Why can't i call a function before defining it in a try block in php

Question

When I call a function inside try block before defining. it gives me fatal error

What I was trying to do is this

try {
   echo someFunction();
   function someFunction()
   {
     return 'hello';
   }
 } catch (Exception $e ){
    return $e->getMessage();
 }

Although I just fix this just paste function above the try block I am curious what is wrong here should not it work. it is not inside in conditional block.

Possible duplicate of [Is it possible in PHP to prevent "Fatal error: Call to undefined function"?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7116995/is-it-possible-in-php-to-prevent-fatal-error-call-to-undefined-function) — qskane, Apr 28 '18 at 03:30

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 28 '18 at 02:55

When a function is defined in a conditional manner it's definition must be processed prior to being called. Just switch the echo and function like below.

try {
    function someFunction()
    {
        return 'hello';
    }
    echo someFunction();
} catch (Exception $e ){
    return $e->getMessage();
}

http://php.net/manual/en/functions.user-defined.php

Why can't i call a function before defining it in a try block in php

1 Answers1