functions() and globals

[Anon]

Can some one explain to me exactly how globals work in functions. I am having a dificult time getting my functions() to work, When I create a long script and decide to transform it into a function it does not work. I think it has some thing to do with declaring globals within the function.

*************example***************

function revise_link_docs()
{

$array1=array($link_doc_1,$link_doc_2,$link_doc_3,$link_doc_4,$link_doc_5,$link_doc_6,$link_doc_7,$link_doc_8,$link_doc_9,$link_doc_10,$link_doc_11,$link_doc_12,$link_doc_13,$link_doc_14,$link_doc_15,$link_doc_16,$link_doc_17,$link_doc_18,$link_doc_19,$link_doc_20);
$array2=array($add_link_1,$add_link_2,$add_link_3,$add_link_4,$add_link_5,$add_link_6,$add_link_7,$add_link_8,$add_link_9,$add_link_10);

$counter=0;
for($a=0;$a<sizeof($array1);$a++)
{
if($array1[$a]>"0")
{
$result1[$counter] = $array1[$a];
$counter++;
}

}

$counter=0;
for ($a=0;$a<sizeof($array2);$a++)
{
if($array2[$a]>"0")
{
$result2[$counter] = $array2[$a];
$counter++;
}

}

$new_array=array_merge($result1, $result2);

if (is_array($new_array))
{

while(list($key, $value) = each($new_array))

{
$key++;
eval("\$variable_$key = '$value';");

("$value<br>");

}

}

$counter= 0;

while ($counter <20)
{
$counter++;
$variable_counter="variable_$counter";

if(empty($$variable_counter))
{
$$variable_counter = 0;
}
else
{
$$variable_counter = $$variable_counter;
}

if($$variable_counter > 0)
{

echo $$variable_counter;
echo ("<br>");
}
global $variable_1;
global $variable_2;
global $variable_3;
global $variable_4;
global $variable_5;
global $variable_6;
global $variable_7;
global $variable_8;
global $variable_9;
global $variable_10;
global $variable_11;
global $variable_12;
global $variable_13;
global $variable_14;
global $variable_15;
global $variable_16;
global $variable_17;
global $variable_18;
global $variable_19;
global $variable_20;
}

}

this funtion will not work, However if I embed this into the script without the

function revise_link_docs()
{
}

It works fine, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks

[Anon]

globals are for allowing functions to view values outside the function, not for code outside the function to view values in it...

you should put all of those values into an array, and then return it.

this code :
global $variable_1;
global $variable_2;
global $variable_3;
......

in the function makes them global sure enough, but they are in the scope of the function, so when it ends, they go buh bye too.

[cheald]

if you define $a outside a function, you must declare it as a global in the function for the function to be able to see and modify its value. Otherwise, the function will create it's own variable $a, which will be empty.

WRONG:

$a = "Hi!\n";

function printHi() {
echo $a;
} //Returns nothing

RIGHT:

$a = "Hi!\n";

function printHi() {
global $a;
echo $a;
} //Returns "Hi!\n";

[stephanie]

I have written functions similar to your in that they calculate data & make them available globally.

I realized it worked only when I FIRST declared the variables that are to be global, ex:

function revise_link_docs() {
global $variable_1; global $variable_2; //etc..

//start calculation

};