How to alias a function in PHP?

Question

Is it possible to alias a function with a different name in PHP? Suppose we have a function with the name sleep. Is there a way to make an alias called wa

Answer 1

Nope, but you can do this:

$wait = 'sleep';
$wait($seconds);

This way you also resolve arguments-number-issues

Answer 2

PHP 5.6+ only

Starting with PHP 5.6 it is possible to alias a function by importing it:

use function sleep as wait;

There's also an example in the documentation (see "aliasing a function").

Answer 3

No, functions aren't 1st-class citizens so there's no wait = sleep like Javascript for example. You basically have to do what you put in your question:

function wait ($seconds) { sleep($seconds); }

Answer 4

you can use runkit extension

http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.runkit-function-copy.php

Answer 5

Since PHP 5.6

This is especially helpful for use in classes with magic methods.

class User extends SomethingWithMagicMethods {
    
    public function Listings(...$args) {
        return $this->Children(...$args);
    }

}

But I'm pretty sure it works with regular functions too.

function UserListings(...$args) {
    return UserChildren(...$args);
}

Source: PHP: New features -> "Variadic functions via ..."

Answer 6

If you aren't concerned with using PHP's "eval" instruction (which a lot of folks have a real problem with, but I do not), then you can use something like this:

function func_alias($target, $original) {
    eval("function $target() { \$args = func_get_args(); return call_user_func_array('$original', \$args); }");
}

I used it in some simple tests, and it seemed to work fairly well. Here is an example:

function hello($recipient) {
    echo "Hello, $recipient\n";
}

function helloMars() {
    hello('Mars');
}

func_alias('greeting', 'hello');
func_alias('greetingMars', 'helloMars');

greeting('World');
greetingMars();