I have an array of strings and I want to define functions with names being these strings. Is there a way to do that in PHP?
$a = array("xxx", "yyy", "zzz");
How do I programmatically define xxx(), yyy(), and zzz()?
Many thanks
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lets say you did define these strings as functions, what will you do with them?TheTechGuy– TheTechGuy2011-09-07 17:20:54 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 17:20
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They're hooks in a CMS. I want my plugin to do the exact same thing on every hook.julien_c– julien_c2011-09-07 17:24:11 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 17:24
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Would anonymous functions be more useful to you? php.net/manual/en/functions.anonymous.php.WayneC– WayneC2011-09-07 17:27:31 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 17:27
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that means you just want to declare them as function without a definition (already defined in this case). If that is the case, you dont need to declare them. Just call them be appending () with each string and possible parameters.TheTechGuy– TheTechGuy2011-09-07 17:28:09 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 17:28
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@SavageGarden No, I want to define them, not call themjulien_c– julien_c2011-09-07 17:31:40 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 17:31
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3 Answers
If you really had to you could declare the function within an eval block:
foreach ($a as $functionname)
eval('
function '.$functionname.' () {
print 123;
}
');
But that incurs some extra parsing time speed penalty over just declaring the functions in a file.
You don't, it's not possible.
With a magic method trick you can achieve this on an instance object (so $obj->xxx() works, see: __call) but you cannot create a global function based on a variable name.
Note: I am aware that you can $var(), but that's not what the OP asked.
3 Comments
julien_c
Ok, thanks. Do you have more info on this magic method trick?
julien_c
I'm not sure this would work in my case (hooks definition in a CMS). Will try it though, thanks.
rineez
@julien_c Let me guess! You probably asked this question while you were working with Drupal update hooks? It's a mess. How did you solve it finally?
$a = array("xxx", "yyy", "zzz");
foreach($a as $functionname){
$code = <<< end
function $functionname(){
//your logic here for each function
}
end;
eval($code);
}
However please not that Eval is not advisable to be used, you should find some other approach.
