What are some best practices for defining and calling functions in PHP to ensure proper functionality?

When defining and calling functions in PHP, it is important to follow best practices to ensure proper functionality. This includes giving functions clear and descriptive names, properly documenting their purpose and parameters, and ensuring they are called with the correct arguments in the correct order. Additionally, it is important to handle errors and exceptions within functions to prevent unexpected behavior. 

// Example of defining and calling a function in PHP following best practices

// Define a function with a clear and descriptive name
function calculateSum($num1, $num2) {
    // Ensure proper documentation of the function's purpose and parameters
    // Handle errors by checking if arguments are numeric
    if (!is_numeric($num1) || !is_numeric($num2)) {
        throw new InvalidArgumentException('Arguments must be numeric');
    }
    
    // Calculate the sum of two numbers
    $sum = $num1 + $num2;
    
    return $sum;
}

// Call the function with the correct arguments in the correct order
try {
    $result = calculateSum(5, 10);
    echo "The sum is: " . $result;
} catch (InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}

Keywords

PHP functions function definition function calling error handling return types

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