Pass a function by reference in PHP

Question

Is it possible to pass functions by reference?

Something like this:

function call($func){
    $func();
}

function test(){
    echo \"hello world!\";         


        

Answer 1

The problem with call_user_func() is that you're passing the return value of the function called, not the function itself.

I've run into this problem before too and here's the solution I came up with.

function funcRef($func){
  return create_function('', "return call_user_func_array('{$func}', func_get_args());");
}

function foo($a, $b, $c){
    return sprintf("A:%s B:%s C:%s", $a, $b, $c);
}

$b = funcRef("foo");

echo $b("hello", "world", 123);

//=> A:hello B:world C:123

ideone.com demo