Working a lot with JS I have come to love closures, so I was pleased to learn that there are closures in PHP also. However I just can't get this stuff to work, what's wrong with this piece of code?
class Foo {
public $Bar;
public function Foo() {
$this->Bar = function() { echo "Hello World"; };
}
};
$F = new Foo();
$F->Bar();
I keep getting PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined method Foo::Bar() errors.
This has been discussed a lot on SO already (see e.g. this answer). This should do the trick:
$b = $f->Bar;
$b();
Yes, it is that stupid. You could use call_user_func() to put in in one line (see jlb's answer to this question), but the ugliness remains.
If you want a one-line solution to replace
$F->Bar()
try this:
call_user_func($F->Bar);
PHP has separation between methods and fields. In fact, you can have a method and a field of the same name at the same time:
class Foo {
public $Bar;
function Bar() { echo "hello\n"; }
};
$F = new Foo();
$F->Bar = 42;
$F->Bar(); // echoes "hello"
So you can see that, to avoid ambiguity, there must be a separate syntax between calling a method with that name, and accessing a field with that name and then calling that as a function.
If PHP had better syntax, they would support ($F->Bar)(), i.e. function call operator on any expression, but currently only variables can be "called".
PHP isn't liking the $F->Bar notation for accessing the closure.
If you change this slightly to
$t = $F->Bar();
$t();
then it works.
Related
Is it possible to pass a function by reference? So everytime the reference variable is called the function will be called aswell. Take a look at my code.
<?php
class Documents {
private static $docs = array(
'She went to the toilet and on her way back, opened the wrong door',
'She had found something that would mean she\'d never be poor again - but there was a catch',
'It was just for one night',
'He watched, helpless, as the door closed behind her'
);
public static function get() {
return self::$docs[array_rand(self::$docs)];
}
}
class Printer {
public static $content;
}
Printer::$content = &Documents::get();
echo Printer::$content;
echo "\n" . Printer::$content;
echo "\n" . Printer::$content;
Right now it'll print 3 similar lines but i would like it to call Documents::get() everytime Printer::$content is printed because Printer::$content = **&**Documents::get(); it is by reference.
No, you cannot have a variable which you treat as a variable which nonetheless runs code behind the scenes. If you write $foo, that's using the value of a variable. Only of you write $foo() are you explicitly executing a function.
Having said that, there are some situations in which object methods will be called implicitly. For instance, if $foo is an object and you use it in a string context:
echo $foo;
This will (try to) implicitly call $foo->__toString().
Please do not get the idea to somehow abuse this implied method call to do anything fancy. If you want to call functions, call functions. You can even return functions from other functions, so there's no lack of possibility to pass around functions. You will have to call them explicitly with () however.
There are variable functions:
php > function foo($bar) { echo $bar; }
php > $baz = 'foo';
php > $baz('qux');
qux
But you cannot have PHP automatically execute that "referenced" function when the variable is simply accessed, e.g:
php > $baz;
php >
As you can see, the foo function was not called, and no output was performed. Without the () to signify a function call, that variable is like any other - it's just a string whose contents happen to be the same as a particular functions. It's the () that makes the string "executable".
Note that variable functions, while useful in some limited circumstances, should be avoided as they can lead to spaghetti code and difficult-to-debug bugs.
You can use the magic method __get().
class Printer {
public function __get($name)
{
switch($name) {
case "content":
return Documents::get();
break;
default:
return $this->$name;
break;
}
}
}
But this cannot be done in static context. So you would have to have an instance of Printer. (Perhaps use a singleton?)
I have the following piece of code
copy($source, $target);
I also use
move_uploaded_file($source, $target);
To prevent code reuse, I want to pass copy and move_uploaded_file in via a variable.
If my variable is $var = "copy";, simply putting $var($source, $target);, doesn't seem to work.
Are there any special characters that must surround $var?
Thanks.
The correct syntax is $var (variable functions), so your code should work.
But please don't do that, just write the code in a straightforward and readable manner. There are legitimate use cases for this technique, but this is not one of them.
You want to look at Variable Functions which goes on to explain how to do that.
function foo() {
echo "In foo()<br />\n";
}
$bar = 'foo';
$bar(); //this calls foo()
This can also be done on both object methods and static methods.
Object Methods
class Foo
{
function MyFunction()
{
//code here
}
}
$foo = new Foo();
$funcName = "MyFunction";
$foo->$funcName();
Static Methods
class Bar
{
static function MyStaticFunction()
{
//code here
}
}
$funcName = "MyStaticFunction";
Bar::$funcName();
While maybe not the case in your situation, when dealing with functions dynamically like this, it is important to check whether the function actually exists and/or is callable.
Alternatively to using Variable Functions, you can use call_user_func which will call the function based on the string name and with provided parameters.
You can use the PHP function call_user_func().
More info here.
You can use call_user_func to do this.
$result = call_user_func($functionToCall, $source, $target)
Documentation: PHP: call_user_func
as far as i know your code should work
here is the link for your refrence
<?php
$ar = (object) array('a'=>function(){
echo 'TEST';
});
$ar->a();
?>
I get this error Call to undefined method
Update:
If you are using PHP 5.3 or greater, take a look at other answers please :)
I don't think that's correct syntax, it would give you:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_FUNCTION in....
You need to create a class, add method to it, use new keyword to instantiate it and then you will be able to do:
$ar->a();
class myclass
{
public function a()
{
echo 'TEST';
}
}
$ar = new myclass;
$ar->a(); // TEST
See Classes and Objects for more information.
Anonymous or not, you have a callback function, thus you need to handle it as such. E.g.:
<?php
$ar = (object) array(
'a' => function(){
echo 'TEST';
}
);
call_user_func($ar->a);
?>
For some reason it doesn't seem possibly to run the closure the way you do.
If you modify your code and set another variable to the function, it can be called:
$ar = (object) array('a'=>function(){
echo 'TEST';
});
$a = $ar->a;
$a();
This is no solution. But from what I can see, this seems like a bug or limitation in PHP 5.3.
I am using 5.3.5 when trying this.
There is no function a() but the property a, so you should call it by $ar->a.
Anyway I don't think it's going to work the way you expect it to.
EDIT:
As suggested by Álvaro G. Vicario you should use call_user_func, not echo to call the function and it will work correctly.
Or, just for the fun of it, you can do something like this -
<?php
$ar = new stdClass;
$ar->a = function($to_echo){ echo $to_echo; };
$temp = $ar->a;
//[Edit] - $ar->a("hello"); // doesn't work! php tries to match an instance method called "func" that is not defined in the original class' signature
$temp("Hey there");
call_user_func($ar->a("You still there?"));
?>
Is it possible to pass functions by reference?
Something like this:
function call($func){
$func();
}
function test(){
echo "hello world!";
}
call(test);
I know that you could do 'test', but I don't really want that, as I need to pass the function by reference.
Is the only way to do so via anonymous functions?
Clarification: If you recall from C++, you could pass a function via pointers:
void call(void (*func)(void)){
func();
}
Or in Python:
def call(func):
func()
That's what i'm trying to accomplish.
For what it's worth, how about giving something like this a shot? (Yes, I know it's an anonymous function which was mentioned in the post, but I was disgruntled at the abundance of replies that did not mention closures/function-objects at all so this is mostly a note for people running across this post.)
I don't use PHP, but using a closure appears to work in PHP 5.3 (but not PHP 5.2) as demonstrated here. I am not sure what the limitations, if any, there are. (For all I know the closure will eat your children. You have been warned.)
function doIt ($fn) {
echo "doIt\n";
return $fn();
}
function doMe () {
echo "doMe\n";
}
// I am using a closure here.
// There may be a more clever way to "get the function-object" representing a given
// named function, but I do not know what it is. Again, I *don't use PHP* :-)
echo doIt(function () { doMe(); });
Happy coding.
The problem with call_user_func() is that you're passing the return value of the function called, not the function itself.
I've run into this problem before too and here's the solution I came up with.
function funcRef($func){
return create_function('', "return call_user_func_array('{$func}', func_get_args());");
}
function foo($a, $b, $c){
return sprintf("A:%s B:%s C:%s", $a, $b, $c);
}
$b = funcRef("foo");
echo $b("hello", "world", 123);
//=> A:hello B:world C:123
ideone.com demo
No, functions are not first class values in PHP, they cannot be passed by their name literal (which is what you're asking for). Even anonymous functions or functions created via create_function are passed by an object or string reference.
You can pass a name of a function as string, the name of an object method as (object, string) array or an anonymous function as object. None of these pass pointers or references, they just pass on the name of the function. All of these methods are known as the callback pseudo-type: http://php.net/callback
function func1(){
echo 'echo1 ';
return 'return1';
}
function func2($func){
echo 'echo2 ' . $func();
}
func2('func1');
Result:
echo1 echo2 return1
In PHP 5.4.4 (haven't tested lower or other versions), you can do exactly as you suggested.
Take this as an example:
function test ($func) {
$func('moo');
}
function aFunctionToPass ($str) {
echo $str;
}
test('aFunctionToPass');
The script will echo "moo" as if you called "aFunctionToPass" directly.
A similar pattern of this Javascript first class function:
function add(first, second, callback){
console.log(first+second);
if (callback) callback();
}
function logDone(){
console.log('done');
}
function logDoneAgain(){
console.log('done Again');
}
add(2,3, logDone);
add(3,5, logDoneAgain);
Can be done in PHP (Tested with 5.5.9-1ubuntu on C9 IDE) in the following way:
// first class function
$add = function($first, $second, $callback) {
echo "\n\n". $first+$second . "\n\n";
if ($callback) $callback();
};
function logDone(){
echo "\n\n done \n\n";
}
call_user_func_array($add, array(2, 3, logDone));
call_user_func_array($add, array(3, 6, function(){
echo "\n\n done executing an anonymous function!";
}));
Result: 5 done 9 done executing an anonymous function!
Reference: https://github.com/zenithtekla/unitycloud/commit/873659c46c10c1fe5312f5cde55490490191e168
You can create a reference by assigning the function to a local variable when you declare it:
$test = function() {
echo "hello world!";
};
function call($func){
$func();
}
call($test);
You can say
$fun = 'test';
call($fun);
Instead of call(test);, use call_user_func('test');.
As of PHP 8.1, you can use First-class callables:
call(test(...));
You can even use methods:
call($obj->test(...));
As simple as it is.
It appears a bit unclear why do you want to pass functions by reference? Usually things are passed by reference only when the referenced data needs to be (potentially) modified by the function.
As PHP uses arrays or strings to refer functions, you could just pass an array or a string by reference and that would allow the function reference to be modified.
For example, you could do something like
<?php
$mysort = function($a, b) { return ($a < $b) ? 1 : -1; };
adjust_sort_from_config($mysort); // modifies $mysort
do_something_with_data($mysort);
where
<?php
function load_my_configuration(&$fun)
{
$sort_memory = new ...;
...
$fun = [$sort_memory, "customSort"];
// or simply
$fun = function($a, b) { return (rand(1,10) < 4 ? 1 : -1; };
}
This works because there are three ways to refer to function in PHP via a variable:
$name – the string $name contains the name of the function in global namespace that should be called
array($object, $name) – refers to method called string $name of object $object.
array($class, $name) – refers to static function string $name of class $class.
If I remember correctly, the methods and static functions pointed by these constructs must be public. The "First-class callable syntax" should improve this restriction given recent enough PHP version but it seems to be just some syntactic sugar around Closure::fromCallable().
Anonymous functions work the same behind the scenes. You just don't see the literal random names of those functions anywhere but the reference to an anonymous function is just a value of a variable, too.
I have this:
one string variable which holds the class name ($classname)
one string variable with holds the property name ($propertyname)
I want to get that property from that class, the problem is, the property is static and I don't know how to do that.
If the property weren't static, it would have been:
$classname->$propertyname;
if the property were a method, I could have used call_user_function
call_user_func(array($classname, $propertyname));
But in my case, am I just lost. I am however hoping that it is possible. With the thousands of functions that PHP has, he'd better have something for this as well. Maybe I'm missing something?
Thanks!
Edit:
for those with eval() solutions: thanks, but it is out of the question
for those with get _class _vars() solutions: thanks, but it seems it returns "the default properties of the given class" (php.net), and yes, I would like that value to be changable (even though it does help me in some of the cases)
If you are using PHP 5.3.0 or greater, you can use the following:
$classname::$$propertyname;
Unfortunately, if you are using a version lower than 5.3.0, you are stuck using eval() (get_class_vars() will not work if the value is dynamic).
$value = eval($classname.'::$'.$propertyname.';');
EDIT: I've just said get_class_vars() wouldn't work if the value is dynamic, but apparently, variable static members are part of "the default properties of a class". You could use the following wrapper:
function get_user_prop($className, $property) {
if(!class_exists($className)) return null;
if(!property_exists($className, $property)) return null;
$vars = get_class_vars($className);
return $vars[$property];
}
class Foo { static $bar = 'Fizz'; }
echo get_user_prop('Foo', 'bar'); // echoes Fizz
Foo::$bar = 'Buzz';
echo get_user_prop('Foo', 'bar'); // echoes Buzz
Unfortunately, if you want to set the value of the variable, you will still need to use eval(), but with some validation in place, it's not so evil.
function set_user_prop($className, $property,$value) {
if(!class_exists($className)) return false;
if(!property_exists($className, $property)) return false;
/* Since I cannot trust the value of $value
* I am putting it in single quotes (I don't
* want its value to be evaled. Now it will
* just be parsed as a variable reference).
*/
eval($className.'::$'.$property.'=$value;');
return true;
}
class Foo { static $bar = 'Fizz'; }
echo get_user_prop('Foo', 'bar'); // echoes Fizz
set_user_prop('Foo', 'bar', 'Buzz');
echo get_user_prop('Foo', 'bar'); // echoes Buzz
set_user_prop() with this validation should be secure. If people start putting random things as $className and $property, it will exit out of the function as it won't be an existing class or property. As of $value, it is never actually parsed as code so whatever they put in there won't affect the script.
I think this is the simplest:
$foo = new ReflectionProperty('myClassName', 'myPropertyName');
print $foo->getValue();
To return a variable value that is set by a Static Variable you need to call:
$static_value = constant($classname.'::'.$propertyname);
Check out the documentation :: PHP Constant Documentation
You should be able to do something like:
eval("echo $classname::$propertyname;");
I just did a quick test and got this to work for me. Not sure if there's a better way or not, but I wasn't able to find one.
'eval' looks so close to 'evil', and I hate using it and/or seeing it in code. With a few ideas from other answers, here's a way to avoid it even if your php isn't 5.3 or higher.
Changed to reflect testing based on a comment.
class A {
static $foo = 'bar';
}
A::$foo = 'baz';
$a = new A;
$class = get_class($a);
$vars = get_class_vars($class);
echo $vars['foo'];
Outputs 'baz'.
One thing I noticed is that you can't set variables which are protected in static classes as the eval() command runs in a scope outside the class. The only thing to get around this would be to implement a static method inside the/every class which runs the eval(). This method could be protected as the call_user_func() [to call the setter method] also runs from inside the class.
Potentially relevant: discussion on late static binding in PHP - When would you need to use late static binding?.
get_class_vars is not same as get_object_vars.
I think get_clas_vars should return the original property values.
Even if for you said eval is out of the question, prior PHP 5.3 the easiest solution is still by using eval:
eval("\$propertyval = $classname::\$propertyname;");
echo $propertyval;
Getting and setting both static and non static properties without using Reflection
Using Reflection works but it is costly
Here is what I use for this purpose,
It works for PHP 5 >= 5.1.0 because I'm using property_exist
function getObjectProperty($object, $property)
{
if (property_exists(get_class($object), $property)) {
return array_key_exists($property, get_object_vars($object))
? $object->{$property}
: $object::$$property;
}
}
function setObjectProperty($object, $property, $value)
{
if (property_exists(get_class($object), $property)) {
array_key_exists($property, get_object_vars($object))
? $object->{$property} = $value
: $object::$$property = $value;
}
}
You can use ReflectionClass:
class foo
{
private static $bar = "something";
}
$class = "foo";
$reflector = new ReflectionClass($class);
$static_vars = $reflector->getStaticProperties();
var_dump($static_vars["bar"]);