Callback function using variables calculated outside of it

Solution 1:

You can use the use keyword to inherit variables from the parent scope. In your example, you could do the following:

$callback = function($val) use ($avg) { return $val < $avg; };

For more information, see the manual page on anonymous functions.

If you're running PHP 7.4 or later, arrow functions can be used. Arrow functions are an alternative, more concise way of defining anonymous functions, which automatically capture outside variables, eliminating the need for use:

$callback = fn($val) => $val < $avg;

Given how concise arrow functions are, you can reasonably write them directly within the array_filter call:

return array_filter($arr, fn($val) => $val < $avg);