{"id":1363,"date":"2018-01-19T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T19:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goofy-trucks.flywheelsites.com\/variable-variables\/"},"modified":"2018-01-19T19:24:44","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T19:24:44","slug":"variable-variables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/variable-variables\/","title":{"rendered":"Variable Variables"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
By Robert Berkowitz<\/div>\n
on September 28, 2000<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\"picture<\/p>\n
\nDuring a recent project I discovered a totally new concept in programming for myself,
\nvariable variables. I needed to update multiple records from one page. After banging
\nmy head on the wall for quite some time, I stumbled across the variable variable and
\nall my troubles went away!<\/div>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n
\nSo, just what the heck is a variable variable anyway? According to the PHP manual,
\na variable variable takes the value of a variable and treats that as the name of a
\nvariable. While this may seem pretty straightforward, it can be a little confusing
\nwith so many uses of the word “variable” in one sentence. What the definition simply
\nstates is that you can set a variable — x equals this — and then set the variable
\nvariable, meaning you set the value of x as a new variable of x. In this example,
\nthe variable this would equal is cake. In PHP, this would be denoted as follows:<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n

<?php<\/p>\n

$x\u00a0<\/span>=\u00a0<\/span>\"this\"<\/span>;
\n
$<\/span>$x\u00a0<\/span>=\u00a0<\/span>\"is\u00a0cake\"<\/span>;<\/p>\n

<\/span>?>
\n
<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/code><\/font>\t<\/div>\n

\nThe $$ is the syntax used in PHP for a variable variable. I can now call the two variables $x and $$x two ways.<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n

<?php<\/p>\n

<\/span>echo\u00a0<\/span>\"$x\u00a0${$x}\"<\/span>;<\/p>\n

<\/span>?>
\n
<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/code><\/font><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

<?php<\/p>\n

<\/span>echo\u00a0<\/span>\"$x\u00a0$this\"<\/span>;
\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n
<\/span>?>
\n
<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/code><\/font><\/div>\n

\nBoth of these will return the string “this is cake”. Notice that $$x is written as ${$x}
\nin echo. This lets PHP know that you are using the variable $$x and not $ and $x.<\/div>\n
\nStill scratching your head? Or maybe you get it, but want a more in depth and actually
\nuseful example? In the next section I will show you how variable variables may be used
\nto edit multiple records on one page.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
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Next Page \u00bb<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Berkowitz on September 28, 2000 During a recent project I discovered a totally new concept in programming for myself, variable variables. I needed to update multiple records from one page. After banging my head on the wall for quite some time, I stumbled across the variable variable and… <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2193,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phpbuilder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}