleSetting.php
    │   └── MoneyFlow.php
    └── Core/                  # Ported calculation engines
        ├── Core.php
        ├── Lookback.php
        ├── OverlapStudies.php
        ├── VolatilityIndicators.php
        ├── MomentumIndicators.php
        ├── CycleIndicators.php
        ├── VolumeIndicators.php
        ├── PatternRecognition.php
        ├── StatisticFunctions.php
        ├── PriceTransform.php
        ├── MathTransform.php
        └── MathOperators.php

Usage

OOP via static facade

use RobertGDev\TaLibHybrid\TaLibHybrid;

$close = [44.02, 44.10, 44.16, 44.22, 44.10, 44.00, 44.12, 44.18, 44.28, 44.32];

// Single-output indicator — returns flat array, null-padded
$sma = TaLibHybrid::sma($close, 5);
// [null, null, null, null, 44.12, 44.116, 44.12, 44.124, 44.136, 44.18]

// Multi-output indicator — returns associative array of aligned arrays
$bbands = TaLibHybrid::bbands($close, 5, 2.0, 2.0, 0);
// ['upper' => [...], 'middle' => [...], 'lower' => [...]]

$macd = TaLibHybrid::macd($close, 12, 26, 9);
// ['macd' => [...], 'signal' => [...], 'hist' => [...]]

Procedural polyfill

Works identically to the C extension's function signatures:

$sma = ta_sma($close, 14);
$atr = ta_atr($high, $low, $close, 14);
$rsi = ta_rsi($close, 14);
$macd = ta_macd($close, 12, 26, 9);

These functions are only defined when ext-ta_lib is not loaded, so they never conflict with the extension.

Backend selection

use RobertGDev\TaLibHybrid\TaLibHybrid;
use RobertGDev\TaLibHybrid\Backend\FallbackBackend;

// Force pure-PHP backend (e.g. for testing)
TaLibHybrid::setBackend(new FallbackBackend());

// Check which backend is active
if (TaLibHybrid::isExtensionAvailable()) {
    echo 'Using C extension v' . TaLibHybrid::version();
} else {
    echo 'Using pure-PHP fallback';
}

// Reset to auto-detection
TaLibHybrid::setBackend(null);

Direct backend instantiation

use RobertGDev\TaLibHybrid\Backend\ExtensionBackend;
use RobertGDev\TaLibHybrid\Backend\FallbackBackend;

$ext = new ExtensionBackend();
$fb  = new FallbackBackend();

// Both implement the same interface
$smaExt = $ext->sma($close, 14);
$smaFb  = $fb->sma($close, 14);

Output format

All indicator methods return arrays aligned with the input index. Values in the lookback period are null:

// SMA(3) on [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
$result = TaLibHybrid::sma([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 3);
// [null, null, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0]
//  idx0   idx1  idx2  idx3  idx4

Multi-output indicators return an associative array of such arrays:

$stoch = TaLibHybrid::stoch($high, $low, $close, 5, 3, 0, 3, 0);
// ['slowk' => [null, null, ...], 'slowd' => [null, null, ...]]

$aroon = TaLibHybrid::aroon($high, $low, 14);
// ['down' => [...], 'up' => [...]]

$ht_sine = TaLibHybrid::ht_sine($close);
// ['sine' => [...], 'leadsine' => [...]]

Indicator categories

Category	Count	Examples
Overlap Studies	18	sma, ema, wma, dema, tema, bbands, kama, t3
Momentum Indicators	31	rsi, macd, stoch, adx, cci, willr, mom, imi
Pattern Recognition	61	cdldoji, cdlengulfing, cdlhammer, cdlmorningstar
Statistic Functions	9	beta, correl, stddev, linearreg, tsf
Math Operators	11	add, sub, mult, div, sum, max, min
Math Transform	15	sin, cos, sqrt, exp, ln, ceil, floor
Volatility Indicators	3	atr, natr, trange
Cycle Indicators	5	ht_dcperiod, ht_dcphase, ht_sine
Volume Indicators	3	obv, ad, adosc
Price Transform	5	avgprice, medprice, typprice, wclprice

Exceptions

TaLibException                  # Base
├── TaLibInputException         # Invalid input (empty arrays, mismatched lengths)
└── TaLibCalculationException   # Calculation error (bad parameters, internal error)

Constants

When ext-ta_lib is loaded, it provides TA_MA_TYPE_SMA and similar constants. When it's not, Constants.php polyfills them all:

• TA_MA_TYPE_* — Moving average types (0–8)
• TA_FUNC_UNST_* — Unstable period function IDs (0–24)
• TA_SUCCESS, TA_BAD_PARAM, … — Return codes
• TA_CANDLE_SETTING_* — Candle setting types (0–11)
• TA_RANGE_TYPE_* — Range types (0–2)
• TA_COMPATIBILITY_* — Compatibility modes (0–1)
• TA_REAL_MIN, TA_REAL_MAX, TA_INTEGER_MIN, TA_INTEGER_MAX

Each constant is guarded individually with if (!defined(...)), so they coexist correctly with the extension.

Testing

The package includes a Pest test suite with 213 tests and ~3000 assertions:

cd src/TaLibHybrid
composer install
vendor/bin/pest

Test suites:

• Unit — Input validation, output format, value ranges, key names, all 61 pattern recognition functions
• Comparison — Cross-backend verification: Extension vs Fallback output for 60+ indicators within floating-point tolerance

License

MIT