<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Function arguments</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Functions" HREF="functions.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Functions" HREF="functions.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Returning values" HREF="functions.returning-values.html"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >PHP Manual</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="functions.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 13. Functions</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="functions.returning-values.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="functions.arguments" ></A >Function arguments</H1 ><P > Information may be passed to functions via the argument list, which is a comma-delimited list of variables and/or constants. </P ><P > PHP supports passing arguments by value (the default), <A HREF="functions.arguments.html#functions.arguments.by-reference" >passing by reference</A >, and <A HREF="functions.arguments.html#functions.arguments.default" >default argument values</A >. Variable-length argument lists are supported only in PHP 4 and later; see <A HREF="functions.arguments.html#functions.variable-arg-list" >Variable-length argument lists</A > and the function references for <A HREF="function.func-num-args.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_num_args()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.func-get-arg.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_get_arg()</B ></A >, and <A HREF="function.func-get-args.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_get_args()</B ></A > for more information. A similar effect can be achieved in PHP 3 by passing an array of arguments to a function: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><A NAME="AEN5344" ></A ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >function takes_array($input) { echo "$input[0] + $input[1] = ", $input[0]+$input[1]; }</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="functions.arguments.by-reference" ></A >Making arguments be passed by reference</H2 ><P > By default, function arguments are passed by value (so that if you change the value of the argument within the function, it does not get changed outside of the function). If you wish to allow a function to modify its arguments, you must pass them by reference. </P ><P > If you want an argument to a function to always be passed by reference, you can prepend an ampersand (&) to the argument name in the function definition: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><A NAME="AEN5350" ></A ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >function add_some_extra(&$string) { $string .= 'and something extra.'; } $str = 'This is a string, '; add_some_extra($str); echo $str; // outputs 'This is a string, and something extra.'</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="functions.arguments.default" ></A >Default argument values</H2 ><P > A function may define C++-style default values for scalar arguments as follows: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><A NAME="AEN5355" ></A ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >function makecoffee ($type = "cappuccino") { return "Making a cup of $type.\n"; } echo makecoffee (); echo makecoffee ("espresso");</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><P > The output from the above snippet is: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="screen" >Making a cup of cappuccino. Making a cup of espresso.</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ><P > The default value must be a constant expression, not (for example) a variable or class member. </P ><P > Note that when using default arguments, any defaults should be on the right side of any non-default arguments; otherwise, things will not work as expected. Consider the following code snippet: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><A NAME="AEN5361" ></A ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >function makeyogurt ($type = "acidophilus", $flavour) { return "Making a bowl of $type $flavour.\n"; } echo makeyogurt ("raspberry"); // won't work as expected</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><P > The output of the above example is: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="screen" >Warning: Missing argument 2 in call to makeyogurt() in /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/php3test/functest.html on line 41 Making a bowl of raspberry .</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ><P > Now, compare the above with this: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><A NAME="AEN5366" ></A ><P ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >function makeyogurt ($flavour, $type = "acidophilus") { return "Making a bowl of $type $flavour.\n"; } echo makeyogurt ("raspberry"); // works as expected</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><P > The output of this example is: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="screen" >Making a bowl of acidophilus raspberry.</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="functions.variable-arg-list" ></A >Variable-length argument lists</H2 ><P > PHP 4 has support for variable-length argument lists in user-defined functions. This is really quite easy, using the <A HREF="function.func-num-args.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_num_args()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.func-get-arg.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_get_arg()</B ></A >, and <A HREF="function.func-get-args.html" ><B CLASS="function" >func_get_args()</B ></A > functions. </P ><P > No special syntax is required, and argument lists may still be explicitly provided with function definitions and will behave as normal. </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="functions.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="functions.returning-values.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Functions</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="functions.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Returning values</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >