Variable Scope and String Generation

problem with dividing work into sub-functions

[mm1220]

What I'm trying to do the following:

function getString(){
 return "all the way a goal to me $a";
}
function output(){
 $a = 45;
 $string = getString();
 echo $string;
}

The output is: all the way a goal to me

I'd like it to be: all the way a goal to me 45

Obviously $a isn't in scope when the string is created but is there a clever way around this?

[jatar_k]

have the value passed to the getString function

[mm1220]

Wow! That was pretty obvious, huh?

Thanks jatar_k

[jatar_k]

the other thing you could do is give $a a default value. If you are using it in places already or wanted to use it both with and without a parameter

function getString($a=''){
return "all the way a goal to me $a";
}

i think that's the right syntax, I use it so seldom

[mm1220]

Okay to further complicate matters:

function getString($a, $name){
 
  dbOpen();
   
  $query = "select data from MyTable where name = '$name'";
   
  $result = mysql_query($query);
   
  $row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
   
  mysql_free_result($result);
  dbClose();
  return $row[0];
}
function output(){
  $a = 45;
  $string = getString($a, 'cool_name');
  echo $string;
}

The MySQL query returns a string:
data, data everywhere $a

The output is: data, data everywhere $a

I'd like it to be: data, data everywhere 45

Thanks again.

[coopster]

You could use a str_replace() or an eval(). In this case, str_replace() [php.net] should work fine.

$string = str_replace('$a', $a, $string);