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create_function

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1)

create_function -- Create an anonymous (lambda-style) function

Description

string create_function (string args, string code)

Creates an anonymous function from the parameters passed, and returns a unique name for it. Usually the args will be passed as a single quote delimited string, and this is also recommended for the code. The reason for using single quoted strings, is to protect the variable names from parsing, otherwise, if you use double quotes there will be a need to escape the variable names, e.g. \$avar.

You can use this function, to (for example) create a function from information gathered at run time:

Example 1. Creating an anonymous function with create_function() 

$newfunc = create_function('$a,$b','return "ln($a) + ln($b) = ".log($a * $b);');
echo "New anonymous function: $newfunc\n";
echo $newfunc(2,M_E)."\n";
// outputs
// New anonymous function: lambda_1
// ln(2) + ln(2.718281828459) = 1.6931471805599
Or, perhaps to have general handler function that can apply a set of operations to a list of parameters:

Example 2. Making a general processing function with create_function() 

function process($var1, $var2, $farr) {
    for ($f=0; $f < count($farr); $f++)
    echo $farr[$f]($var1,$var2)."\n";
}

// create a bunch of math functions
$f1 = 'if ($a >=0) {return "b*a^2 = ".$b*sqrt($a);} else {return false;}';
$f2 = "return \"min(b^2+a, a^2,b) = \".min(\$a*\$a+\$b,\$b*\$b+\$a);";
$f3 = 'if ($a > 0 && $b != 0) {return "ln(a)/b = ".log($a)/$b;} else {return false;}';
$farr = array(
    create_function('$x,$y', 'return "some trig: ".(sin($x) + $x*cos($y));'),
    create_function('$x,$y', 'return "a hypotenuse: ".sqrt($x*$x + $y*$y);'),
    create_function('$a,$b', $f1),
    create_function('$a,$b', $f2),
    create_function('$a,$b', $f3)
    );

echo "\nUsing the f