How do I dynamically invoke a class method in PHP?

Question

How can I dynamically invoke a class method in PHP? The class method is not static. It appears that

call_user_func(...)

only works with st

Answer 1

Class Foo{
 public function show(){
  echo 'I am in Foo Class show method';
 }

}

call_user_func(array('Foo', 'show'));

$classname = new Foo;
call_user_func(array($classname, 'show'));
call_user_func($classname .'::show'); // As of 5.2.3

$foo = new Foo();    
call_user_func(array($foo, 'show'));

Answer 2

Option 1

// invoke an instance method
$instance = new Instance();
$instanceMethod = 'bar';
$instance->$instanceMethod();

// invoke a static method
$class = 'NameOfTheClass';
$staticMethod = 'blah';
$class::$staticMethod();

Option 2

// invoke an instance method
$instance = new Instance();
call_user_func( array( $instance, 'method' ) );

// invoke a static method
$class = 'NameOfTheClass';
call_user_func( array( $class, 'nameOfStaticMethod' ) );
call_user_func( 'NameOfTheClass::nameOfStaticMethod' ); // (As of PHP 5.2.3)

Option 1 is faster than Option 2 so try to use them unless you don't know how many arguments your going to be passing to the method.

---

Edit: Previous editor did great job of cleaning up my answer but removed mention of call_user_func_array which is different then call_user_func.

PHP has

mixed call_user_func ( callable $callback [, mixed $parameter [, mixed $... ]] ) 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.call-user-func.php

AND

mixed call_user_func_array ( callable $callback , array $param_arr )

http://php.net/manual/en/function.call-user-func-array.php

Using call_user_func_array is orders of magnitude slower then using either option listed above.

Answer 3

THe best way i find is to do

call_user_func_array(array(__NAMESPACE__ .'\Foo', 'test'), array('Philip'));

It's working like a charm !