How to return an entire array from a PHP Function?

[SaranacLake]

I hate array...   😞

So I had a block of code inside my photo-gallery.php script that took the path to my photos directory, and went to that directory, and then read all of the photo filenames into an array.  Then in my HTML, I iterate through this array to display all of the photos for my gallery.

Now I would like to move that code to an included file so multiple scripts can access it and always be working with the same array.

It seems to me that I need to encapsulate my code inside a function?

Then I could call my getPhotoFilesArray back to my callings cript, and use that array for whatever.

I haven't coded PHP in like 4 years and I am struggling to return the entire array back to my caling script.

This is what I have so far...

	function getPhotoFilesArray($photoPath){
	     $photoFiles = array();
	     <code to find corresponding files>
	     $photoFiles gets populated in a loop
	     return $photoFiles;
	}
	

 

Then in my calling script, I have...

	<?php
	     require_once('../../../secure_outside_webroot/config.php');
	     require_once(WEB_ROOT . 'utilities/functions.php');
	     getPhotoFilesArray($photoPath);
	     var_dump($photoFiles);
	

 

I get some error...

	Notice: Undefined variable: phtoFiles in photo-gallery.php line 133 (which is my var_dump).
	

 

<br>

Would appreciate help getting this to work!

 

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by SaranacLake

[chhorn]

2 hours ago, SaranacLake said:

(which is my var_dump)

It's not that var_dump you posted. Just have a full search over all files for "phtoFiles", looks like a spelling mistake.

[Barand]

You need to assign the value returned by your function to a variable.

$photoFiles = getPhotoFilesArray($photoPath);      
var_dump($photoFiles);

I suggest you read up on

• how to use functions
• variable scope

Edited December 6, 2019 by Barand