create local variable in calling function, from a string

Question

I want to be able to call a function, that will set one or more local variables in the calling function. For instance:

function someFunc () {
 loadTranslatedStrings($LOCALS, "spanish");
 echo $hello; // prints "hola";
 }

function loadTranslatedStrings (&$callerLocals, $lang) {
 if ($lang == 'spanish')
   $callerLocals['hello'] = 'hola';
 else if ($lang == 'french')
   $callerLocals['hello'] = 'bonjour';
 else
   $callerLocals['hello'] = 'hello';
 }

(I'm guessing it is impossible to do this, but might as well ask...)

Answer 1

You could do this...

function someFunc () {
   loadTranslatedStrings($lang, "spanish");
   extract($lang); 
   echo $hello; // prints "hola";
}

CodePad.