Question

Does anybody know how I could write a function, that was able to create other functions, using the contents of a variable for it’s name?

Here’s a basic example of what I’m talking about in php:

function nodefunctioncreator()
  {
    for ($i =1, $i < 10, $i++)
      {
      $newfunctionname = "Node".$i;
      function $newfunctionname()
        {
        //code for each of the functions
        }
      }
  }

Does anybody know a language that would allow me to do this?

Answer 1

You can create anonymous functions in PHP using create_function(). You could assign each anonymous function to a variable $newfunctionname and execute it using call_user_func():

$newfunctionname = "Node".$i;
$$newfunctionname = create_function('$input', 'echo $input;'); 
// Creates variables named Node1, Node2, Node3..... containing the function

I think that’s the closest you can get in PHP in a way that doesn’t look like a total hack.

I don’t think it’s possible to define a function directly from a variable. It wouldn’t look good to me to do it, either, because you would be polluting the namespace with those functions. If anonymous functions don’t work, this calls for an object oriented approach.