The Number of Variables

[goxu]

Hi,

Is there a way to count the number of variables used in a string? Such as,

$var = $a . $b . $c . $d;

The number of used variables in the $var is 4. But how can I know it?

I appreciate your information.

[stolzyboy]

do you have an example where you wouldn't know how many variables are in there?

reason i ask, is simply because you have those four typed in there so you know, are you building variables in a loop/etc... if so, post it please

stolzyboy

[goxu]

stolzyboy wrote:

do you have an example where you wouldn't know how many variables are in there?

reason i ask, is simply because you have those four typed in there so you know, are you building variables in a loop/etc... if so, post it please

stolzyboy

Sorry, I don't have a good example to post here. I'm just curious how the php works.

If it is like.

$var = "$a, $b, $c, $d, $e";

then the explode() and the count() would work.

$var = $a + $b + $c + $d + $e + $f ;

What about in this case?

[Installer]

Just for the hell of it, and of little or no use otherwise:

function my_function()
{
    $num_vars = 0;
    $num_cons = 0;
    $args = func_get_args();
    $var = '';
    for ($i = 0; $i < (count($args) - 2); $i++) {
        if (in_array($args[$i], $args[count($args) - 2])) {
            $num_vars++;
            echo 'Variable: ' . $args[$i] . '<br />';
        } elseif (in_array($args[$i], $args[count($args) - 1])) {
            $num_cons++;
            echo 'Constant/literal: ' . $args[$i] . '<br />';
        }
        $var .= $args[$i];
    }
    $ret[0] = $var;
    $ret[1] = $num_vars;
    $ret[2] = $num_cons;
    return $ret;
}

$a = 'Hello';
$b = 'world';
define('C', '!');
$def_vars = get_defined_vars();
$def_cons = get_defined_constants();
$arr = my_function($a, ', ', $b, C, $def_vars, $def_cons);
echo 'String: ' . $arr[0] . '<br />';
echo 'String constructed with ' . $arr[1] . ' variables and ' . $arr[2] . ' constants/literals.';

Variable: Hello
Constant/literal: , 
Variable: world
Constant/literal: !
String: Hello, world!
String constructed with 2 variables and 2 constants/literals.

But how does ", " get into $def_cons?

[suntra]

Second argument send to my_function is ', '

That's why.

[Installer]

No. "$def_cons" is defined before the function is called.