Is it possible to define a local constant within a PHP function?
<p>It might be nice to be able to define a local constant within the scope of a function in PHP</p>

<p>This way anyone reading the function would know that that definition is final within the function and doesn't affect any external code</p>

<p>Something like this (Not valid syntax):</p>

<pre><code>public function laughManiacally($count){
  const LAUGH = 'HA';

  for($i=0;$i&lt;$count;$i++){
    echo LAUGH;
  }
};  
</code></pre>

<p>Or possibly (Again not valid):</p>

<pre><code>...
final $laugh = 'HA';
...
</code></pre>

<p>Is there anyway to do this? And if not why not?</p>

<p><strong>UPDATE</strong></p>

<p>The way that JavaScript allows block level constant declaration is similar to the functionality I was searching for</p>

<pre><code>function laughManiacally(count) {
  const LAUGH = 'Ha';

  for (let i = 0; i &lt; count; i++) {
    console.log(LAUGH);
  }
}
</code></pre>