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Hudson Wolfe
1,070 PointsWhy would you use $func = 'answer'; instead of $func = answer()?
I've been getting along quite nicely, understanding everything here in PHP. I find myself wondering, though, in what case would you need to set $func to equal 'answer' instead of answer() if they will create the same output? I'm not confused by what's going on, only by why it is going on.
3 Answers
Shawn Gregory
Courses Plus Student 40,672 PointsHudson,
Simply put, $func = 'answer' stores the word answer into the variable $func and $func = answer() stores whatever is returned from the function answer. If you store the function's name in a variable, you can then you the variable later with () after it like so: $func(). PHP will take the value stored in the variable $func and turn it into a function with the (). While I haven't used this method in my applications, there are times when you would want to store the names of functions inside of variables and call on them later with the variable name. This may not have answered your question completely, but I hope I've given you enough for you to understand the big difference.
Cheers!
Oliver Williams
6,278 PointsI don't understand why it would ever be useful to use variable functions
Edmond Cotterell
8,920 Points@Hudson
I thought the same thing at first, but after thinking about it, it may be quite useful e.g. imagine if u have to loop through function calls for some reason.
array_of_functions = array('start','pause','go'); $func ="";
for($count =0; $count < 3; $count++) { $func = array_of_functions[$count]; $func(); }
I know its a silly example, but i hope it gives you an idea on how this could be useful.