Variables scope and variable variables

[le_gber]

Hi there,

I have a function that uses variable variables which are defined outside the function.
I can't get it to work. I wondered if it even possible.

ex.

<?php

$a_foo = 'foo_not_bar';
$a_bar= 'bar_not_foo';
...

function showFooBar($which){
//$which here is of value foo or bar but in my case there's 250 values

$whichFooBar = '$a_'.$which

if(isset($$whichFooBar)) && ($$whichFooBar == 'foo')){
do something...
}

}

?>

it's the part in red I have trouble with - ie. accessing a variable variable's value oustide of the function scope.

I tried adding global $$whichFooBar but that doesn't seem to work either.

[le_gber]

got it working thanks to WebmasterWorld once again :) - [webmasterworld.com...]

I shouldn't have use the $ sign in my new var declaration

$whichFooBar = '$a_'.$which;
becomes
$whichFooBar = 'a_'.$which;

[coopster]

Nice catch. That was the first thing I noticed. I was also going to mention that you can always use the $GLOBALS superglobal too. Example:

$a_foo = 'foo_not_bar'; 
$a_bar = 'bar_not_foo'; 
function showFooBar($which) 
{ 
 //$which here is of value foo or bar but in my case there's 250 values 
 $whichFooBar = 'a_' . $which; 
 // print '<pre>'; print_r($GLOBALS); print '</pre>'; 
 if (isset($GLOBALS[$whichFooBar]) && ($GLOBALS[$whichFooBar] == 'foo')) { 
  print $GLOBALS[$whichFooBar]; 
 } 
} 
$a_foo_not_bar = 'foo'; 
showFooBar('foo_not_bar');

[le_gber]

thanks coopster - it works great