Can I pass an array instead of multiple related arguments to the function?

Question

I have a function which provides a HTML for me. Something like this:

function user_profile ($name, $age, $location){
    return "<div class='myclass' style='color:red'>
                <span class='title'>user's profile</span>
                <ul>
                    <li>Name: $name</li>
                    <li>Age: $age</li>
                    <li>location: $location</li>
                </ul>
            </div>";
} 

echo user_profile ($name, $age, $location);

Function above is a simplified of my real function. In reality, that function has 14 arguments and the HTML is much more longer.

Anyway, I want to know can I make it more clean? I mean, can I make an array of all arguments and just pass it (the array)? In that case how can I use it into the function?

Again, in reality my code is much bigger and the above one is just a sample.

you can pass an array or object as a parameter to your function which would make accessing each of the individual parameters much easier and more maintainable — Professor Abronsius
– Professor Abronsius, Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 21:55
@developer Not really, in reality there is some dynamic variables which are wrapped into other tags. — Martin AJ
– Martin AJ, Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 21:56
You can leave the function as is and use call_user_func_array(). — AbraCadaver
– AbraCadaver, Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 23:08

The One and Only ChemistryBlob · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-16 22:12:21Z

3

The answer is yes, you can pass an array as an argument. In your code it would look something like this:

function user_profile ($array){
    return "<div class='myclass' style='color:red'>
                <span class='title'>user's profile</span>
                <ul>
                    <li>Name: $array[0]</li>
                    <li>Age: $array[1]</li>
                    <li>location: $array[2]</li>
                </ul>
            </div>";
} 

//variables in the following array are defined elsewhere in script - not revelant here

$array = array($name, $age, $location);
echo user_profile($array);

A more attractive way to do this would be to use key-value pairs via an associative array:

function user_profile ($array){
    return "<div class='myclass' style='color:red'>
                <span class='title'>user's profile</span>
                <ul>
                    <li>Name: " . $array['Name'] . "</li>
                    <li>Age: " . $array['Age'] . "</li>
                    <li>location: " . $array['Location'] . "</li>
                </ul>
            </div>";
} 

//variables in the following array are defined elsewhere in script - not revelant here

$array = array('Name' => $name, 'Age' => $age, 'Location' => $location);
echo user_profile($array);

This method, using associative arrays, would allow you to more easily match array keys with the HTML list item content.

edited Sep 16, 2016 at 22:12

answered Sep 16, 2016 at 21:55

The One and Only ChemistryBlob

7,90211 gold badges41 silver badges76 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Al Kepp Over a year ago

The OP wanted to make it "more clean". So the question is if these numbered array[0], array[1]... make it cleaner than those original named parameters. I don't think so.

The One and Only ChemistryBlob Over a year ago

@Al Kepp, OP wanted to know how to pass an array - it's in the title of the post. Clean or not is definitely based on the opinion of each user

Martin AJ Over a year ago

@AlKepp Is right .. maybe it would be better if you define some names for each key of that array separately. thank you anyway .. upote

Kervon Ryan Over a year ago

Was just writing an answer using array with keys but you fixed it so upvote and also this should be the answer.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:19:25Z

0

In my opinion, Passing array as an argument is the only clean way to do as The One and Only ChemistryBlob said. But can be improved by let it be more dynamic as array can be passed with any number of information.

function user_profile ($array){
    $return ="<div class='myclass' style='color:red'>
                <span class='title'>user's profile</span>
                <ul>".PHP_EOL;
    foreach($array as $key=> $value){
         $return .="<li>".$key.": ".$value."</li>".PHP_EOL;
    }
    $return.="</ul>
            </div>";
    return $return;
} 

$try =['Name' => $name, 
      'Age' => $age, 
      'Location' => $location];

echo user_profile($try);

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:19

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Sep 17, 2016 at 1:21

Narayan Bhandari

4263 silver badges11 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Can I pass an array instead of multiple related arguments to the function?

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related