Functions explained PHP

Anonymous functions explained

As you probably know, you define a regular function in PHP like this:

function myFunctionName() {
  // (Your function code goes here)
}

When you define a function, you give it a name (myFunctionName in the above example). PHP then lets your code refer to this function using its name. For example, you can call your function like this:

myFunctionName();

Anonymous functions are similar to regular functions, in that they contain a block of code that is run when they are called. They can also accept arguments, and return values.

The key difference — as their name implies — is that anonymous functions have no name. Here’s a code example that creates a simple anonymous function:

// Declare a basic anonymous function
// (not much use on its own!)
function( $name, $timeOfDay ) {
  return ( "Good $timeOfDay, $name!" );
};