Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
From: Justin French [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or functions
which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I constantly have to
refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as my templating language
(none smarty here!) as well as the programming language. So I've been
looking for some alternatives...
My main objectives:
1. have all parameters optional
2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
Other languages seem to do this well (Ruby, or perhaps RubyOnRails seems
good at it), but in PHP I can only see a few options... I'm hoping someone
might offer a few more ideas.
? $params = array('a'='123','b'='456'); echo doStuff($params); ?
?=doStuff(array('a'='123','b'='456'))?
?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?
?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?
?=doStuff(a='123' b='456')?
So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
Have you looked at the Function Handling Functions?
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.funchand.php
An array is probably your best bet, though, since you want to have mixed
orders. The only way you'd be able to identify what parameter is which is by
using the keys of the array, then.
---John Holmes...
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Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
Justin French wrote: I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I constantly have to refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as my templating language (none smarty here!) as well as the programming language. So I've been looking for some alternatives... hey you forgot C :-) now that java has also adapted a vargs look a like i guess it's high time for PHP to do the same. When faced with the find of situation that you are seem to face what I do is create a class and pass it along as a single parameter. -- Raditha Dissanayake. http://www.radinks.com/sftp/ | http://www.raditha.com/megaupload Lean and mean Secure FTP applet with | Mega Upload - PHP file uploader Graphical User Inteface. Just 128 KB | with progress bar. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
On Thursday 02 September 2004 22:11, Justin French wrote:
I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or
functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I
constantly have to refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as my
templating language (none smarty here!) as well as the programming
language. So I've been looking for some alternatives...
My main objectives:
1. have all parameters optional
2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
Other languages seem to do this well (Ruby, or perhaps RubyOnRails
seems good at it), but in PHP I can only see a few options... I'm
hoping someone might offer a few more ideas.
? $params = array('a'='123','b'='456'); echo doStuff($params); ?
?=doStuff(array('a'='123','b'='456'))?
?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?
?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?
?=doStuff(a='123' b='456')?
So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
Some languages handle it gracefully by allowing you to specify the parameters
name and value when calling the function. AFAIK using arrays is the only way
of emulating such a behaviour in PHP. Doing so allows you to easily extend a
function's functionality and also not having to worry about order of
parameters etc. Just look at how many of PHP's own functions have been
extended over the years. And at least one of them have had the parameters
switched around.
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Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
On Thu, 2004-09-02 at 07:11, Justin French wrote:
I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or
functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I
constantly have to refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as my
templating language (none smarty here!) as well as the programming
language. So I've been looking for some alternatives...
My main objectives:
1. have all parameters optional
2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
Other languages seem to do this well (Ruby, or perhaps RubyOnRails
seems good at it), but in PHP I can only see a few options... I'm
hoping someone might offer a few more ideas.
? $params = array('a'='123','b'='456'); echo doStuff($params); ?
?=doStuff(array('a'='123','b'='456'))?
?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?
?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?
?=doStuff(a='123' b='456')?
So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
/**
* pass an array..so as long as you pass one thing...
*/
function doStuff($args)
{
// do something
print_r($args);
}
/**
* this arg is optional as it has a default value
*/
function doSomething($x=0)
{
return $x;
}
-Robby
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Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
John Holmes elegantly wrote:
From: Justin French [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or
functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I
constantly have to refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as
my templating language (none smarty here!) as well as the programming
language. So I've been looking for some alternatives...
My main objectives:
1. have all parameters optional
2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
Other languages seem to do this well (Ruby, or perhaps RubyOnRails
seems good at it), but in PHP I can only see a few options... I'm
hoping someone might offer a few more ideas.
? $params = array('a'='123','b'='456'); echo doStuff($params); ?
?=doStuff(array('a'='123','b'='456'))?
?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?
?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?
?=doStuff(a='123' b='456')?
So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
Have you looked at the Function Handling Functions?
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.funchand.php
An array is probably your best bet, though, since you want to have
mixed orders. The only way you'd be able to identify what parameter is
which is by using the keys of the array, then.
---John Holmes...
OR, if you really wanted to get crazy, you could do it like objective-C.
function blah()
{
// contents
}
call the function like so
$classobject-function(firstname:jim, lastname:steve );
within the function, you could call func_get_args, then map your
variables to an array using list($var, $val) = explode( :, $arg[x] )
of course, if you had a : (colon) in either string that exact solution
wouldn't work. but that's not the point of this lesson.
i should note that I've considered doing this before and I didn't. Now
i just use default values of NULL.
Jon
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Re: [PHP] trying to do too much with functions?
* Jonathan Haddad [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
John Holmes elegantly wrote:
From: Justin French [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or
functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I
constantly have to refer to as I'm working.
snip
My main objectives:
1. have all parameters optional
2. have a mixed order for the paramaters
snip
? $params = array('a'='123','b'='456'); echo doStuff($params); ?
?=doStuff(array('a'='123','b'='456'))?
?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?
?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?
?=doStuff(a='123' b='456')?
So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options?
I come from a perl background, which assumes an array is passed to a
subroutine. So, I personally like passing associative arrays to PHP
functions/methods, as this gives me very similar functionality. This
corresponds to the first two examples given by the OP.
However, regarding the following...
Have you looked at the Function Handling Functions?
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.funchand.php
snip
OR, if you really wanted to get crazy, you could do it like objective-C.
function blah()
{
// contents
}
call the function like so
$classobject-function(firstname:jim, lastname:steve );
within the function, you could call func_get_args, then map your
variables to an array using list($var, $val) = explode( :, $arg[x] )
of course, if you had a : (colon) in either string that exact solution
wouldn't work. but that's not the point of this lesson.
Actually, as long as there are no colons in the variable name (key)
portion, you're fine -- simply do:
list($var, $val) = explode(':', $arg[x], 2);
which limits you to two return values from your explode() statement.
Unfortunately, what you're left with is:
$args = func_get_args();
for ($i = 0; $i count($args); $i++) {
$list($var, $val) = explode(':', $args[$i], 2);
$$var = $val;
}
You could make a function out of the above loop:
function get_args($args) {
$arg = array();
for ($i = 0; $i count($args); $i++) {
$list($var, $val) = explode(':', $args[$i], 2);
$arg[$var] = $val;
}
return $arg;
}
function do_something() {
$args = func_get_args(); $args = get_args($args); extract($args);
// do something now...
}
But, as you can see, you still end up with a lot of duplication and
chances to go wrong -- for instance, what if you forget to include the
file that has get_args() in it?
This is why I like OOP... :-)
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