How to use a value in another program?

Varus

I have a program that runs on a regular basis - let's call it process.php It that program I have the following code that counts the number of times the program has run:

/* Turn Counter */
$fp=fopen($turn_ctr,r);
$turn=fgets($fp,999);
fclose($fp);
$fp=fopen($turn_ctr,w);
$new_turn=$turn+1;
/* include('user_l.php'); */
fputs($fp, $new_turn);
fclose($fp);

echo $new_turn;

This code works, but I would like to be able to access the turn number ($new_turn) in another program - let's say in user_l.php I tried to use the include statement that's remarked out but it loads a copy of the output of user_l.php to the screen. I want to be able to actually code the $new_turn variable into user_l.php and get the current value (without having to open the file...) Any ideas? (Sorry if this is way easy, I'm new.)

laserlight

Define a function that returns the value required, e.g.

function getTurnNumber($turn_ctr) {
	$fp = fopen($turn_ctr, "r+");
	$turn = fgets($fp, 999) + 1;
	rewind($fp);
	fputs($fp, $turn);
	fclose($fp);
	return $turn;
}

Varus

Thank you for the quick response.
Please bare with me for one more question. If I create this function in the process program, how do I reference the turn counter variable in another program? (code, please) And is it possible to do this without opening the file to read the value stored there? In other words, is it possible to access the variable without opening the file for a read?