Can you store a function in a PHP array?
The recommended way to do this is with an anonymous function:
$functions = [
'function1' => function ($echo) {
echo $echo;
}
];
If you want to store a function that has already been declared then you can simply refer to it by name as a string:
function do_echo($echo) {
echo $echo;
}
$functions = [
'function1' => 'do_echo'
];
In ancient versions of PHP (<5.3) anonymous functions are not supported and you may need to resort to using create_function
(deprecated since PHP 7.2):
$functions = array(
'function1' => create_function('$echo', 'echo $echo;')
);
All of these methods are listed in the documentation under the callable
pseudo-type.
Whichever you choose, the function can either be called directly (PHP ≥5.4) or with call_user_func
/call_user_func_array
:
$functions['function1']('Hello world!');
call_user_func($functions['function1'], 'Hello world!');
Since PHP "5.3.0 Anonymous functions become available", example of usage:
note that this is much faster than using old create_function
...
//store anonymous function in an array variable e.g. $a["my_func"]
$a = array(
"my_func" => function($param = "no parameter"){
echo "In my function. Parameter: ".$param;
}
);
//check if there is some function or method
if( is_callable( $a["my_func"] ) ) $a["my_func"]();
else echo "is not callable";
// OUTPUTS: "In my function. Parameter: no parameter"
echo "\n<br>"; //new line
if( is_callable( $a["my_func"] ) ) $a["my_func"]("Hi friend!");
else echo "is not callable";
// OUTPUTS: "In my function. Parameter: Hi friend!"
echo "\n<br>"; //new line
if( is_callable( $a["somethingElse"] ) ) $a["somethingElse"]("Something else!");
else echo "is not callable";
// OUTPUTS: "is not callable",(there is no function/method stored in $a["somethingElse"])
REFERENCES:
Anonymous function: http://cz1.php.net/manual/en/functions.anonymous.php
Test for callable: http://cz2.php.net/is_callable