[RESOLVED] get variable out of a function?

DKY

How do I get a variable out of a function? I have a function that I run within my program that does some SQL and some other things and then in the middle it has an if statement that if true assigns a value to a variable and if not true assigns a different value. It then goes on to make other SQL statements based upon other stuff... How do I grab that variable out of that function and bring it from my func.php back into my php file???

RyanMinor

I'm not sure from your description, but wouldn't you just type

return $variable;

within the if statement that denotes true?

DKY

To test what you're suggesting I created a php file (readfunc.php) and put the following code in it:

function myfunc(){
	$var = "hello world";
	return $var;
}

myfunc();
echo $var;

and got the following error...

Notice: Undefined variable: var in G:\xampp\WebPages\readfunc.php on line 9

Am I doing something wrong or misunderstanding how to use "return"?

DKY

Needed to add 'global'

function myfunc(){
	global $var;
	$var = "hello world";
	return $var;
}

myfunc();
echo $var;

this works, thanks!

laserlight

DKY wrote:
Am I doing something wrong or misunderstanding how to use "return"?

You misunderstood how to use a function that returns a value. For example, you should have written:

$var = myfunc();
echo $var;

Or more simply:

echo myfunc();

DKY wrote:
Needed to add 'global'

You should not use the global keyword unless absolutely necessary. It makes it more difficult to reason about your code and to maintain your code.

DKY

the purpose of my function is to run some code that I'm planning on running on many pages, not to return a variable... The problem is that it ends up creating a variable

if($Row['EMAILADDRESS']<>''){$EmailVisibility = "hidden";}else{$EmailVisibility = "visible";}

within itself to show or hide a div (another function within the body of the page). I needed to pass the value of that variable into the other function and stumbled upon global...

Maybe there's a better/more efficient way to do this?

leatherback

Yes. The better way to do this would be as laser suggested: Have the function return the variable.

DKY

so, wouldn't that be like a third function? or if I call the function as returning the variable would it still run the code within that function as there is code before the variable is assigned and code after the variable is assigned...

leatherback

Try it..

function AddThree($a)
  {
  $b = $a +3;
  return($b);
  }

function ShowIt($c)
  {
  echo "check check, double check<br />";
  $a = AddThree($c);
  echo "<p>".$a."</p>";
  }

echo "Trying something here, would this work?";
ShowIt(9);