The Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org./web/20130807234023/http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.php

Welcome to the php.net beta site. If you want to revert back, click here X

Change language:

add a note add a note

User Contributed Notes 13 notes

up
12
jsb17 at cornell dot edu
6 years ago
As an addendum to David's 10-Nov-2005 posting, remember that curly braces literally mean "evaluate what's inside the curly braces" so, you can squeeze the variable variable creation into one line, like this:

<?php
  ${"title_default_" . $title} = "selected";
?>

and then, for example:

<?php
  $title_select = <<<END
    <select name="title">
      <option>Select</option>
      <option $title_default_Mr  value="Mr">Mr</option>
      <option $title_default_Ms  value="Ms">Ms</option>
      <option $title_default_Mrs value="Mrs">Mrs</option>
      <option $title_default_Dr  value="Dr">Dr</option>
    </select>
END;
?>
up
6
justgook at gmail dot com
3 years ago
I found interstate solution to work with arrays

<?php
$vars['product']['price']=11;

$aa='product';
$bb='price';

echo $vars{$aa}{$bb};

//prints 11
?>
up
5
raja shahed at christine nothdurfter dot com
9 years ago
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

$name = "Christine_Nothdurfter";
// not Christine Nothdurfter
// you are not allowed to leave a space inside a variable name ;)
$$name = "'s students of Tyrolean language ";

print " $name{$$name}<br>";
print  "$name$Christine_Nothdurfter";
// same
?>
up
0
Anonymous
5 years ago
[EDIT by danbrown AT php DOT net: The function provided by this author will give you all defined variables at runtime.  It was originally written by (john DOT t DOT gold AT gmail DOT com), but contained some errors that were corrected in subsequent posts by (ned AT wgtech DOT com) and (taliesin AT gmail DOT com).]

<?php

echo '<table border=1><tr> <th>variable</th> <th>value</th> </tr>';
foreach( get_defined_vars() as $key => $value)
{
    if (is_array ($value) )
    {
        echo '<tr><td>$'.$key .'</td><td>';
        if ( sizeof($value)>0 )
        {
        echo '"<table border=1><tr> <th>key</th> <th>value</th> </tr>';
        foreach ($value as $skey => $svalue)
        {
            echo '<tr><td>[' . $skey .']</td><td>"'. $svalue .'"</td></tr>';
        }
        echo '</table>"';
        }
             else
        {
            echo 'EMPTY';
        }
        echo '</td></tr>';
    }
    else
    {
            echo '<tr><td>$' . $key .'</td><td>"'. $value .'"</td></tr>';
    }
}
echo '</table>';
?>
up
-1
david at removethisbit dot futuresbright dot com
7 years ago
When using variable variables this is invalid:

<?php
$my_variable_{$type}_name = true;
?>

to get around this do something like:

<?php
$n="my_variable_{$type}_name";
${$n} = true;
?>

(or $$n - I tend to use curly brackets out of habit as it helps t reduce bugs ...)
up
-2
Carel Solomon
8 years ago
You can also construct a variable name by concatenating two different variables, such as:

<?php

$arg = "foo";
$val = "bar";

//${$arg$val} = "in valid";     // Invalid
${$arg . $val} = "working";

echo $foobar;     // "working";
//echo $arg$val;         // Invalid
//echo ${$arg$val};     // Invalid
echo ${$arg . $val};    // "working"

?>

Carel
up
-2
josh at PraxisStudios dot com
8 years ago
As with echo, you can define a variable like this:

<?php

$text = <<<END

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>
             $outputdata
        </td>
     </tr>
</table>

END;

?>

The closing END; must be on a line by itself (no whitespace).

[EDIT by danbrown AT php DOT net: This note illustrates HEREDOC syntax.  For more information on this and similar features, please read the "Strings" section of the manual here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php ]
up
-2
Chris Hester
7 years ago
Variables can also be assigned together.

<?php
$a = $b = $c = 1;
echo $a.$b.$c;
?>

This outputs 111.
up
-7
dimitrov dot adrian at gmail dot com
3 years ago
This is mine type casting lib, that is very useful for me.

<?php

function CAST_TO_INT($var, $min = FALSE, $max = FALSE)
{
    $var = is_int($var) ? $var : (int)(is_scalar($var) ? $var : 0);
    if ($min !== FALSE && $var < $min)
        return $min;
    elseif($max !== FALSE && $var > $max)
        return $max;
    return $var;
       
}

function CAST_TO_FLOAT($var, $min = FALSE, $max = FALSE)
{
    $var = is_float($var) ? $var : (float)(is_scalar($var) ? $var : 0);
    if ($min !== FALSE && $var < $min)
        return $min;
    elseif($max !== FALSE && $var > $max)
        return $max;
    return $var;
}

function CAST_TO_BOOL($var)
{
    return (bool)(is_bool($var) ? $var : is_scalar($var) ? $var : FALSE);
}

function CAST_TO_STRING($var, $length = FALSE)
{
    if ($length !== FALSE && is_int($length) && $length > 0)
        return substr(trim(is_string($var)
                    ? $var
                    : (is_scalar($var) ? $var : '')), 0, $length);

    return trim(
                is_string($var)
                ? $var
                : (is_scalar($var) ? $var : ''));
}

function CAST_TO_ARRAY($var)
{
    return is_array($var)
            ? $var
            : is_scalar($var) && $var
                ? array($var)
                : is_object($var) ? (array)$var : array();
}

function CAST_TO_OBJECT($var)
{
    return is_object($var)
            ? $var
            : is_scalar($var) && $var
                ? (object)$var
                : is_array($var) ? (object)$var : (object)NULL;
}

?>
up
-4
webmaster at daersys dot net
9 years ago
You don't necessarily have to escape the dollar-sign before a variable if you want to output its name.

You can use single quotes instead of double quotes, too.

For instance:

<?php
$var = "test";

echo "$var"; // Will output the string "test"

echo "\$var"; // Will output the string "$var"

echo '$var'; // Will do the exact same thing as the previous line
?>

Why?
Well, the reason for this is that the PHP Parser will not attempt to parse strings encapsulated in single quotes (as opposed to strings within double quotes) and therefore outputs exactly what it's being fed with :)

To output the value of a variable within a single-quote-encapsulated string you'll have to use something along the lines of the following code:

<?php
$var = 'test';
/*
Using single quotes here seeing as I don't need the parser to actually parse the content of this variable but merely treat it as an ordinary string
*/

echo '$var = "' . $var . '"';
/*
Will output:
$var = "test"
*/
?>

HTH
- Daerion
up
-7
Mike Fotes
8 years ago
In conditional assignment of variables, be careful because the strings may take over the value of the variable if you do something like this:

<?php
$condition = true;

// Outputs " <-- That should say test"
echo "test" . ($condition) ? " <-- That should say test" : "";
?>

You will need to enclose the conditional statement and assignments in parenthesis to have it work correctly:

<?php
$condition = true;

// Outputs "test <-- That should say test"
echo "test" . (($condition) ? " <-- That should say test " : "");
?>
up
-9
molnaromatic at gmail dot com
7 years ago
Simple sample and variables and html "templates":
The PHP code:
variables.php:
<?php
$SYSN["title"] = "This is Magic!";
$SYSN["HEADLINE"] = "Ez magyarul van"; // This is hungarian
$SYSN["FEAR"] = "Bell in my heart";
?>

index.php:
<?php
include("variables.php");
include("template.html");
?>

The template:
template.html

<html>
<head><title><?=$SYSN["title"]?></title></head>
<body>
<H1><?=$SYSN["HEADLINE"]?></H1>
<p><?=$SYSN["FEAR"]?></p>
</body>
</html>
This is simple, quick and very flexibile
up
-7
Mike at ImmortalSoFar dot com
7 years ago
References and "return" can be flakey:

<?php
//  This only returns a copy, despite the dereferencing in the function definition
function &GetLogin ()
{
    return $_SESSION['Login'];
}

//  This gives a syntax error
function &GetLogin ()
{
    return &$_SESSION['Login'];
}

//  This works
function &GetLogin ()
{
    $ret = &$_SESSION['Login'];
    return $ret;
}
?>
add a note add a note