How to pass variable number of arguments to a PHP function

php variadic-functions
nohat picture nohat · Sep 14, 2009 · Viewed 109.4k times · Source

I have a PHP function that takes a variable number of arguments (using func_num_args() and func_get_args()), but the number of arguments I want to pass the function depends on the length of an array. Is there a way to call a PHP function with a variable number of arguments?

Answer

Pascal MARTIN picture Pascal MARTIN · Sep 14, 2009

If you have your arguments in an array, you might be interested by the call_user_func_array function.

If the number of arguments you want to pass depends on the length of an array, it probably means you can pack them into an array themselves -- and use that one for the second parameter of call_user_func_array.

Elements of that array you pass will then be received by your function as distinct parameters.


For instance, if you have this function :

function test() {
  var_dump(func_num_args());
  var_dump(func_get_args());
}

You can pack your parameters into an array, like this :

$params = array(
  10,
  'glop',
  'test',
);

And, then, call the function :

call_user_func_array('test', $params);

This code will the output :

int 3

array
  0 => int 10
  1 => string 'glop' (length=4)
  2 => string 'test' (length=4)

ie, 3 parameters ; exactly like iof the function was called this way :

test(10, 'glop', 'test');

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