 <p>Are you using models? Code igniter doesn't enforce this, but using models in addition to controllers and views is a good way to have a shorter controller function. Alternatively, you could place some of the functions in your own helper, then import it.</p> <p>And if you want to set some default values for the entire constructor, you can use the class constructor. This is outlined here:</p> <p><a href="http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/controllers.html#constructors" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/controllers.html#constructors</a></p>