Do you want to vary the number of arguments you pass in to a PHP function?
   loadarticles(2,3,6,5,4);
   loadarticles(5,7);

Simply declare your function with a minimum of parameters that you need (perhaps zero) and use the func_get_args() function to get you an array of all the parameters. Here's an example:

function loadarticles() {
  $abase = array();
  database_connect();
  $inputs = func_get_args();
  foreach ($inputs as $article) {
    $row = database_get("select * from mt_entry where entry_id = $article");
    $abase[body] .= "<tr><td class=\"pageName\">$row[entry_title]</td></tr>";
    $abase[body] .= "<tr><td class=\"bodytext\">$row[entry_text]</td></tr>";
  }
  return $abase;
}

The func_num_args function can be used to obtain just the number of arguments used to call your current function, and the func_get_arg function to obtain a specific argument by position number.

Although you can write a function to pick up a variable number of arguments, it is usually better programming practice to pass in an array of varying length ... so in other words, I'm advising you to used func_get_args sparingly!
(written 2009-11-02)

 H105 - PHP - Functions
  [3026] Coding efficiency - do not repeat yourself! - (2010-11-02)
  [2929] Passing a variable number of parameters in to a function / method - (2010-08-20)
  [2737] Improving your function calls (APIs) - General and PHP - (2010-04-24)
  [2682] Adding extensions to PHP Open Source applications - callbacks - (2010-03-17)
  [2630] Static variables and ampersands in PHP - (2010-02-10)
  [1784] Global - Tcl, PHP, Python - (2008-09-03)
  [1380] Static variables in PHP - (2007-10-05)
  [1357] Clean my plate, but keep my wine bottle. (PHP; Static) - (2007-09-18)
  [1267] is there a lookup function in php? - (2007-07-15)
  [1202] Returning multiple values from a function (Perl, PHP, Python) - (2007-05-24)
  [1163] A better alternative to cutting and pasting code - (2007-04-26)
  [1021] PHP - static declaration - (2007-01-04)
  [936] Global, Superglobal, Session variables - scope and persistance in PHP - (2006-11-21)
  [866] A lazy programmer is a good programmer - (2006-09-15)
  [775] Do not duplicate your code - (2006-06-23)
  [421] Don't repeat code - use loops or functions - (2005-08-21)
  [409] Functions and commands with dangerous names - (2005-08-11)
  [340] Code and code maintainance efficiency - (2005-06-08)
  [339] Passing information into and out of PHP functions - (2005-06-07)
  [308] Call by name v call by value - (2005-05-11)
  [223] There is a function in PHP to do that - (2005-02-21)
  [96] Variable Scope - (2004-10-22)

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