file_exists within a function

[Anon]

I'm doing what should be a simple file_exists query. I've got the following basic code:

$stripdate = "0";
$testdate = date("ymd");
do {
if (file_exists("$DOCUMENT_ROOT/./images/strips/".$testdate.".gif")) {
$stripdate = $testdate;
echo "found";
}
else {
// subtract one from the date
}
}
while ($stripdate == "0")

... and this works fine. It finds the specified files.

when I place it in a function, I can no longer use $DOCUMENT_ROOT to find the files. I have to go

file_exists("/home/blah/blah/blah/blah/images/strips/".$testdate.".gif")

as in:

function find_strip($testdate){
$stripdate = "0";
do {
if (file_exists("/home/blah/blah/blah/blah/images/strips/".$testdate.".gif")) {
$stripdate = $testdate;
echo "found";
}
else {
// subtract one from the date
}
}
while ($stripdate == "0")
}

find_strip(date("ymd"));

...

Anyone know how why this happens? Any way to be able to use $DOCUMENT_ROOT?

Thanks,
Thomas D

[junebug]

use this:

$GLOBALS['DOCUMENT_ROOT']

[Anon]

Excellent!

For those of you who found this by searching,

global $DOCUMENT_ROOT;

inside the function worked.

Thanks for putting me on the right track, chris.