Just to throw in my two cents since every one else has (not that my 2
cents is worth anything more than just that), but isn't it as easy as
doing something like the following:
(using pseudo example from above)
function db_connect($params) {
$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'root';
$password = '';
$port = 3301;
extract($params, EXTR_OVERWRITE);
// ... more code here
}
This covers the default parameters in a clean fashion which is easy to
understand and should be readable to anyone who knows PHP in even the
slightest fashion.
I think you should use EXTR_IF_EXISTS instead of EXTR_OVERWRITE. I guess you don't want undefined arguments to be defined by the user.
Just adding my 2 cents too.