unexpected T_USE, expecting '{'

Question

<?php

$wordFrequencyArray = array();

function countWords($file) use($wordFrequencyArray) {  //error here
    /* get content of $filename in $content */
    $content = strtolower(file_get_contents($filename));

Here is a snippet of a code i am using.

I am getting error on the 3rd line. I have all the matching braces .What might be wrong?

Answer 1

It should be:

$countWords = function($file) use($wordFrequencyArray) {
  //...
};

Answer 2

Only anonymous functions may have declare a use statement, hence the error message warning you that an opening bracket is expected instead of the use statement.

To circumnavigate having no use statement, you can either add more parameters and pass it to the function, or in some cases call the variables as global.