func_get_args
func_num_args(), func_get_args() and func_get_arg() can be very useful to emulate overloading in PHP.
Suppose you have a class to add a user in a system, and that you want to allow 2 ways of doing it. The first way would be passing an array with all the user info in it, and the second way would be passing each user attribute as a single argument.
<?php
class Test {
function insertUser() {
// gets the number of parameters
$numArgs = func_num_args();
// make decisions based on the arguments number
if ($numArgs == 1) {
// if it's only one argument, we suppose that it is an array with user info
// gets the first argument
$user = func_get_arg(0);
// checks if it really is an array
if (is_array($user)) {
// here you should check if the array contains all necessary fields
// adds the user
echo "User added.<br/>";
echo "ID: " . $user["id"] . "<br/>";
echo "NAME: " . $user["name"] . "<br/>";
echo "EMAIL: " . $user["email"] . "<br/>";
} else {
// generates an error if argument is not an array
echo "Argument is not an array: " . $user . ".<br/>";
}
} else if ($numArgs == 3) {
// if the function receives 3 arguments, we assume that they
// are 'id', 'name' and 'email' respectively
// inserts the user into the system
echo "User added.<br/>";
echo "ID: " . func_get_arg(0) . "<br/>";
echo "NAME: " . func_get_arg(1) . "<br/>";
echo "EMAIL: " . func_get_arg(2) . "<br/>";
} else {
// if the number of arguments is different from 1 and 3
// an error will be generated
echo "Wrong argument number.<br/>";
echo "Arguments received: " . func_num_args();
}
}
}
// creates an Test object
$objTest = new Teste();
// inserts an user passing an array with all his info
$objTest->insertUser(array("id" => 1, "name" => "George W. Bush", "email" => "jackass@whitehouse.gov"));
echo "<br/>";
// inserts an user providing each attribute as a single argument
$objTest->insertUser(2, "Vicente Fox", "iloveusa@disney.com");
echo "<br/>";
// this will generate an error, because only 2 arguments were passed
$objTest->insertUser(3, "Tony Blair");
?>
