PHP has a server-side programming language provides a plentiful number of functions to play with. These internal functions are useful in many ways and act as an effective utility tool while development and also developers can define custom functions which will even enhance its effectiveness.

So in this tutorial, You’ll be learning Top 15 PHP Function Secrets Developers Must Know.

Define Function in PHP

For those who are new to PHP programming, this is how functions are defined. You need to use the keyword function and followed by the function name. Parameters to functions are passed inside brackets and to call function simple use its name and followed by brackets.

<?php
// Defining Function here
function function_name(arguments){
    // statements
}

function_name(); //calling function here

Example:

<?php

function show_name(){
    echo "My name is: Sumit";
}

show_name();  // My name is: Sumit

PHP Function Naming Convention

1 – Functions with Argument

Our First secret starts with passing arguments to function. You can specify as many numbers of arguments you want to be followed by a comma.

function show_name($name, $age){
    echo "My name is ".$name." and i'm ".$age." years old";
}
    
show_name("Sumit", 21); //My name is: Sumit and i'm 21 years old

2 – Functions with Default Arguments

If you would like to keep a particular function argument as optional which calling it then you can give it a default value. While calling function if the argument is not passed that the default value of an argument is assigned to parameter just like $interest=1.5. If interest value is not passed than PHP will consider argument $interest value as 1.5.

function loan_information($amount, $interest=1.5){
    echo "For amount ".$amount." interest = ".$interest."/yearly will be charged.";
}
    
loan_information(1000); //For amount 1000 interest = 1.5/yearly will be charged.

Argument Type Hinting

By default, PHP is a weak type and if you want to force PHP for strict type checking of function arguments than specify the datatype of argument within the brackets followed by parameter name.

function loan_information(float $amount, float $interest=1.5){
    var_dump($amount);
    var_dump($interest);
}
    
loan_information("1", "1.25"); 

//OUTPUT
/var/www/html/TestProject/examples/php/functions.php:12:float 1
/var/www/html/TestProject/examples/php/functions.php:13:float 1.25

Even if you have passed string arguments because of strict check PHP implicitly type casts numerical string into float. But when an alphabetical string is passed it throws a Notice: A non well formed numeric value encountered .

3 – Pass Function as Argument

This is a very simple way as you can passing function name as an argument to the function and call that argument inside the function as regular function like $func();.

function func_a($func){
    $func();
}

function func_b(){
    echo "Function B is called";
}

func_a('func_b'); // prints Function B is called

There is also another way where you can pass anonyms function directly into a function parameter.

function func_a($func){
    $func();
}

func_a(function(){
    echo "Function B is called";
}); // prints Function B is called

However, this method is not so practical and to not possible to reuse it.

Udemy PHP Course

4 – Variadic function

Let’s assume a scenario where you have to pass N number of arguments to function and if you go in traditional way you have to give value to each and every argument. But using Variadic functions you can unpack the function arguments without even mentioning their names.

Use (…) inside function argument brackets has used in below example where …$extra_agrs is a splat operator.

function employee_information($name, ...$extra_agrs){
    echo "Name: ".$name."<br>";
    echo "Designation: ".$extra_agrs[0]."<br>";
    echo "Age: ".$extra_agrs[1]."<br>";
}

$name="Kushal";
$designation = "Software Developer";
$age="22";

employee_information($name, $designation, $age);

// OUTPUT
Name: Kushal
Designation: Software Developer 
Age: 22

The argument $extra_agrs is an array which contains arguments and to access the argument use index number.

There is also an alternate way by using the func_get_args() a function which returns the function arguments in the form of an array.

Example:

The below function using func_get_args() function will display the same output as above.

function employee_information($name){
    echo "Name: ".$name."<br>";
    echo "Designation: ".func_get_args()[1]."<br>";
    echo "Age: ".func_get_args()[2]."<br>";
}

What’s Inside the func_get_args()

If you debug func_get_args() function using the var_dump() then below is how the output looks.

function employee_information($name){

    var_dump(func_get_args());
}

5 – Access Global Variables inside functions

In PHP Functions, Global variable scope works kind of differently compared to other programming languages were to need just declare a variable outside function and then you can freely access those variables within any function as the variable is global in scope.
But in PHP programming accessing these variables directly inside the function will throw Notice: Undefined variable: name. This is because in PHP all the global variables are stored in a $GLOBALS array.

Example

$name = "Sunil";

function show_name(){
    echo $name; //As per PHP Functions, vairable $name is undefined.
}    

show_name();

// OUTPUT
Notice: Undefined variable: name in /var/www/html/TestProject/examples/php/functions.php on line 9

There are two ways to access global variables. The first is to use $GLOBALS variable or the global keyword.

Example:

$name = "Sunil";
$age = 29;

function show(){
    
    global $age;

    echo "My friend ".$GLOBALS['name']." is ".$age." years old.";
}

show();

// OUTPUT
My friend Sunil is 29 years old.

The keyword global will directly fetch the value from the $GLOBALS the variable has the local variable $age matches the name of the global variable. And if the global variable of a variable doesn’t exist then a NULL value is directly assigned.

6 – Function Return Type Declaration

The Function Return Type Declaration support was added in PHP 7 version. Through this, you can specify which datatype the function must return. To use this declaration you must add declare(strict_types = 1); at the first of your script else will not work as expected.

<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', "1");
    
function add_cart_items(): int {
    return 1 + 3;
}

echo "The total number of items in cart are ".add_cart_items();

// OUTPUT
The total number of items in cart are 4

If the function returns other datatype value apart from what it is declared than TypeError exception is thrown.

<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
    
function add_cart_items(): int {
    return 1 + 3 + 4.5;
}

echo "The total number of items in cart are: ".add_cart_items();

// OUTPUT
PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught TypeError: Return value of add_cart_items() must be of the type integer, float returned

declare(strict_types = 1);

function return_null():?int{
    return NULL;
}

return_null(); // Output is NULL

The symbol in between colon and return type (:?int) informs PHP interpreter to allow NULL type returns.

7 – Anonymous or Closure Functions

Functions with closures or no names defined are considered as anonymous functions. Look at below example to create one.

$add_number = function($a, $b){
    return $a+$b;
};

echo "The number is ".$add_number(1, 2);

// OUTPUT
The number is 3

Anonymous Function inside another Function

You can also declare anonymous functions inside other function and the procedure remains the same.

function cart_items(){

    $items = [
        "soap", "face wash", "biscuits"
    ];

    $item_count = function() use ($items){
        return count($items);
    };
    
    echo "There total " .$item_count() . " number of items in the cart";
}

echo cart_items();

// OUTPUT
There total 3 number of items in the cart

Scoping inside an Anonymous closure function

To use outside variables inside closure pass those variables through use ($outside_variable_one, $outside_variable_two. …) else you will be displayed variable as undefined.

$items = [
    "soap", "face wash", "biscuits"
];

$item_count = function(){
    return count($items);
};

// OUTPUT
Notice: Undefined variable: items

Using Super Global variables inside an anonymous function

You can use superglobal variables such as $GLOBALS, $_POST, $_GET etc within an anonymous function without the need to pass it through use function.

function foo(){

    $bar = function(){
        var_dump($GLOBALS); // This works
    };

    $bar();
}

foo();

8 – Check Function exists

Use internal function function_exists to check whether the function exists within the current context.

function foo(){ /* statements */ }

if( function_exists( 'foo' ) ){
    echo "Yes the function foo() exits";
} else {
    echo "No the function foo() does not exits";
}

// OUTPUT
Yes the function foo() exits

if( function_exists( 'bar' ) ){
    echo "Yes the function bar() exits";
} else {
    echo "No the function bar() does not exits";
}

// OUTPUT
No the function bar() does not exits

9 – Find were function is defined.

For any purpose, if you want to get the file name and the starting line of function declaration than using built-in ReflectionFunction class. It takes function name as a parameter and returns an object which contains all the meta information of that function.
In File my_new_functions.php.

<?php
function get_employee_details(){
    echo "Inside get_employee_details() function";
}

In File functions.php.

<?php
include "my_new_functions.php";

$ref_function = new ReflectionFunction('get_employee_details');

echo "The Function: <strong>" . $ref_function->getName() . "</strong> is defined in file <strong>" . $ref_function->getFileName() . "</strong> at line number <strong>" . $ref_function->getStartLine() . "</strong>";


// OUTPUT
The Function: get_employee_details is defined in file /var/www/html/TestProject/examples/php/my_new_functions.php at line number 2

10 – Using Variables inside Function

Using static variables inside functions.

function counter(){
    static $counter = 0;
    $counter+=1;
    echo $counter."<br>";
}

echo counter();
echo counter();
echo counter();

// OUTPUT
1
2
3

Use the function define() for defining any constants in PHP.

define('website_name', "thecodelearners.com");

function info(){
    echo website_name."<br>";
}

echo info();
echo info();

// OUTPUT
thecodelearners.com
thecodelearners.com

11 – Get the name of calling function

Use PHP’s debug tracking function debug_backtrace() which will get you a traceback of the previous function called by sequence. You can take a look at below given snippet.

function rock(){ 
    paper();
}

function paper(){ 
    scissor();
}

function scissor(){
    var_dump(debug_backtrace());
}

rock();

12 – Display how many times the function is called

Use the static keyword and increment the number in the variable $counter to get the number of times the function was called.

function foo(){
    static $counter = 0;

    $counter+=1;

    return $counter;
}

echo "This Function is called <strong>".foo()."</strong> number of times.<br>";
echo "This Function is called <strong>".foo()."</strong> number of times.<br>";
echo "This Function is called <strong>".foo()."</strong> number of times.<br>";
echo "This Function is called <strong>".foo()."</strong> number of times.<br>";
echo "This Function is called <strong>".foo()."</strong> number of times.<br>";

// OUTPUT
This Function is called 1 number of times.
This Function is called 2 number of times.
This Function is called 3 number of times.
This Function is called 4 number of times.
This Function is called 5 number of times.

13 – Get the name of the current function

To retrieve the current function name use the magic constant __FUNCTION__ which returns the current file name.

function add_employee(){ 
    echo "The current function name is <strong>". __FUNCTION__ ."</strong>.<br>";
}

function promote_employee(){ 
    echo "The current function name is <strong>". __FUNCTION__ ."</strong>.<br>";
}

add_employee();

promote_employee();

// OUTPUT
The current function name is add_employee.
The current function name is promote_employee.

14 – Returning a reference from a function

Consider a case where you want to bind the function return value to an outside variable. As you update the outside variable the function return variable also gets updated has it is referenced.

function &fruits(){
    static $items = ["Mango"];

    return $items;
}

$cart = &fruits();

array_push($cart, "Apple");
array_push($cart, "Grapes");

echo "<h2>Cart Items</h2>";
var_dump($cart);

echo "<br><br><h2>Items returned by Function fruits()</h2>";
var_dump(fruits());

15 – Convert function into a string

Through method __toString() by using ReflectionFunction() the class you can convert the function into a string.

function my_func($name, $age=26){
    $salary = 15000;
    echo "Hello PHP";
}

$ref_function = new ReflectionFunction('my_func');

$string_represented_function = $ref_function->__toString();

var_dump($string_represented_function);

Conclusion

In Conclusion, I hope you have learnt something new related to PHP functions of our post on Top 15 PHP Function Secrets Developers Must Know. Comment if you have more secrets and don’t forget to share this article.

Related Posts

• PHP sending email using mail() function
• Laravel Jobs and Queues – Configuring, Sending Mail, Dispatching Jobs

Summary

Reviewer

The Code Learners

Review Date

2020-07-03

Reviewed Item

Top 15 PHP Function Secrets Developers Must Know

Author Rating

5

Software Name

PHP Programming Language

Software Name

Windows Os, Mac Os, Ubuntu Os

Software Category

Server-side Programming Languages