Overload control structures? (i.e. if/else/etc)

[symphonik]

Is it possible in PHP to overload the control structures themselves?

 

Perhaps even this simpler case: say I wanted to create a NEW control structure to replicate Perl's "unless" control. If you're not familiar with Perl, unless is basically the same as if(!) --

 

my $var = 1;

unless($var == 1) {

  print "Hello world";

}

 

That snippet would print "Hello world" for any $var value EXCEPT 1.

 

Could I go about replicating that in PHP? More generally, can I overload control structures in PHP?

[Jessica]

I think you would have to do some "core hacking", as PHP only allows to to create functions and classes.

[symphonik]

jesirose, that's kinda what I was worried about. I'm not against that for personal development, but that's obviously not sustainable for the systems I'm working on that will have to be maintained later.

 

Ah well, it's just for syntactical bliss anyway. Not exactly a priority-one need.

 

Thanks, jesirose. I'll keep paying attention in case anyone has any bright ideas, but this was the conclusion I needed verified.