proper way of calling a function from a different file in PHP

Question

let's say I have a function as so

function something($variable){

   $variable = sanitize($variable);
   $variable1 = sanitize($Variable1);

 ......
}

When I call this function from a different file and pass 2 variables to it, would this be acceptable? Let's say I call in this fashion...

something($_GET['variable1'], $_POST['variable']);

Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, as long as that file is included.

So say functions.php has your something() function. You would need to do:

include('/path/to/functions.php');
something($_GET['variable1'], $_POST['variable']);

Answer 2

It depends on how your files are tied together.

If you are using classes and organizing by that, you could declare this static and call it like:

yourClassName::something(variable1, variable2);

If you are just using includes to link the files, you should be able to do just as you described.

Answer 3

Yes, you could do that, but you need to include the file beforehand (using require , require_once , include or include_once ). Unlike other languages PHP won't complain that all the params haven't been described beforehand.

This would fail, though, as this specifies that it MUST receive 3 variables:

function something($var1, $var2, $var3) {
}

If you magically want to get all the parameters posted to a function, you can use func_get_args as so:

function something() {
    $arguments = array();

    foreach (func_get_args() as $argument) {
        $arguments[] = sanitize($argument);
    }

    print_r($arguments);
}

Here $arguments[0] is a sanitized version of $variable , and $arguments[1] is a sanitized version of $variable1 .