help with passing arguments to function

Question

function get_tags_by_criteria($gender=\"%\", $min_age_of_birth=\"%\", $max_age_of_birth=\"%\", $country=\"%\", $region=\"%\", $city=\"%\", $tag=\"\") {

Answer 1

You can simulate named arguments using an associative array:

function my_function($options)
 {
  extract($options);
 }

then call

my_function(array("parameter1" => "value1", "parameter2" => "value2"));

that, combined with robust checking and table of default values inside the function, works very nicely for me.

Downside: There is no phpDoc convention to document the arguments, and your IDE will not be able to show the available arguments to you as you type. You will have to enter the available parameters into the @desc block which, depending on your IDE, may or may not look nice.

One workaround for this is to declare all the parameters in the function, but make all of them but the first one optional. The first one can then be the associative array containing the values.