Do we need named parameters

Many Moodle functions end up to have 4 or (a lot) more parameters. It could be good to study if we could group most of these parameters into an object. Following a refactor of datalib.php/get_users()

//named parameters function call $parameters = new object(); $parameters->search = 'arthur'; namedparams_get_users($parameters, 'firstname ASC', , $fields='id, username');

//current function call get_users(true, 'arthur', false, null, 'firstname ASC', , , , , 'id, username');

/**

* Returns a subset of users (DO NOT COUNT)
* @global object $DB
* @param string $sort A SQL snippet for the sorting criteria to use
* @param string $recordsperpage how many records do pages have
* @param string $page which page to return (starts from 0)
* @param string $fields A comma separated list of fields to be returned from the chosen table.
* @param object $selectioncriteria:
*      ->search         string     A simple string to search for
*      ->confirmed      bool       A switch to allow/disallow unconfirmed users
*      ->exceptions     array(int) A list of IDs to ignore, eg 2,4,5,8,9,10
*      ->firstinitial   string     ?
*      ->lastinitial    string     ?
* @return array|false Array of {@link $USER} objects. False is returned if an error is encountered.
*/

function namedparams_get_users($sort='firstname ASC', $recordsperpage=999999, $page=0, $fields='*', $selectioncriteria=NULL) {

   global $DB;

   if (empty($selectioncriteria->recordsperpage)){
       $selectioncriteria->recordsperpage=;
   }

   $LIKE      = $DB->sql_ilike();
   $fullname  = $DB->sql_fullname();

   $select = " username <> :guest AND deleted = 0";
   $params = array('guest'=>'guest');

   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->search)){
       $selectioncriteria->search = trim($selectioncriteria->search);
       $select .= " AND ($fullname $LIKE :search1 OR email $LIKE :search2 OR username = :search3)";
       $params['search1'] = "%".$selectioncriteria->search."%";
       $params['search2'] = "%".$selectioncriteria->search."%";
       $params['search3'] = $selectioncriteria->search;
   }

   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->confirmed)) {
       $select .= " AND confirmed = 1";
   }

   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->exceptions)) {
       list($selectioncriteria->exceptions, $eparams) = $DB->get_in_or_equal($selectioncriteria->exceptions, SQL_PARAMS_NAMED, 'ex0000', false);
       $params = $params + $eparams;
       $except = " AND id ".$selectioncriteria->exceptions;
   }

   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->firstinitial)) {
       $select .= " AND firstname $LIKE :fni";
       $params['fni'] = $selectioncriteria->firstinitial."%";
   }
   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->lastinitial)) {
       $select .= " AND lastname $LIKE :lni";
       $params['lni'] = $selectioncriteria->lastinitial."%";
   }

   if (!empty($selectioncriteria->extraselect)) {
       $select .= " AND ".$selectioncriteria->extraselect;
       if (empty($selectioncriteria->extraparams)){
           $params = $params + (array)$selectioncriteria->extraparams;
       }
   }

   return $DB->get_records_select('user', $select, $params, $sort, $fields, $page, $selectioncriteria->recordsperpage);

}

/**

* Returns a subset of users
*
* @uses $CFG
* @param bool $get If false then only a count of the records is returned
* @param string $search A simple string to search for
* @param bool $confirmed A switch to allow/disallow unconfirmed users
* @param array(int) $exceptions A list of IDs to ignore, eg 2,4,5,8,9,10
* @param string $sort A SQL snippet for the sorting criteria to use
* @param string $firstinitial ?
* @param string $lastinitial ?
* @param string $page ?
* @param string $recordsperpage ?
* @param string $fields A comma separated list of fields to be returned from the chosen table.
* @return object|false|int  {@link $USER} records unless get is false in which case the integer count of the records found is returned. False is returned if an error is encountered.
*/

function get_users($get=true, $search=, $confirmed=false, array $exceptions=null, $sort='firstname ASC',

                  $firstinitial=, $lastinitial=, $page=, $recordsperpage=, $fields='*', $extraselect=, array $extraparams=null) {
   global $DB;

   if ($get && !$recordsperpage) {
       debugging('Call to get_users with $get = true no $recordsperpage limit. ' .
               'On large installations, this will probably cause an out of memory error. ' .
               'Please think again and change your code so that it does not try to ' .
               'load so much data into memory.', DEBUG_DEVELOPER);
   }

   $LIKE      = $DB->sql_ilike();
   $fullname  = $DB->sql_fullname();

   $select = " username <> :guest AND deleted = 0";
   $params = array('guest'=>'guest');

   if (!empty($search)){
       $search = trim($search);
       $select .= " AND ($fullname $LIKE :search1 OR email $LIKE :search2 OR username = :search3)";
       $params['search1'] = "%$search%";
       $params['search2'] = "%$search%";
       $params['search3'] = "$search";
   }

   if ($confirmed) {
       $select .= " AND confirmed = 1";
   }

   if ($exceptions) {
       list($exceptions, $eparams) = $DB->get_in_or_equal($exceptions, SQL_PARAMS_NAMED, 'ex0000', false);
       $params = $params + $eparams;
       $except = " AND id $exceptions";
   }

   if ($firstinitial) {
       $select .= " AND firstname $LIKE :fni";
       $params['fni'] = "$firstinitial%";
   }
   if ($lastinitial) {
       $select .= " AND lastname $LIKE :lni";
       $params['lni'] = "$lastinitial%";
   }

   if ($extraselect) {
       $select .= " AND $extraselect";
       $params = $params + (array)$extraparams;
   }

   if ($get) {
       return $DB->get_records_select('user', $select, $params, $sort, $fields, $page, $recordsperpage);
   } else {
       return $DB->count_records_select('user', $select, $params);
   }

}

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