Variables inside functions?

[TTT_Travis]

<?php
$realpath = dirname(__FILE__);
include_once "$realpath/content/conf/ubuntucenter.php.inc";

function displayhead() {

$realpath = dirname(__FILE__);
include_once "$realpath/content/conf/ubuntucenter.php.inc";               <---- Contains variable
include_once "$realpath/content/themes/$theme/header.php";           <---- attempts to use the variable
}


function displayfoot() {
include_once "content/themes/centerv1/footer.php";
}
?>

$realpath/content/conf/ubuntucenter.php.inc sets the varible $theme but when I try to include the variable in the next line it is null. I am very new to php and am sure this is just a simple mistake.

Thanks in advanced,
Travis!

[bpat1434]

When a file is included, parsing drops out of PHP mode and into HTML mode at the beginning of the target file, and resumes again at the end. For this reason, any code inside the target file which should be executed as PHP code must be enclosed within valid PHP start and end tags.

Without seeing what the included file looks like... that's the best I can do....

[ahundiak]

$realpath = dirname(__FILE__);
include_once "$realpath/content/conf/ubuntucenter.php.inc";

function displayhead()
{
    global $theme;

echo $theme;
}

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php

[TTT_Travis]

bpat1434 wrote:

Without seeing what the included file looks like... that's the best I can do....

Actually they did have php tags but anyway...

ahundiak wrote:

$realpath = dirname(__FILE__);
include_once "$realpath/content/conf/ubuntucenter.php.inc";

function displayhead()
{
    global $theme;

echo $theme;
}

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php

THANKS! worked great

Travis