How can I get all submitted form values in PHP and automatically assign them to variables?

Question

I'm trying to migrate a website from one host to another. On the first host, when you submit a form, all of the form values are automatically stuck into variables with the input name (this is PHP). On the new host, these values are all null unless I do this:

$data = $_GET['data'];

Is there a PHP configuration setting that is causing this? If there isn't, is there an easy way to loop through all of the $_GET variables and automatically assign their values to a variable with the same name?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The setting is register_globals, but it is now deprecated and strongly advised against using it because it is a security risk. Anyone can set variables in your script which might interact in a negative or unexpected way with your code.

If you absolutely must, you can do it like this:

foreach ($_GET as $key=>$value) {
    $$key = $value;
}

or, more simply:

import_request_variables("g");

or, to make it a little safer:

import_request_variables("g", "myprefix_"); // This way forces you to use "myprefix_" 
// in front of the variables, better ensuring you are not unaware 
// of the fact that this can come from a user

extract($_GET) could also work, as someone else pointed out, and it also allows specification (via extra arguments) of adding a prefix or what to do if your extraction conflicts with an already existing variable (e.g., if you extracted after you defined some other variables).

Answer 2

Look at the extract function : http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.extract.php