Use Variable as Function Name in PHP [duplicate]

Answer 1

$x = 'file_get_contents';
$html = $x('http://google.com');

is functionally equivalent to doing

$html = file_get_contents('http://google.com');

They're called variable functions, and generally should be avoided as they're too far removed from variable variables.

Answer 2

Declaring a function with a variable but arbitrary name like this is not possible without getting your hands dirty with eval() or include().

I think based on what you're trying to do, you'll want to store an anonymous function in that variable instead (use create_function() if you're not on PHP 5.3+):

$variableA = function() {
    // Do stuff
};

You can still call it as you would any variable function, like so:

$variableA();

Answer 3

you can do this:

$foo = function() {
    //..
};

and then:

$foo(); 

works in PHP 5.3+