Re: trying to do too much with functions?
| From: | Matthew Weier O'Phinney | Date: | Thu, 02 Sep 2004 19:18:11 +0000 |
| Subject: | Re: trying to do too much with functions? | ||
| References: | 1 2 3 | Groups: | php.general |
| Request: | Send a blank email to php-general+get-195647@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
* Jonathan Haddad <jon@oldirtyhaddad.com>:
> John Holmes elegantly wrote:
> > From: "Justin French" <justin.french@indent.com.au>
> > > I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or
> > > functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I
> > > constantly have to refer to as I'm working.
<snip>
> > > My main objectives:
> > >
> > > 1. have all parameters optional
> > > 2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
<snip>
> > > <? $params =
> > > array('a'=>'123','b'=>'456'); echo doStuff($params);
> > > ?>
> > >
> > > <?=doStuff(array('a'=>'123','b'=>'456'))?>
> > > <?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?>
> > > <?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?>
> > > <?=doStuff("a='123' b='456'")?>
> > >
> > > So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
I come from a perl background, which assumes an array is passed to a
subroutine. So, I personally like passing associative arrays to PHP
functions/methods, as this gives me very similar functionality. This
corresponds to the first two examples given by the OP.
However, regarding the following...
> > Have you looked at the "Function Handling Functions"?
> >
> > http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.funchand.php
<snip>
> OR, if you really wanted to get crazy, you could do it like objective-C.
>
> function blah()
> {
> // contents
> }
>
> call the function like so
>
> $classobject->function("firstname:jim", "lastname:steve" );
>
> within the function, you could call func_get_args, then map your
> variables to an array using list($var, $val) = explode( ":", $arg[x] )
>
> of course, if you had a : (colon) in either string that exact solution
> wouldn't work. but that's not the point of this lesson.
Actually, as long as there are no colons in the variable name (key)
portion, you're fine -- simply do:
list($var, $val) = explode(':', $arg[x], 2);
which limits you to two return values from your explode() statement.
Unfortunately, what you're left with is:
$args = func_get_args();
for ($i = 0; $i < count($args); $i++) {
$list($var, $val) = explode(':', $args[$i], 2);
$$var = $val;
}
You could make a function out of the above loop:
function get_args($args) {
$arg = array();
for ($i = 0; $i < count($args); $i++) {
$list($var, $val) = explode(':', $args[$i], 2);
$arg[$var] = $val;
}
return $arg;
}
function do_something() {
$args = func_get_args(); $args = get_args($args); extract($args);
// do something now...
}
But, as you can see, you still end up with a lot of duplication and
chances to go wrong -- for instance, what if you forget to include the
file that has get_args() in it?
This is why I like OOP... :-)
--
Matthew Weier O'Phinney | mailto:matthew@garden.org
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