Closures in PHP… what, precisely, are they and when would you need to use them?

function config_parser()
{
    // Do some code here
    // $hash_method is in config_parser() local scope
    $hash_method = 'multiply';

    if ($hashing_enabled)
    {
    	function do_hash_method($var)
     	{
    		// $hash_method is from the parent's local scope
    		if ($hash_method == 'multiply')
    			return $var * $var;
    		else
    			return $var ^ $var;
    	}
    }
}


function hashme($val)
{
    // do_hash_method still knows about $hash_method
    // even though it's not in the local scope anymore
    $val = do_hash_method($val)
}

function replace_spaces ($text) {
    $replacement = function ($matches) {
        return str_replace ($matches[1], ' ', ' ').' ';
    };
    return preg_replace_callback ('/( +) /', $replacement, $text);
}

class ConfigurableEncoder{
        private $algorithm = 'multiply';  //default is multiply

        public function encode($x){
                return call_user_func(array($this,$this->algorithm),$x);
        }

        public function multiply($x){
                return $x * 5;
        }

        public function add($x){
                return $x + 5;
        }

        public function setAlgorithm($algName){
                switch(strtolower($algName)){
                        case 'add':
                                $this->algorithm = 'add';
                                break;
                        case 'multiply':        //fall through
                        default:                //default is multiply
                                $this->algorithm = 'multiply';
                                break;
                }
        }
}

$raw = 5;
$encoder = new ConfigurableEncoder();                           // set to multiply
echo "raw: $rawn";                                             // 5
echo "multiply: " . $encoder->encode($raw) . "n";              // 25
$encoder->setAlgorithm('add');
echo "add: " . $encoder->encode($raw) . "n";                   // 10