PHP: Variable in a function name

Question

I want to trigger a function based on a variable.

function sound_dog() { return \'woof\'; }
function sound_cow() { return \'moo\'; }

$animal = \'cow\';
print soun         


        

Answer 1

You can do it like this:

$animal = 'cow';
$sounder = "sound_$animal";
print ${sounder}();

However, a much better way would be to use an array:

$sounds = array('dog' => sound_dog, 'cow' => sound_cow);

$animal = 'cow';
print $sounds[$animal]();

One of the advantages of the array method is that when you come back to your code six months later and wonder "gee, where is this sound_cow function used?" you can answer that question with a simple text search instead of having to follow all the logic that creates variable function names on the fly.