How can I check if the function my_function already exists in PHP?
6 Answers
5 Comments
CaseySoftware
And if you want to check for methods on classes, most people will recommend method_exists but that detects protected/private methods which aren't externally accessible. In that case is_callable is a better option in general.
Andrew Cheong
@CaseySoftware - For convenience, here's the doc for
is_callable, as this answer was a top result on Google.Ky -
It's hilarious how semantic and extensive PHP's library is. "how can I tell if a function exists?" "
function_exists"Disapamok
how to check this function if exists?
$date = new DateTime(); $date->getTimestamp() ?Gene Kelly
if(!function_exists('my_function')) { }
http://php.net/manual/en/function.function-exists.php
<?php
if (!function_exists('myfunction')) {
function myfunction()
{
//write function statements
}
}
?>
Comments
I want to point out what kitchin has pointed out on php.net:
<?php
// This will print "foo defined"
if (function_exists('foo')) {
print "foo defined";
} else {
print "foo not defined";
}
//note even though the function is defined here, it previously was told to have already existed
function foo() {}
If you want to prevent a fatal error and define a function only if it has not been defined, you need to do the following:
<?php
// This will print "defining bar" and will define the function bar
if (function_exists('bar')) {
print "bar defined";
} else {
print "defining bar";
function bar() {}
}
Comments
And if my_function is in namespace:
namespace MyProject;
function my_function() {
return 123;
}
You can check if it exists
function_exists( __NAMESPACE__ . '\my_function' );
in the same namespace or
function_exists( '\MyProject\my_function' );
outside of the namespace.
P.S. I know this is a very old question and PHP documentation improved a lot since then, but I believe people still taking a peek here, and this might be helpful.
Comments
Checking Multiple function_exists
$arrFun = array('fun1','fun2','fun3');
if(is_array($arrFun)){
$arrMsg = array();
foreach ($arrFun as $key => $value) {
if(!function_exists($value)){
$arrMsg[] = $value;
}
}
foreach ($arrMsg as $key => $value) {
echo "{$value} function does not exist <br/>";
}
}
function fun1(){
}
Output
fun2 function does not exist
fun3 function does not exist