retrieve value of value of a variable

Anon

If have defined a variable ...

define ("_HOME", "Home Page");

I have also stored this in a table (menu)column (menu_reference) ... where menu_reference contains _HELP as its value.

I am building HTML code that is to take the value of menu_reference and then get the value of the value of menu_refernence and put it in my code:

I have tried:

$content .= $menu_reference; #HOME
$content .= "$menu_reference"; #HOME
$content .= ${$menu_reference}; #nothing
$content .= "".${$menu_reference}.""; #nothing

What I need is for the value of HOME (Home Page) to be placed into the $content .= statement rather than the value of menu_reference (which is HOME). Currently I either get the value of menu_reference or nothing in my HTML output.

I am stuck on this one ...

kparker

What exactly are you trying to do? If you don't want the value of $menu_reference to become part of the value of $content, then don't append it in the first place.

Or, if you're trying to use variable variables, they really all have to be variables, e.g.:

  $home = 'Home Page';
  $menu_reference = 'home';
  $content = $$menu_reference;

Now $content should contain 'Home Page'. Whereas _HOME, as you're currently defining it, is a constant.

Anon

Kirk,

That didn't work for me ... let me explain in a little more detail ... I really appreciate your trying to help me on this.

In a lang-definition.php file I define all strings that are to be displayed on the screen.

One of those definitions is:

define("_HOME", "Home Page");

In a table I have all the requirements of my main menu (bold, italic, indented, etc.) including a lang-reference column:

$menu_lang_ref which is set to _HOME to correspond to my definition.

Then in my menu building program, I need to build a $content variable with the value of _HOME.

If tried the following:

$menu_lang = 'menu_lang_ref';
$content .= $$menu_lang;

As for your exact example:

$menu_lang_ref = "Home Pages";
$menu_lang = 'menu_lang_ref';
$content .= $$menu_lang;

This did exactly as you said. However the first step is not getting the value I need from the database.