Named Arguments in PHP

Question

In C#, there is a new feature coming with 4.0 called Named Arguments and get along well with Optional Parameters.

private static void writeSomething(int a =          


        

Answer 1

You can fake C++-style optional arguments (i.e. all optional arguments are at the end) by checking for set variables:

function foo($a, $b)
{
  $x = isset($a) ? $a : 3;
  $y = isset($b) ? $b : 4;
  print("X = $x, Y = $y\n");
}

@foo(8);
@foo();

It'll trigger a warning, which I'm suppressing with @. Not the most elegant solution, but syntactically close to what you wanted.

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Edit. That was a silly idea. Use variadic arguments instead:

// faking foo($x = 3, $y = 3)
function foo()
{
  $args = func_get_args();
  $x = isset($args[0]) ? $args[0] : 3;
  $y = isset($args[1]) ? $args[1] : 3;
  print("X = $x, Y = $y\n");
}

foo(12,14);
foo(8);
foo();