Closures in PHP… what, precisely, are they and when would you need to use them?

Question

So I\'m programming along in a nice, up to date, object oriented fashion. I regularly make use of the various aspects of OOP that PHP implements but I am wondering when might I

Answer 1

A closure is basically a function for which you write the definition in one context but run in another context. Javascript helped me a lot with understanding these, because they are used in JavaScript all over the place.

In PHP, they are less effective than in JavaScript, due to differences in the scope and accessibility of "global" (or "external") variables from within functions. Yet, starting with PHP 5.4, closures can access the $this object when run inside an object, this makes them a lot more effective.

This is what closures are about, and it should be enough to understand what is written above.

This means that it should be possible to write a function definition somewhere, and use the $this variable inside the function definition, then assign the function definition to a variable (others have given examples of the syntax), then pass this variable to an object and call it in the object context, the function can then access and manipulate the object through $this as if it was just another one of it's methods, when in fact it's not defined in the class definition of that object, but somewhere else.

If it's not very clear, then don't worry, it will become clear once you start using them.