Question

This may sound like a dumb question, but does assigning a variable to a function mean it only calls the function ONE time, and can be reused unlimited times without making an additional call to the function or does it still call the function multiple times?

is this:

$variable = function_name();
echo $variable;
echo $variable;

the same as this:

echo function_name();
echo function_name();

I understand both situations are ultimately displaying the same bit of information, but I’m curious if that bit of data is fetched one time and reused many, or if it’s fetched upon each echo.

So does assigning a variable to a function mean function_name(); does the work only ONE time and the variable just recycles the data for later usage or does function_name(); actually do the work TWO times?

Is it better practice to assign variables or just directly call the function each time it needs to be used?

Answer 1

a function should always return some values so for example, if you have a function like this.

function foo() {
    return 'hello world';
}

and if you call it and assign it to a variable then

/*
* in the below example the function will be called once 
* and the function's return value will be assigned to $a variable
* now $a will contain value 'hello world';
*/
$a = foo();

if you try printing the variable $a it will simply print the value it contains and not call the function once again, since $a now contains ‘hello world’;

by echoing $a variable multiple times.

echo $a;
echo $a;
echo $a;

will simply print the value hello world three times and not call the function three times.

but when you call the function multiple times for example.

$a = foo();
$a = foo();

now coming to your question.

this will result in the function being called multiple times. and the
value being overwritten from the previous value returned by the
function call. So does assigning a variable to a function mean
function_name(); does the work only ONE time and the variable just
recycles the data for later usage or does function_name(); actually do
the work TWO times?

i hope i have explained this in full details.

Is it better practice to assign variables or just directly call the function each time it needs to be used?

well it depends on the context, and the function you want to use, the bottom line is, always try returning some values from the function, for example.

a) if the function is meant for fetching some values and formatting it, then should return it as array, string or whatever data type.

b) if the function is meant to do some execution and not any fetching, then you can return boolean values like return true|false indicating wether the operation was successful.