PHP Functions

Functions play an important role in any programming languages. It allows you to organize your code in smaller part.

A function can be called repeatedly in your program and can return or not return any value.

There are more than 1,000 built-in functions in PHP and you can also create your own function.

Here’s the syntax of a user defined function:

function functionName()
{
    your code or statement here;
}

When you name a function, make sure that it reflects the code that you write so you will know its purpose.

Let’s create a sample that will print the Hello World! string.

<?php
function printMsg()
{
	echo "Hello world!";
}
 
printMsg(); // call printMsg function
?>

The above code simply prints the string “Hello World!” by calling its function name called printMsg. This function does not return any value.

Now let’s create a function that return a value with arguments.

<?php
function calculate($number1, $number2)
{
	return $number1 + $number2;
}
 
calculate(1, 1); // call calculate function
?>

The code above simply pass the parameter to calculate function using an argument $number1 and number2, then it returns a value by adding the two variables.