Assigning anonymous functions to variables of PHP

Assigning anonymous functions to variables

When you define an anonymous function, you can then store it in a variable, just like any other value. Here’s an example:

// Assign an anonymous function to a variable
$makeGreeting = function( $name, $timeOfDay ) {
  return ( "Good $timeOfDay, $name!" );
};

Once you’ve done that, you can call the function using the variable’s name, just like you call a regular function:

// Call the anonymous function
echo $makeGreeting( "Fred", "morning" ) . "<br>";
echo $makeGreeting( "Mary", "afternoon" ) . "<br>";

This produces the output:

Good morning, Fred!
Good afternoon, Mary!

You can even store several functions inside an array, like this:

// Store 3 anonymous functions in an array
$luckyDip = array(

  function() {
    echo "You got a bag of toffees!";
  },

  function() {
    echo "You got a toy car!";
  },

  function() {
    echo "You got some balloons!";
  }
);

Once you’ve done that, your code can decide which function to call at runtime. For example, it could call a function at random:

// Call a random function
$choice = rand( 0, 2 );
$luckyDip[$choice]();