PHP Functions

 

A Function is nothing but a 'block of statements' which generally performs a specific task and can be used repeatedly in our program. This 'block of statements' is also given a name so that whenever we want to use it in our program/script, we can call it by its name.

In PHP there are thousands of built-in functions which we can directly use in our program/script.

PHP also supports user defined functions, where we can define our own functions.

A function doesn't execute when its defined, it executed when it is called.

PHP User Defined Functions

We can declare and call user-defined functions easily. 

Syntax:

<?php

function function_name(){

    // function code statements}

?>

 

Example:

1.      <?php  

2.      function sayHello(){  

3.      echo "Hello PHP Function";  

4.      }  

5.      sayHello();//calling function  

6.      ?>  

Output:

Hello PHP Function

 

Advantages of User-defined Functions

As we have already seen a simple example of using a function above, you must have understood how time-saving it can be for large programs. Here are a few advantages of using functions for you:

1. Reuseable Code: As it's clear from the example above, you write a function once and can use it for a thousand times in your program.
2. Less Code Repetition: In the example above we just had one line of code in the function, but what if we have 10 lines of code. So rather than repeating all those lines of code over and over again, we can just create a function for them and simply call the function.
3. Easy to Understand: Using functions in your program, makes the code more readable and easy to understand.