PHP __call vs method_exists

__call handles calls to methods that don't exist. method_exists is an introspection method that checks the existence of a method.

How can __call be determined to handle a method? I think you have to throw an exception manually in __call if doesn't handle your request and catch the exception in the code that would otherwise use method_exists. BadMethodCallException exists for this purpose.

Have a look at is_callable().

But no, if the __call() method only handles some names, then you would need some other way of checking if the call will succeed.

Might I suggest a interface with the method canCall($function), or something? Then check if the class implements the interface. If it doesn't, just use is_callable().

method_exists tries two things:

• Searches for the method name in the class's function table. Those are the function foo() {} type methods.
• Checks if the class (the C code) has a (C code) get_method() function and if it has invoke it to let the class implementation decide.

You'd need the latter. But this get_method()is not "extended" to the php script code, i.e. there is no way to let get_method() call some user defined php script code (And what would this php code return?).

So the answer to my best knowledge is: No, it's not possible (yet?).

The implementation of ZEND_FUNCTION(method_exists) can be found in zend/zend_builtin_functions.c and is I think fairly readable even if you don't know C but PHP.