Installation

Requirements

Before installing NDArray, ensure your system meets these requirements:

• PHP: Version 8.1 or higher
• FFI Extension: Must be enabled in your PHP installation
• Composer: For dependency management

Check FFI Extension

php -m | grep FFI

If you don't see "FFI" in the output, you need to enable it.

Enabling FFI Extension

On Linux/macOS

Edit your php.ini file (location varies by installation):

# Find your php.ini
php --ini

# Edit the file and add:
extension=ffi

On Windows (XAMPP/WAMP)

1. Open php.ini in your PHP installation directory
2. Find ;extension=ffi
3. Remove the semicolon: extension=ffi
4. Restart Apache

Install via Composer

composer require phpmlkit/ndarray

Installation Verification

Create a test file to verify everything is working:

<?php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use PhpMlKit\NDArray\NDArray;

// Create a simple array
$vector = NDArray::array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
echo "Vector: $vector\n";
echo "Sum: {$vector->sum()}\n\n";

// Create a 2D array
$matrix = NDArray::zeros([3, 3]);
echo "Zero matrix: $matrix\n\n";

echo "✓ NDArray is working correctly!\n";

Run it:

php test.php

Expected output:

Vector: array(5)
[1 2 3 4 5]
Sum: 15

Zero matrix: array(3, 3)
[
 [0 0 0]
 [0 0 0]
 [0 0 0]
]

✓ NDArray is working correctly!

Troubleshooting

"FFI extension not loaded"

Make sure FFI is enabled in the PHP.ini file that the CLI uses:

php --ini

Edit that specific file and ensure extension=ffi is present (without the semicolon).

"Platform package not found"

If you see errors about platform-specific binaries not being found:

1. Check your platform is supported (Linux x86_64/ARM64, macOS x86_64/ARM64, Windows x86_64)
2. Try clearing Composer cache: composer clear-cache
3. Reinstall: composer require phpmlkit/ndarray

Permission Errors

On Linux/macOS, you might need to set execute permissions:

chmod +x vendor/phpmlkit/ndarray/bin/*

Memory Limit Issues

For large arrays, increase PHP's memory limit:

php -d memory_limit=512M your-script.php

Or in your script:

ini_set('memory_limit', '512M');

Next Steps

Now that NDArray is installed:

• Quick Start - Create your first arrays
• NumPy Migration - If coming from Python