How to Programmatically Retrieve PHP Function Source Code

Retrieving PHP Function Source Code through Programmatic Means

Question:

Is it feasible to programmatically extract the source code of a PHP function based on its name? Essentially, the objective is to retrieve the function definition (e.g., function blah($a, $b) { return $a*$b; }) dynamically.

Additionally, are there any PHP functions that can be utilized for self-descriptive code reconstruction, eliminating the need to access the source file directly? Java offers the Reflection API for this purpose, but is there a PHP equivalent?

Answer:

In PHP, the ReflectionFunction class provides the functionality needed for this task. Here's an example:

<code class="php">$func = new ReflectionFunction('myfunction');
$filename = $func->getFileName();
$start_line = $func->getStartLine() - 1; // subtract 1 to account for line numbering peculiarities
$end_line = $func->getEndLine();
$length = $end_line - $start_line;

$source = file($filename);
$body = implode("", array_slice($source, $start_line, $length));

print_r($body);</code>

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