variable scope problem

[Rich464]

I was wondering if someone could help me with what is likely a simple variable scope problem.

as per my code below, variables declared in an include file arent available inside functions that I declare the include from. Simplified version is below. Now I've read the PHP manual and searched the net on variable scope and I understand most of it, but none seem to cover this exact situation.

It's a silly thing, and if someone could help me with it I'd really appreciate it, I'm using php 5 and MySQL 5

[code]config.php
<?php

$user = "user";
$pass = "pass";

?>


display.php
<?php

include ('config.php');

echo $user; //these seem to work fine
echo $pass; //values are displayed correctly

function display_vars()
{
  echo $user; //these give undefined variable warnings
  echo $pass; //have tried using global too
}

display_vars() 

?>[/code]

Cheers in advance  :-*

[spyke01]

in display.php do the foloowing
[code]
include 'config.php';
[/code]

[Rich464]

oh bugger, sorry.

No I did put that (duh!)

sorry I'm an idiot.

ill amend it :P

[spyke01]

ok is there a link to this page?

try
config.php
[code]<?php

$user = "user";
$pass = "pass";

?>[/code]


display.php
[code]<?php

include ('config.php');

echo $user; //these seem to work fine
echo $pass; //values are displayed correctly

function display_vars()
{
  echo $user; //these give undefined variable warnings
  echo $pass; //have tried using global too
}

display_vars();

?>[/code]

i changed display_vars() to display_vars();

[Oldiesmann]

If you use [tt]global $user, $pass;[/tt] at the beginning of display_vars() now (after including config.php), it should work.

[Rich464]

no,sorry.

Man I really screwed this up trying to simplify it. Here I'll post the actual code.

[code]
config.php
<?php

$hostname = "Localhost"; //the hostname for the database server

$username = "user"; //The username to access the database with

$password = "password"; //the password to use to access the database

$dbname = "db name"; //the actual name of the database to use

?>

dbconnect.php
<?php

require ('config.php');

function db_connect()
{
//use values pulled from config.php
$db = new mysqli($hostname,$username,$password,$dbname);
return $db;
}

$conn = db_connect();

?>

[/code]

the point is when the db_connect() function is called I get undefined variable warnings. I need to figure out why, or some way around it

Why aren't the variables declared in the include file available inside the function?

[spyke01]

try

config.php
[code]<?php

$hostname = "Localhost"; //the hostname for the database server

$username = "user"; //The username to access the database with

$password = "password"; //the password to use to access the database

$dbname = "db name"; //the actual name of the database to use

?>[/code]

dbconnect.php
[code]<?php

require ('config.php');

function db_connect()
{
        global $hostname, $username, $password;
//use values pulled from config.php
$db = mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
        if (!$db) die('Could not connect:' . mysql_error());
return $db;
}

$conn = db_connect();

mysql_select_db($dbname, $conn)
or die('Could not open database:' . mysql_error());
?>[/code]

why not just do
dbconn.php
[code]
<?php

$mysql_location = 'localhost';
$mysql_user = 'user';
$mysql_password = 'pass';
$mysql_db = 'database';

$link = mysql_connect($mysql_location, $mysql_user, $mysql_password);
if (!$link) die('Could not connect:' . mysql_error());

mysql_select_db($mysql_db, $link)
or die('Could not open database:' . mysql_error());

?>
[/code]


you can just do include 'dbconn.php'; on each page, much simpler

[Rich464]

Well I managed to gather what I needed to do from that, as your code still reports $dbname as an undefined variable.

It works when the variables are declared as global INSIDE the function.....weird.

Anyway thanks for your help  :) :D

[kenrbnsn]

[quote]It works when the variables are declared as global INSIDE the function.....weird.[/quote]
That's how global works in PHP.

Ken

[spyke01]

yep always remember that, if your in a function use global

[king arthur]

What you really need to be doing is

[code]
function display_vars($username, $password)
{
  echo $username; //these give undefined variable warnings
  echo $password; //have tried using global too
}

display_vars($user, $pass)
[/code]

This is a far more structured way than using global variables.