passing indefinite number of arguments to function without using an array

you can use :

$function_args = func_get_args();

inside your test() function definition .

You can just define your function as

function test ()

then use the func_get_args function in php.

Then you can deal with the arguments as an array.

Example

function reverseConcat(){
      return implode (" ", array_reverse(func_get_args()));
}

echo reverseConcat("World", "Hello"); // echos Hello World

If you truely want to deal with them as though they where named parameters you could do something like this.

function getDistance(){
     $params = array("x1", "y1", "x2", "y2");
     $args = func_get_args();
     // trim excess params
     if (count($args) >  count($params) {
         $args = array_slice(0, count($params));
     } elseif (count($args) < count($params)){
         // define missing parameters as empty string
         $args = array_pad($args, count($params), "");
     } 
     extract (array_combine($params, $args));
     return sqrt(pow(abs($x1-$x2),2) + pow(abs($y1-$y2),2));

}

use this function:

  function test() {
      $args = func_get_args();
      foreach ($args as $arg) {
        echo "Arg: $arg\n";
      }
    }

I'm not sure what you mean by "same format." Do you mean same type, like they all have to be a string? Or do you mean they need to all have to meet some criteria, like if it's a list of phone numbers they need to be (ddd) ddd-dddd?

If it's the latter, you'll have just as much trouble with pre-defined arguments, so I'll assume you mean you want them all to be the same type.

So, going off of the already suggested solution of using func_get_args(), I would also apply array_filter() to ensure the type:

function set_names() {

    function string_only($arg) {

        return(is_string($arg));

    }

    $names_provided = func_get_args();  
    // Now you have an array of the args provided

    $names_provided_clean = array_filter($names_provided, "string_only"); 
    // This pulls out any non-string args

    $names = array_values($names_provided_clean); 
    // Because array_filter doesn't reindex, this will reset numbering for array.

     foreach($names as $name) {
           echo $name;
           echo PHP_EOL;
      }
}

set_names("Joe", "Bill", 45, array(1,2,3), "Jane");

Notice that I don't do any deeper sanity-checks, so there could be issues if no values are passed in, etc.

You can use array also using explode http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php.

$separator = ",";
$prepareArray = explode ( $separator , '$argum1,$argum2,$argum3');

but be careful, $argum1,$argum2, etc should not contain , in value. You can overcome this by adding any separator. $separator = "VeryUniqueSeparator"; I don't have code so can't tell exact code. But manipulating this will work as your requirements.