Variable Variables question

[scrupul0us]

given:

$numArray = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7);

$result = doSomething($numArray);

function doSomething($array)
{
     foreach ($array as $value)
     {
          $var.$$value = 'something';          

     }

}

what i want that function to do is build variables:

var1, var2...var7

thus far I haven't gotten to work... is it possible?

[bradgrafelman]

I'll start by giving you the solution:

${'var' . $num} = "something";

but then immediately follow with this: If variable variables is the answer, you're probably asking the wrong question.

In other words, why do you need to do this? Why not use an array instead?

[scrupul0us]

im trying to make a function to merge a dynamic number of xml files...

in doing so i have to create a dynamic number of DOMdocument objects and simplexml objects and it just made sense to number them dynamically

[bradgrafelman]

I still don't see why you'd need variable variables... it really does sound like an array would suffice. If you need another DOMDocument object, just do:

$docs[] = new DOMDocument();

and then $docs would be your collection of objects.

[scrupul0us]

i like your idea...

im gunna give them both a whirl for the sake of seeing what runs faster (it's probably going to be negligible)

thanks =)

[scrupul0us]

well, i found with your method i had to do more loop parsing...

this is what i ended up with (all my documents have a single parent, and multiple children... e.g. <colors><color/><color/><color/></colors> so nested children wasnt addressed)

function simplexml_merge ($xmlDocs)
{
	foreach ($xmlDocs as $xmlDoc)
	{
		${'dom'.$xmlDoc} = new DOMDocument();
		${'xml'.$xmlDoc} = simplexml_load_file($xmlDoc.'.xml');
		${'dom'.$xmlDoc}->loadXML(${'xml'.$xmlDoc}->asXML());		
		${'xpath'.$xmlDoc} = new domXPath(${'dom'.$xmlDoc});
		${'xpathQuery'.$xmlDoc} = ${'xpath'.$xmlDoc}->query('/*/*');
	}

$j=0;
foreach ($xmlDocs as $xmlDoc)
{
	if($j != 0)
	{
		for ($i = 0; $i < ${'xpathQuery'.$xmlDoc}->length; $i++)
		{
			${'dom'.$xmlDocs[0]}->documentElement->appendChild(${'dom'.$xmlDocs[0]}->importNode(${'xpathQuery'.$xmlDoc}->item($i), true));
		}
	}
	$j++;
}

//return ${'dom'.$xmlDocs[0]}->saveXML();
return $outputXML = simplexml_import_dom(${'dom'.$xmlDocs[0]});
}
$xmlDocs = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7);

print_r( simplexml_merge($xmlDocs) );