PHP Functions

Learn all about PHP functions: How to create your own functions, how variable scope works, the concepts of references and recursion, and more!

PHP Anonymous Functions: What Are They, and Why Use Them?

10 December 2012 / 8 Comments

In this tutorial you’ll explore anonymous functions in PHP. Anonymous functions are a PHP feature that you probably won’t use that often; however, they can be really useful in certain situations, as you’ll see.

You’ll look at the following concepts in this tutorial:

What anonymous functions are, and how you create them
How to assign anonymous functions to variables
How to call anonymous functions
Using anonymous functions to create neater callbacks, and
Creating closures with anonymous functions.

Ready to dive into anonymous functions in PHP? Let’s go!

PHP Recursive Functions: How to Write Them, and Why They’re Useful

4 February 2011 / 9 Comments

Like most programming languages that support functions, PHP lets you write recursive functions. In this tutorial, we’ll explore the concept of recursion in PHP, and discover how to create recursive functions for various tasks.

Recursion is one of those topics that can seem confusing at first, but once you start writing recursive functions you’ll see how elegant recursion can be!

PHP Variable Scope: All You Need to Know

15 October 2010 / 6 Comments

When you’re just starting to work with functions and objects in PHP, variable scope can be the cause of some confusion. Fortunately, PHP’s scope rules are relatively easy to understand (compared to some other languages, at least!).

In this tutorial you’ll learn all you need to know about variable scope in PHP. You’ll look at:

The concept of variable scope — what it is, and what it means
The differences between global and local scope
How to access global variables from within a function
PHP’s superglobals, and how they work
How to use static variables to preserve state

Let’s get started!

Make Your Own PHP Functions: The Newbie Guide

16 September 2010 / 4 Comments

You’re no doubt familiar with using functions in PHP. The language contains hundreds of built-in functions that you can use for all sorts of handy jobs — from manipulating text through to reading files, sending email messages and processing images.

You’re not limited to using just the predefined functions, though — you can create your own functions too! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how. You’ll learn:

Why it’s good to create your own functions
How to create and use a function
How to make your functions flexible by using parameters
All about optional parameters and default values, and
How to return values from your functions.

Ready? Let’s get started!

PHP Functions

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