CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpfunction
mrmut
mrmut

Reputation: 494

Is it possible to make a PHP function that would take any number of arguments?

I am writing some PHP code that would generate HTML files from templates.

I would like, if possible, to make a function that would take any strings I feed the function with, and put that into the file. Like so:

function generator($a, $b, $c, $n...){
$filename =  $a . ".html";
ob_start ();
echo $b;
echo $c;
echo $d;
echo $n...;
$buffer = ob_get_clean();
file_put_contents($a, $buffer);
}

I need this, because different pages would have different number of include files, and with this I would be able to skip making different functions for specific pages. Just an iterator, and that's it.

Thanks!

Upvotes: 3

Views: 120

Answers (5)

Mike Q
Mike Q

Reputation: 7327

In the process of good design, I would think carefully about when and where to use things such as this. For example I currently work on a project that probably has over 200K lines of code and for better of worse this is actually never used.

The most common way is to pass an array "struct" to the method:

$args = array();
$args['kitchen'] = 'sink';
$args['bath'] = 'room';
$args['cat'] = array('fur','tail');

$func->someFunction($args);

If you wanted to have more control over the data you could create a struct and access that within the class. Public functions act as handlers.

class SomeClass {
  ....
  private $args

  public function setArgs($arg1,$arg2,$arg3) {
      $this->arg1 = $arg1;
      ...
  }
  public function getArgs() {
      return $this->args;
  }

More rarely you can have C++ like control where you use a class just as a struct:

class MyStruct {
    public $foo;
    public $bar;
    private $secret;
    private function getSecret() {
        return $secret;
    }
    protect function setSecret($val) {
        $secret = $val;
    }
}

Already mentioned is '...' which I nearly never see but it's interesting, though how useful ? Does this help explain what is going on? 

  function someFunction(... $args)

Usually you will see a mix of things in methods which helps articulate the purpose of it.

private function someSmallFunc($list = array(), $val = '', $limit = 10)

This example is to illustrate the natural grouping of information, data is in a list, $val is used for something to control the method along with $limit say limits the number of query results. Hence, you should think in this way about your methods IMO.

Also if you notice default values are set ($limit = 10) to in case they aren't passed in. For example if you call someSmallFunc($data, $someVal) (opposed to say someSmallFunc($data, $someVal, 20) ) and not pass in $limit it will default to 10.

Upvotes: 1

Ben
Ben

Reputation: 2209

Just use func_get_args(); inside your function to return an array of all arguments passed in.

You can also use func_get_arg($arg_num) to return a specific argument, or func_num_args to return the number of arguments.

All PHP functions allow any number of parameters, they just won't be callable by name, the only way is with these 3 functions.

Note, you may use a variadic argument as the last in the parameter list like so:

function my_func($x,$y, ... $z){
    //Now $z is an array of all arguments after the first two
}

Upvotes: 1

kevinniel
kevinniel

Reputation: 1106

You can make it using an array as following : 

function generator($array){
    // set the first item of the array as name of the .html file and take it out of the array.
  $filename = array_shift($array) . ".html";
  ob_start ();
  // echo all the array fields
  foreach($array as $a){
    echo $a;
  }
  $buffer = ob_get_clean();
  file_put_contents($a, $buffer);
}

You can pass the array directly to call the function like the following : 

generator( ["val_1", "val_2", "val_3"] );

Upvotes: 1

Syscall
Syscall

Reputation: 19780

You can also use variadic functions (PHP 5.6+) :

function generator($a, ...$args) {
    echo $a . "\n";
    print_r($args);
}

generator("test", 1, 2, 3, 4);

Outputs :

"test"
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 3
    [3] => 4
)

Upvotes: 2

ishegg
ishegg

Reputation: 9937

From PHP 5.6+ you can use ... to indicate a variable number of arguments:

function test (... $args)
{
    foreach ($args as $arg) {
        echo $arg;
    }
}

test("testing", "variable"); // testing variable

So, your function would look something like this:

function generator($a, $b, $c, ... $n) {
    $filename =  $a . ".html";
    ob_start();

    echo $b;
    echo $c;

    foreach ($n as $var) {
        echo $var;
    }

    $buffer = ob_get_clean();
    file_put_contents($a, $buffer);
}

Upvotes: 6

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