preg_match like global variable possible?

[developerdave]

Well i've scoured the PHP.net documentation and Google'd this thoroughly and can't find anything, which suggests it is impossible but I thought I should get a collective opinion on it.

 

So we all know what preg_match() is, its third argument (in most examples is $matches) becomes available to the rest of the script calling that function.

 

What I want to be able to do is say I have a function called foo with the argument $bar I want the variable $bar to become available throughout the rest of my script. Like below.

 

//I don't want to have to do this
function foo()
{
       return 'Foobar!';
}
$bar = foo();//outputs Foobar!

//but rather do this
function foo($bar)
{
       return $bar = 'Foobar!';
}
echo $bar;//I want it to output Foobar! but doesn't 

 

I've tried quite a few thigns now and can't seem to work it out naturally, anyone have any suggestions?

[AbraCadaver]

Pass by reference:

 

function foo(&$bar) {
   $bar = 'Foobar!';
}
$bar = 'Bar';
foo($bar);
echo $bar;

[AbraCadaver]

Just to clarify, you don't have to use the same var names inside and outside the function:

 

function foo(&$bar) {
   $bar = 'Foobar!';
}
$X = 'Bar';
foo($X);
echo $X;

//or
echo foo($X);

[developerdave]

Ooops my bad, this was simple :s Basically (just to explain) the function assigning the variable is member of a class which is instantiated by another class and returned (for method chaining) and this seemed like a good feature to have so the method chaining wasn't made redundant by having to separate lines for variable assignment. I set the inner class to accept by reference but not the controller 

 

All fixed now

 

Thanks anyways guys