To experiment on performance of pass-by-reference and pass-by-value, I used this script. Conclusions are below.
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
function sum($array,$max){ //For Reference, use: "&$array"
$sum=0;
for ($i=0; $i<2; $i++){
#$array[$i]++; //Uncomment this line to modify the array within the function.
$sum += $array[$i];
}
return ($sum);
}
$max = 1E7 //10 M data points.
$data = range(0,$max,1);
$start = microtime(true);
for ($x = 0 ; $x < 100; $x++){
$sum = sum($data, $max);
}
$end = microtime(true);
echo "Time: ".($end - $start)." s\n";
/* Run times:
# PASS BY MODIFIED? Time
- ------- --------- ----
1 value no 56 us
2 reference no 58 us
3 valuue yes 129 s
4 reference yes 66 us
Conclusions:
1. PHP is already smart about zero-copy / copy-on-write. A function call does NOT copy the data unless it needs to; the data is
only copied on write. That's why #1 and #2 take similar times, whereas #3 takes 2 million times longer than #4.
[You never need to use &$array to ask the compiler to do a zero-copy optimisation; it can work that out for itself.]
2. You do use &$array to tell the compiler "it is OK for the function to over-write my argument in place, I don't need the original
any more." This can make a huge difference to performance when we have large amounts of memory to copy.
(This is the only way it is done in C, arrays are always passed as pointers)
3. The other use of & is as a way to specify where data should be *returned*. (e.g. as used by exec() ).
(This is a C-like way of passing pointers for outputs, whereas PHP functions normally return complex types, or multiple answers
in an array)
4. It's unhelpful that only the function definition has &. The caller should have it, at least as syntactic sugar. Otherwise
it leads to unreadable code: because the person reading the function call doesn't expect it to pass by reference. At the moment,
it's necessary to write a by-reference function call with a comment, thus:
$sum = sum($data,$max); //warning, $data passed by reference, and may be modified.
5. Sometimes, pass by reference could be at the choice of the caller, NOT the function definitition. PHP doesn't allow it, but it
would be meaningful for the caller to decide to pass data in as a reference. i.e. "I'm done with the variable, it's OK to stomp
on it in memory".
*/
?>
Function arguments
Information may be passed to functions via the argument list, which is a comma-delimited list of expressions. The arguments are evaluated from left to right.
PHP supports passing arguments by value (the default), passing by reference, and default argument values. Variable-length argument lists are also supported.
Приклад #1 Passing arrays to functions
<?php
function takes_array($input)
{
echo "$input[0] + $input[1] = ", $input[0]+$input[1];
}
?>
Passing arguments by reference
By default, function arguments are passed by value (so that if the value of the argument within the function is changed, it does not get changed outside of the function). To allow a function to modify its arguments, they must be passed by reference.
To have an argument to a function always passed by reference, prepend an ampersand (&) to the argument name in the function definition:
Приклад #2 Passing function parameters by reference
<?php
function add_some_extra(&$string)
{
$string .= 'and something extra.';
}
$str = 'This is a string, ';
add_some_extra($str);
echo $str; // outputs 'This is a string, and something extra.'
?>
Default argument values
A function may define C++-style default values for scalar arguments as follows:
Приклад #3 Use of default parameters in functions
<?php
function makecoffee($type = "cappuccino")
{
return "Making a cup of $type.\n";
}
echo makecoffee();
echo makecoffee(null);
echo makecoffee("espresso");
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
Making a cup of cappuccino. Making a cup of . Making a cup of espresso.
PHP also allows the use of arrays and the special type NULL
as default values, for example:
Приклад #4 Using non-scalar types as default values
<?php
function makecoffee($types = array("cappuccino"), $coffeeMaker = NULL)
{
$device = is_null($coffeeMaker) ? "hands" : $coffeeMaker;
return "Making a cup of ".join(", ", $types)." with $device.\n";
}
echo makecoffee();
echo makecoffee(array("cappuccino", "lavazza"), "teapot");
?>
The default value must be a constant expression, not (for example) a variable, a class member or a function call.
Note that when using default arguments, any defaults should be on the right side of any non-default arguments; otherwise, things will not work as expected. Consider the following code snippet:
Приклад #5 Incorrect usage of default function arguments
<?php
function makeyogurt($type = "acidophilus", $flavour)
{
return "Making a bowl of $type $flavour.\n";
}
echo makeyogurt("raspberry"); // won't work as expected
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
Warning: Missing argument 2 in call to makeyogurt() in /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/phptest/functest.html on line 41 Making a bowl of raspberry .
Now, compare the above with this:
Приклад #6 Correct usage of default function arguments
<?php
function makeyogurt($flavour, $type = "acidophilus")
{
return "Making a bowl of $type $flavour.\n";
}
echo makeyogurt("raspberry"); // works as expected
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
Making a bowl of acidophilus raspberry.
Зауваження: As of PHP 5, arguments that are passed by reference may have a default value.
Type declarations
Зауваження:
Type declarations were also known as type hints in PHP 5.
Type declarations allow functions to require that parameters are of a certain type at call time. If the given value is of the incorrect type, then an error is generated: in PHP 5, this will be a recoverable fatal error, while PHP 7 will throw a TypeError exception.
To specify a type declaration, the type name should be added before the
parameter name. The declaration can be made to accept NULL values if
the default value of the parameter is set to NULL.
Valid types
| Type | Description | Minimum PHP version |
|---|---|---|
| Class/interface name | The parameter must be an instanceof the given class or interface name. | PHP 5.0.0 |
| array | The parameter must be an array. | PHP 5.1.0 |
| callable | The parameter must be a valid callable. | PHP 5.4.0 |
| bool | The parameter must be a boolean value. | PHP 7.0.0 |
| float | The parameter must be a floating point number. | PHP 7.0.0 |
| int | The parameter must be an integer. | PHP 7.0.0 |
| string | The parameter must be a string. | PHP 7.0.0 |
Приклади
Приклад #7 Basic class type declaration
<?php
class C {}
class D extends C {}
// This doesn't extend C.
class E {}
function f(C $c) {
echo get_class($c)."\n";
}
f(new C);
f(new D);
f(new E);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
C
D
Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to f() must be an instance of C, instance of E given, called in - on line 14 and defined in -:8
Stack trace:
#0 -(14): f(Object(E))
#1 {main}
thrown in - on line 8
Приклад #8 Basic interface type declaration
<?php
interface I { public function f(); }
class C implements I { public function f() {} }
// This doesn't implement I.
class E {}
function f(I $i) {
echo get_class($i)."\n";
}
f(new C);
f(new E);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
C
Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to f() must implement interface I, instance of E given, called in - on line 13 and defined in -:8
Stack trace:
#0 -(13): f(Object(E))
#1 {main}
thrown in - on line 8
Приклад #9 Nullable type declaration
<?php
class C {}
function f(C $c = null) {
var_dump($c);
}
f(new C);
f(null);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
object(C)#1 (0) {
}
NULL
Strict typing
By default, PHP will coerce values of the wrong type into the expected scalar type if possible. For example, a function that is given an integer for a parameter that expects a string will get a variable of type string.
It is possible to enable strict mode on a per-file basis. In strict mode, only a variable of exact type of the type declaration will be accepted, or a TypeError will be thrown. The only exception to this rule is that an integer may be given to a function expecting a float.
To enable strict mode, the declare statement is used with the strict_types declaration:
Застереження
Enabling strict mode will also affect return type declarations.
Зауваження:
Strict typing applies to function calls made from within the file with strict typing enabled, not to the functions declared within that file. If a file without strict typing enabled makes a call to a function that was defined in a file with strict typing, the caller's preference (weak typing) will be respected, and the value will be coerced.
Зауваження:
Strict typing is only defined for scalar type declarations, and as such, requires PHP 7.0.0 or later, as scalar type declarations were added in that version.
Приклад #10 Strict typing
<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
function sum(int $a, int $b) {
return $a + $b;
}
var_dump(sum(1, 2));
var_dump(sum(1.5, 2.5));
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
int(3)
Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to sum() must be of the type integer, float given, called in - on line 9 and defined in -:4
Stack trace:
#0 -(9): sum(1.5, 2.5)
#1 {main}
thrown in - on line 4
Приклад #11 Weak typing
<?php
function sum(int $a, int $b) {
return $a + $b;
}
var_dump(sum(1, 2));
// These will be coerced to integers: note the output below!
var_dump(sum(1.5, 2.5));
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
int(3) int(3)
Приклад #12 Catching TypeError
<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
function sum(int $a, int $b) {
return $a + $b;
}
try {
var_dump(sum(1, 2));
var_dump(sum(1.5, 2.5));
} catch (TypeError $e) {
echo 'Error: '.$e->getMessage();
}
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
int(3) Error: Argument 1 passed to sum() must be of the type integer, float given, called in - on line 10
Variable-length argument lists
PHP has support for variable-length argument lists in user-defined functions. This is implemented using the ... token in PHP 5.6 and later, and using the func_num_args(), func_get_arg(), and func_get_args() functions in PHP 5.5 and earlier.
... in PHP 5.6+
In PHP 5.6 and later, argument lists may include the ... token to denote that the function accepts a variable number of arguments. The arguments will be passed into the given variable as an array; for example:
Приклад #13 Using ... to access variable arguments
<?php
function sum(...$numbers) {
$acc = 0;
foreach ($numbers as $n) {
$acc += $n;
}
return $acc;
}
echo sum(1, 2, 3, 4);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
10
You can also use ... when calling functions to unpack an array or Traversable variable or literal into the argument list:
Приклад #14 Using ... to provide arguments
<?php
function add($a, $b) {
return $a + $b;
}
echo add(...[1, 2])."\n";
$a = [1, 2];
echo add(...$a);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
3 3
You may specify normal positional arguments before the ... token. In this case, only the trailing arguments that don't match a positional argument will be added to the array generated by ....
It is also possible to add a type hint before the ... token. If this is present, then all arguments captured by ... must be objects of the hinted class.
Приклад #15 Type hinted variable arguments
<?php
function total_intervals($unit, DateInterval ...$intervals) {
$time = 0;
foreach ($intervals as $interval) {
$time += $interval->$unit;
}
return $time;
}
$a = new DateInterval('P1D');
$b = new DateInterval('P2D');
echo total_intervals('d', $a, $b).' days';
// This will fail, since null isn't a DateInterval object.
echo total_intervals('d', null);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
3 days Catchable fatal error: Argument 2 passed to total_intervals() must be an instance of DateInterval, null given, called in - on line 14 and defined in - on line 2
Finally, you may also pass variable arguments by reference by prefixing the ... with an ampersand (&).
Older versions of PHP
No special syntax is required to note that a function is variadic; however access to the function's arguments must use func_num_args(), func_get_arg() and func_get_args().
The first example above would be implemented as follows in PHP 5.5 and earlier:
Приклад #16 Accessing variable arguments in PHP 5.5 and earlier
<?php
function sum() {
$acc = 0;
foreach (func_get_args() as $n) {
$acc += $n;
}
return $acc;
}
echo sum(1, 2, 3, 4);
?>
Наведений вище приклад виведе:
10
add a note
User Contributed Notes 15 notes
php at richardneill dot org ¶
9 years ago
gabriel at figdice dot org ¶
7 years ago
A function's argument that is an object, will have its properties modified by the function although you don't need to pass it by reference.
<?php
$x = new stdClass();
$x->prop = 1;
function f ( $o ) // Notice the absence of &
{
$o->prop ++;
}
f($x);
echo $x->prop; // shows: 2
?>
This is different for arrays:
<?php
$y = [ 'prop' => 1 ];
function g( $a )
{
$a['prop'] ++;
echo $a['prop']; // shows: 2
}
g($y);
echo $y['prop']; // shows: 1
?>
jcaplan at bogus dot amazon dot com ¶
18 years ago
In function calls, PHP clearly distinguishes between missing arguments and present but empty arguments. Thus:
<?php
function f( $x = 4 ) { echo $x . "\\n"; }
f(); // prints 4
f( null ); // prints blank line
f( $y ); // $y undefined, prints blank line
?>
The utility of the optional argument feature is thus somewhat diminished. Suppose you want to call the function f many times from function g, allowing the caller of g to specify if f should be called with a specific value or with its default value:
<?php
function f( $x = 4 ) {echo $x . "\\n"; }
// option 1: cut and paste the default value from f's interface into g's
function g( $x = 4 ) { f( $x ); f( $x ); }
// option 2: branch based on input to g
function g( $x = null ) { if ( !isset( $x ) ) { f(); f() } else { f( $x ); f( $x ); } }
?>
Both options suck.
The best approach, it seems to me, is to always use a sentinel like null as the default value of an optional argument. This way, callers like g and g's clients have many options, and furthermore, callers always know how to omit arguments so they can omit one in the middle of the parameter list.
<?php
function f( $x = null ) { if ( !isset( $x ) ) $x = 4; echo $x . "\\n"; }
function g( $x = null ) { f( $x ); f( $x ); }
f(); // prints 4
f( null ); // prints 4
f( $y ); // $y undefined, prints 4
g(); // prints 4 twice
g( null ); // prints 4 twice
g( 5 ); // prints 5 twice
?>
Sergio Santana: ssantana at tlaloc dot imta dot mx ¶
18 years ago
PASSING A "VARIABLE-LENGTH ARGUMENT LIST OF REFERENCES" TO A FUNCTION
As of PHP 5, Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated, this represents no problem in most cases, since instead of calling a function like this:
myfunction($arg1, &$arg2, &$arg3);
you can call it
myfunction($arg1, $arg2, $arg3);
provided you have defined your function as
function myfuncion($a1, &$a2, &$a3) { // so &$a2 and &$a3 are
// declared to be refs.
... <function-code>
}
However, what happens if you wanted to pass an undefined number of references, i.e., something like:
myfunction(&$arg1, &$arg2, ..., &$arg-n);?
This doesn't work in PHP 5 anymore.
In the following code I tried to amend this by using the
array() language-construct as the actual argument in the
call to the function.
<?php
function aa ($A) {
// This function increments each
// "pseudo-argument" by 2s
foreach ($A as &$x) {
$x += 2;
}
}
$x = 1; $y = 2; $z = 3;
aa(array(&$x, &$y, &$z));
echo "--$x--$y--$z--\n";
// This will output:
// --3--4--5--
?>
I hope this is useful.
Sergio.
boan dot web at outlook dot com ¶
6 years ago
Quote:
"The declaration can be made to accept NULL values if the default value of the parameter is set to NULL."
But you can do this (PHP 7.1+):
<?php
function foo(?string $bar) {
//...
}
foo(); // Fatal error
foo(null); // Okay
foo('Hello world'); // Okay
?>
info at keraweb dot nl ¶
6 years ago
You can use a class constant as a default parameter.
<?php
class A {
const FOO = 'default';
function bar( $val = self::FOO ) {
echo $val;
}
}
$a = new A();
$a->bar(); // Will echo "default"
Hayley Watson ¶
6 years ago
There are fewer restrictions on using ... to supply multiple arguments to a function call than there are on using it to declare a variadic parameter in the function declaration. In particular, it can be used more than once to unpack arguments, provided that all such uses come after any positional arguments.
<?php
$array1 = [[1],[2],[3]];
$array2 = [4];
$array3 = [[5],[6],[7]];
$result = array_merge(...$array1); // Legal, of course: $result == [1,2,3];
$result = array_merge($array2, ...$array1); // $result == [4,1,2,3]
$result = array_merge(...$array1, $array2); // Fatal error: Cannot use positional argument after argument unpacking.
$result = array_merge(...$array1, ...$array3); // Legal! $result == [1,2,3,5,6,7]
?>
The Right Thing for the error case above would be for $result==[1,2,3,4], but this isn't yet (v7.1.8) supported.
catman at esteticas dot se ¶
8 years ago
I wondered if variable length argument lists and references works together, and what the syntax might be. It is not mentioned explicitly yet in the php manual as far as I can find. But other sources mention the following syntax "&...$variable" that works in php 5.6.16.
<?php
function foo(&...$args)
{
$i = 0;
foreach ($args as &$arg) {
$arg = ++$i;
}
}
foo($a, $b, $c);
echo 'a = ', $a, ', b = ', $b, ', c = ', $c;
?>
Gives
a = 1, b = 2, c = 3
Horst Schirmeier ¶
10 years ago
Editor's note: what is expected here by the parser is a non-evaluated expression. An operand and two constants requires evaluation, which is not done by the parser. However, this feature is included as of PHP 5.6.0. See this page for more information: http://php.net/migration56.new-features#migration56.new-features.const-scalar-exprs
--------
"The default value must be a constant expression" is misleading (or even wrong). PHP 5.4.4 fails to parse this function definition:
function htmlspecialchars_latin1($s, $flags = ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401) {}
This yields a " PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '|', expecting ')' " although ENT_COMPAT|ENT_HTML401 is certainly what a compiler-affine person would call a "constant expression".
The obvious workaround is to use a single special value ($flags = NULL) as the default, and to set it to the desired value in the function's body (if ($flags === NULL) { $flags = ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401; }).
Hayley Watson ¶
6 years ago
If you use ... in a function's parameter list, you can use it only once for obvious reasons. Less obvious is that it has to be on the LAST parameter; as the manual puts it: "You may specify normal positional arguments BEFORE the ... token. (emphasis mine).
<?php
function variadic($first, ...$most, $last)
{/*etc.*/}
variadic(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
?>
results in a fatal error, even though it looks like the Thing To Do™ would be to set $first to 1, $most to [2, 3, 4], and $last to 5.
rsperduta at gmail dot com ¶
3 years ago
About example #2: That little comma down at the end and often obscured by a line comment is easily over looked. I think it's worth considering putting it at the head of the next line to make clear what it's relationship is to the surrounding lines. Consider how much clearer it's continuation as a list of parameters:
<?php
function takes_many_args(
$first_arg // some description
, $second_arg // another comment
, $a_very_long_argument_name = something($complicated) // IDK
, $arg_with_default = 5
, $again = 'a default string', // IMHO this trailing comma encourages illegible code and not being permitted seemed a good idea lost with 8.0.0.
) {
// ...
}
?>
This principle can be applied equally to complicated boolean expressions of an "if" statement (or the parts of a for statement).
shaman_master at list dot ru ¶
4 years ago
You can use the class/interface as a type even if the class/interface is not defined yet or the class/interface implements current class/interface.
<?php
interface RouteInterface
{
public function getGroup(): ?RouteGroupInterface;
}
interface RouteGroupInterface extends RouteInterface
{
public function set(RouteInterface $item);
}
?>
'self' type - alias to current class/interface, it's not changed in implementations. This code looks right but throw error:
<?php
class Route
{
protected $name;
// method must return Route object
public function setName(string $name): self
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
}
class RouteGroup extends Route
{
// method STILL must return only Route object
public function setName(string $name): self
{
$name .= ' group';
return parent::setName($name);
}
}
?>
dmitry dot balabka at gmail dot com ¶
5 years ago
There is a possibility to use parent keyword as type hint which is not mentioned in the documentation.
Following code snippet will be executed w/o errors on PHP version 7. In this example, parent keyword is referencing on ParentClass instead of ClassTrait.
<?php
namespace TestTypeHints;
class ParentClass
{
public function someMethod()
{
echo 'Some method called' . \PHP_EOL;
}
}
trait ClassTrait
{
private $original;
public function __construct(parent $original)
{
$this->original = $original;
}
protected function getOriginal(): parent
{
return $this->original;
}
}
class Implementation extends ParentClass
{
use ClassTrait;
public function callSomeMethod()
{
$this->getOriginal()->someMethod();
}
}
$obj = new Implementation(new ParentClass());
$obj->callSomeMethod();
?>
Outputs:
Some method called
John ¶
17 years ago
This might be documented somewhere OR obvious to most, but when passing an argument by reference (as of PHP 5.04) you can assign a value to an argument variable in the function call. For example:
function my_function($arg1, &$arg2) {
if ($arg1 == true) {
$arg2 = true;
}
}
my_function(true, $arg2 = false);
echo $arg2;
outputs 1 (true)
my_function(false, $arg2 = false);
echo $arg2;
outputs 0 (false)
igorsantos07 at gmail dot com ¶
6 years ago
PHP 7+ does type coercion if strict typing is not enabled, but there's a small gotcha: it won't convert null values into anything.
You must explicitly set your default argument value to be null (as explained in this page) so your function can also receive nulls.
For instance, if you type an argument as "string", but pass a null variable into it, you might expect to receive an empty string, but actually, PHP will yell at you a TypeError.
<?php
function null_string_wrong(string $str) {
var_dump($str);
}
function null_string_correct(string $str = null) {
var_dump($str);
}
$null = null;
null_string_wrong('a'); //string(1) "a"
null_string_correct('a'); //string(1) "a"
null_string_correct(); //NULL
null_string_correct($null); //NULL
null_string_wrong($null); //TypeError thrown
?>
