Hello friends,

Today we will learn about the anonymous function in PHP. Anonymous function is a function without a name. In other words, a function that does not have a name is called anonymous function.

While defining a normal function in PHP syntax will be as follows:

function FunctionName() {
  //function body
}

FunctionName is the name of the function which is used while calling the function. But the anonymous function syntax is as follows:

function() {
  return "anonymous function";
};

As you are seeing in the above syntax there is no name. You can also pass parameter to anonymous function as follows:

function( $var1, $var2 ) {
  return ( "$var1 and $var2 are the parameter" );
};

Anonymous function is like an expression.That's why it is ended with semicolon(;).

You can use anonymous function in following ways:

• Assigned to a variable:
  You can assign the anonymous function to a variable and call the variable whenever required. For example:

  <?php $callfunc = function($var) {
      return $var;
  };
  
  print $callfunc('Assigned to a variable'); 
  ?>

• Passed as a parameter:
  Another way is to pass the anonymous function as a parameter to another function.

  <?php $users = [
      ['name' => 'name1', 'age' => 2], 
      ['name' => 'name2', 'age' => 4], 
      ['name' => 'name3', 'age' => 8]
  ];
  
  // Map function applying anonymous function
  print_r($userName = array_map(function($user) {
      return 'Hello '.$user['name'];
  }, $users));
  ?>