PHP array_filter with arguments

if you a using php 5.3 and above, you can use closure to simplify your code:

$NUM = 5;
$items = array(1, 4, 5, 8, 0, 6);
$filteredItems = array_filter($items, function($elem) use($NUM){
    return $elem < $NUM;
});

As an alternative to @Charles's solution using closures, you can actually find an example in the comments on the documentation page. The idea is that you create an object with the desired state ($num) and the callback method (taking $i as an argument):

class LowerThanFilter {
        private $num;

        function __construct($num) {
                $this->num = $num;
        }

        function isLower($i) {
                return $i < $this->num;
        }
}

Usage (demo):

$arr = array(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13);
$matches = array_filter($arr, array(new LowerThanFilter(12), 'isLower'));
print_r($matches);

As a sidenote, you can now replace LowerThanFilter with a more generic NumericComparisonFilter with methods like isLower, isGreater, isEqual etc. Just a thought — and a demo...

In PHP 5.3 or better, you can use a closure:

function create_lower_than($number = 10) {
// The "use" here binds $number to the function at declare time.
// This means that whenever $number appears inside the anonymous
// function, it will have the value it had when the anonymous
// function was declared.
    return function($test) use($number) { return $test < $number; };
}

// We created this with a ten by default.  Let's test.
$lt_10 = create_lower_than();
var_dump($lt_10(9)); // True
var_dump($lt_10(10)); // False
var_dump($lt_10(11)); // False

// Let's try a specific value.
$lt_15 = create_lower_than(15);
var_dump($lt_15(13)); // True
var_dump($lt_15(14)); // True
var_dump($lt_15(15)); // False
var_dump($lt_15(16)); // False

// The creation of the less-than-15 hasn't disrupted our less-than-10:
var_dump($lt_10(9)); // Still true
var_dump($lt_10(10)); // Still false
var_dump($lt_10(11)); // Still false

// We can simply pass the anonymous function anywhere that a
// 'callback' PHP type is expected, such as in array_filter:
$arr = array(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13);
$new_arr = array_filter($arr, $lt_10);
print_r($new_arr);

if you need multiple parameters to be passed to the function, you may append them to the use statement using ",":

$r = array_filter($anArray, function($anElement) use ($a, $b, $c){
    //function body where you may use $anElement, $a, $b and $c
});

In extension to jensgram answer you can add some more magic by using the __invoke() magic method.

class LowerThanFilter {
    private $num;

    public function __construct($num) {
        $this->num = $num;
    }

    public function isLower($i) {
        return $i < $this->num;
    }

    function __invoke($i) {
        return $this->isLower($i);
    }
}

This will allow you to do

$arr = array(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13);
$matches = array_filter($arr, new LowerThanFilter(12));
print_r($matches);