Question

I’m fairly new to php and I am trying to figure how do I set an optional parameter after the first optional parameter?

For example I have the following code:

function testParam($fruit, $veg='pota',$test='default test'){
echo '<br>$fruit = '.$fruit;
echo '<br>$veg = '.$veg;
echo '<br>Test = '.$test;
}

If i make the following calls:

echo 'with all parama';
testParam('apple','carrot','some string');
//we get:
//with all parama
//$fruit = apple
//$veg = carrot
//Test = some string

echo '<hr> missing veg';
testParam('apple','','something');
//we get:
//missing veg
//$fruit = apple
//$veg = 
//Test = something

echo '<hr> This wont work';
testParam('apple',,'i am set');

I want to try make a call so that in the last example I show ‘pota’ as the default $veg parameter but pass into $test ‘i am set’.

I guess I can pass 0 into $veg then branch it in the code to say if $veg =0 then use ‘pota’ but just wondered if there’s some other syntax as i cant find anything in php.net about it.

Answer 1

You can’t do what you want with just default parameters. The defaults only apply to missing arguments, and only the last argument(s) can be missing.

You can either add lines like

  $vega = $vega ? $vega : 'carrot';

and call the function as

testParam('apple',false,'something');

or use the more general technique of passing the parameters in an array with the parameter names as keys. Something like

function testparam($parms=false) {
    $default_parms = array('fruit'=>'orange', 'vega'=>'peas', 'starch'=>'bread');
    $parms = array_merge($default_parms, (array) $parms);
    echo '<br>fruit  = $parms[fruit]';
    echo '<br>vega   = $parms[vega]';
    echo '<br>starch = $parms[starch]';
}

testparm('starch'=>'pancakes');
//we get:
//fruit = orange
//vega  = peas
//starch = pancakes

This is a little more verbose but it is also more flexible. You can add parameters and defaults without changing the existing callers.