What is PHP function overloading for?

Question

In languages like Java, overloading can be used in this way:

void test($foo, $bar){}
int test($foo){}

Then if you called test()

Answer 1

To over load a function simply do pass parameter as null by default,

class ParentClass
{
   function mymethod($arg1 = null, $arg2 = null, $arg3 = null)  
   {  
     if( $arg1 == null && $arg2 == null && $arg3 == null ){ 
        return 'function has got zero parameters 
';
     }
     else{
       $str = '';
       if( $arg1 != null ) 
        $str .= "arg1 = ".$arg1." 
";

       if( $arg2 != null ) 
        $str .= "arg2 = ".$arg2." 
";

       if( $arg3 != null ) 
        $str .= "arg3 = ".$arg3." 
";

       return $str;
      }
   }
}

// and call it in order given below ...

$obj = new ParentClass;

echo '
$obj->mymethod()
';
echo $obj->mymethod();

echo '
$obj->mymethod(null,"test") 
';
echo $obj->mymethod(null,'test');

echo '
 $obj->mymethod("test","test","test")
';
echo $obj->mymethod('test','test','test');