PHP Exercises: Capture a variable number of arguments to a given function

Last update on May 27 2025 13:08:19 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

102. Capture a Variable Number of Arguments

Write a PHP program to capture a variable number of arguments to a given function.

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
// Licence: https://bit.ly/2CFA5XY

// Function definition for 'variadicFunction' that takes an array of operands as a parameter
function variadicFunction($operands)
{
    // Initialize a variable to store the sum of operands
    $sum = 0;

    // Iterate through each operand in the array and add it to the sum
    foreach($operands as $singleOperand) {
        $sum += $singleOperand;
    }

    // Return the final sum
    return $sum;
}

// Call 'variadicFunction' with an array containing two operands and display the result using 'var_dump'
var_dump(variadicFunction([1, 2]));

// Call 'variadicFunction' with an array containing four operands and display the result using 'var_dump'
var_dump(variadicFunction([1, 2, 3, 4]));
  
?>

Explanation:

Function Definition:

The variadicFunction is defined to take a single parameter $operands, which is expected to be an array of numbers.

Variable Initialization:

A variable $sum is initialized to 0 to hold the cumulative sum of the operands.

Iterate Over Operands:

A foreach loop iterates through each element in the $operands array.
Each element (referred to as $singleOperand) is added to the $sum.

Return Sum:

After the loop completes, the function returns the total sum of the operands.

First Function Call:

The function is called with an array containing two elements [1, 2].
The result is displayed using var_dump, which outputs int(3).

Second Function Call:

The function is called again with an array containing four elements [1, 2, 3, 4].
The result is displayed using var_dump, which outputs int(10).

Output:

int(3)
int(10)

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a PHP script to create a function that captures any number of arguments using func_get_args and processes them.
Write a PHP function to sum an arbitrary number of numeric arguments and return the total.
Write a PHP script to demonstrate variable argument handling by iterating over all passed parameters.
Write a PHP function to capture, count, and display the arguments provided to it regardless of their number.

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