[Resolved] Indirect Accessing of PHP globals

Qel

I am trying to code a simple debug function which will list the contents of $GET and $POST arrays.

Below is a simplification of my code (error checking, style support, etc, removed).

function debugArrayItem($value, $key) {
	echo("<LI>$key: $value</LI>");
}

function debugArrayGlobal($arrayName) {
	echo("<P>$".$arrayName."</P>/n<UL>");

array_walk($$arrayName, 'debugArrayItem');
echo("</UL>");	
}

debugArrayGlobal('_GET');
debugArrayGlobal('_POST');

This sticking point is trying to pass the arrays to array_walk using $$arrayName. It doesn't work.

however if I modify the function as follows:

function debugArrayGlobal($arrayName) {
	$arrayName = 'array';	
	$array = array('a1' => 1, 'a2' => 123, 'help' => 2345);
	echo("<P>$".$arrayName."</P>/n<UL>");

array_walk($$arrayName, 'debugArrayItem');
echo("</UL>");	
}

the function will list the values of $array. Similarly if I use switch ($arrayName) to directly access $GET and $POST the function works fine.

Is there any reason I can't access PHP super globals via the $$ method?

Is there an alternative method to access these whilst still being able to output the superglobal array name - without passing both the array and its name to my debug function?

ZibingsCoder

Not sure if this'll help, but you might try something like this...

function debugArrayGlobal($arrayName) { 
    echo("<P>$".$arrayName."</P>/n<UL>"); 

array_walk(${arrayName}, 'debugArrayItem'); 
echo("</UL>");     
}

That used to be how I always did things like this, but I've never done this exact thing, so don't quote me on it if it doesn't work. :p

Qel

thanks for your reply.

I tried your idea but it didn't work 🙁

After checking further...
{} are used to gather together a complete array reference, whereas I am attempting to access a variable ($A) via another variable ($😎 which contains the name of first variable ('A') using $$B syntax.

The syntax seems to work fine for a locally defined array. But it doesn't seem to work for superglobal arrays.

Qel

It seems its a known problem http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=17017

using $GLOBALS[$arrayName] works fine.