$variable = $variable

[echo64]

Hello

 

Sorry if this is a really simple question but I have run out of ideas. Is there a really simple way of doing the following:

 

$animal_dog    = $something_something[$i]['animal_dog'];

$animal_cat  = $something_something[$i]['animal_cat'];

$animal_cow    = $something_something[$i]['animal_cow'];

etc, etc, etc

 

Is there a way to simplify the process above so that I could just do:

 

$animal_*    = $something_something[$i]['animal_*'];

 

I hope this makes sense and thanks in advance... this would be so handy to know how to do!

 

Thanks 

[wildteen88]

Your could use extract

extract($something_something[$i]);

echo $animal_dog;
echo $animal_cat;
echo $animal_cow;

[teamatomic]

Close. You're just a bit backwards.

<?php

$dog='arf';

$cat = 'meow';

$cow = 'moo';

$animal_sounds['dog']=$dog;

$animal_sounds['cat']=$cat;

$animal_sounds['cow']=$cow;

 

echo $animal_sounds['dog']."<br>";//arf

echo $animal_sounds['cat']."<br>";//meow

echo $animal_sounds['cow']."<p>";//moo

 

foreach($animal_sounds as $key => $value)

{

echo "A $key says $value<br>";

}

?>

 

HTH

Tteamatomic

 

oops....edited for a typo... $animal_sound = $animal_sounds

[echo64]

Hey

 

Thanks for the replies but that section of code (although nothing to do with animals I might add!) is from a much larger script and it needs to stay in the current format. My main issue is having to manually replicate the variables, which is why I was wondering if it's possible to use some kind of wild-card feature within PHP.

 

If something like: "$animal_*    = $something_something[$i]['animal_*'];" is possible it would save me hours of work. Perhaps this is not even possible? 

 

So just to reiterate - there could be hundreds of animals and I would have to write hundreds of lines to do what I want, but if there was something like my suggestion that actually worked I could do it all in a few lines. Thoughts? 

[wildteen88]

Thats why I suggested extract

Your could use extract

extract($something_something[$i], EXTR_REFS);

echo $animal_dog;
echo $animal_cat;
echo $animal_cow;

 

EDIT: Minor change

[oni-kun]

Yep. extract will create variables out of the array itself, it's what you're looking to do.

[echo64]

ah ok! Thanks, I'll go have a play with the extract function then! 

[Daniel0]

I suspect there is something you could do better. Why would you want to define hundreds of variables? Why do you even want to redefine a lot of variables?

[echo64]

Simply because it's the only way I knew how to do what I wanted... 

[Daniel0]

Then tell us what you need to do and we'll help you improve it. If you need to do something with all the "animals" you can use a loop.

[laffin]

Its better known as variable variables

<?php
$animals=array('dog','cat','mouse');
foreach($animals as $val)
{
     $new_var="animal_{$val}";
     $$new_var=$new_var;
}
var_dump($animal_dog,$animal_cat,$animal_mouse);
?>

[echo64]

That's exactly what I was after! Thank you "laffin" and the others for their ridiculously fast help. 

[teamatomic]

A short answer to your Q about wild cards. No. You will still have to build the array. As I showed you how to build the array extract would give you:

echo "$dog //arf";

echo "$cat"; //meow

echo "$cow";//moo

 

The easiest way would be:

$array = (

'dog'  => 'arf',

'cat' => 'meow',

'cow' => 'moo'

);

 

put this in a file and include it, then you can:

extract($array);

or

foreach($array as $key => $value)

or

$dog = $array['dog'];

or

anything else you can do with arrays

 

 

HTH

Teamatomic