Dynamic Comparison Operators in PHP

Question

Is it possible, in any way, to pass comparison operators as variables to a function? I am looking at producing some convenience functions, for example (and I know this won\'

Answer 1

$a = 4;
eval('$condition=($a == 4)?true:false;'); 
if($condition){ echo "Yes"; }else{ echo "No"; }

Answer 2

The top answer recommends a small class, but I like a trait.

trait DynamicComparisons{

private $operatorToMethodTranslation = [
    '=='  => 'equal',
    '===' => 'totallyEqual',
    '!='  => 'notEqual',
    '>'   => 'greaterThan',
    '<'   => 'lessThan',
];

protected function is($value_a, $operation, $value_b){

    if($method = $this->operatorToMethodTranslation[$operation]){
        return $this->$method($value_a, $value_b);
    }

    throw new \Exception('Unknown Dynamic Operator.');
}

private function equal($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a == $value_b;
}

private function totallyEqual($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a === $value_b;
}

private function notEqual($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a != $value_b;
}

private function greaterThan($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a > $value_b;
}

private function lessThan($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a < $value_b;
}

private function greaterThanOrEqual($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a >= $value_b;
}

private function lessThanOrEqual($value_a, $value_b){
    return $value_a <= $value_b;
}

}

Answer 3

As far as I know it is not possible and since there is no reference about callback on operators in PHP documentation, http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.php

instead of using eval, I would redefine each operators in global functions and use php callbacks How do I implement a callback in PHP?

Answer 4

As Michael Krelin suggests you could use eval - but that potentially enables a lot of code injection attacks.

You can't substitute a variable for an operator - but you can substitute a variable for a function:

function is_equal($a, $b) {
  return $a==$b;
} 
function is_same($a, $b) {
  return $a===$b;
}
function is_greater_than($a, $b)
....

$compare='is_equal';
if ($compare($a, $b)) {
   ....

C.

Answer 5

How about a small class:

class compare
{
  function is($op1,$op2,$c)
  {
     $meth = array('===' => 'type_equal', '<' => 'less_than');
     if($method = $meth[$c]) {
        return $this->$method($op1,$op2);
     }
     return null; // or throw excp.
  }
  function type_equal($op1,$op2)
  {
      return $op1 === $op2;
  }
  function less_than($op1,$op2)
  {
      return $op1 < $op2;
  }
}