Posted by dimo414 on 11/14/06 00:30

sTony wrote:
> I've now got several versions of what is virtually the same function. I've
> got a createLink($Link); and a createSpecialLink($Link,$Name) and a
> createExtraLink($Link,$Extra) and now I've come across a situation where I
> need to write yet another almost exactly the same function. I know that php
> must support functions with a variable number of parameters, but I have no
> idea how to write one. How is this done in php, so I can have just one
> function that does different things according to the information supplied.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> sTony

PHP does not in fact allow function overloading, ie same name,
different signature. But it does allow you to use optional variables,
simply give them a default value in the parameters list.

For instance, you might make an exponent method, which takes a base and
a power, like this:
exponent($base, $power=2)
{
// operation
}

Then you can call it either by the normal way: exponent(3, 3) which
would return 27, or you could call exponent(4), and because the default
power is 2, it'll be squared, and return 16.

Hope that makes sense.

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