Auto Invoke Closure - No moving function around...

gistfile1.php

<?php

$json = new stdClass();
$json->states = function(){
    $array = array();
    
    foreach($db->get_states() as $state)
    {
       $array[] = $state;
    }

    return $array;
};

echo json_encode($json);


/* Outputs {'states' : ['Utah', 'California', 'New York']} */

<?php

$json = new stdClass();
$json->states = function(){
$array = array();

foreach($db->get_states() as $state)
{
   $array[] = $state;
}

return $array;
}(); // JavaScript would make this an array not an object by executing it.

echo json_encode($json);