function trouble

owaring

Okay then, next chapter in my quest!! functions!

I have mastered the v basic stuff, ie i have some simple functions that work.

I'm stuck with this one.

function tidyname($var)
{
$var = trim ($var);
$var = ereg_replace("[ )(' '.-]","",$var);
$var = strtolower($var);
$var = ucfirst($var);
echo $var;
return;
}

the program using the function is

include("../include/functions.php");

$firstname = "GreGG<br>";
$lastname = "PR oops<br>";
$nickname = "PPPooo      poops  sjsjs<br><br>";

echo $firstname;
echo $lastname;
echo $nickname;

tidyname($firstname);
tidyname($lastname);
tidyname($nickname);

echo $firstname;
echo $lastname;
echo $nickname;

the echo line in the function is to give me a peek in side, it shows that the function is working,
however when i print the variables after they have been through the function they are un changed.

i figure i need a line in the function to "save" the $var as $firstname for example

owaring

forgot to say thanks
😃

dewen

try function tidyname(&$var)

pass by reference

owaring

that works fine now thanks, could someone explain why please😃

Roger_Ramjet

Your original function was passed a copy of the var as a value, processed it, but then did not return the new var. The original var retained it's original value. Passing a reference or pointer to the value instead of a copy of it means that the processing is performed on the original value and instead of a copy which has to be returned.

Installer

Here's another (the more usual) way of doing it:

$firstname = tidyname($firstname); 
$lastname  = tidyname($lastname); 
$nickname  = tidyname($nickname); 

echo $firstname; 
echo $lastname; 
echo $nickname;

function tidyname($var) { 
    $var = trim ($var); 
    $var = ereg_replace("[ )(' '.-]","",$var); 
    $var = strtolower($var); 
    $var = ucfirst($var); 
    return $var; 
}

Functions
References