How to return a constant or a text string in PHP -- is eval() the way to go

Question

I have a row in a mysql table whose column contains:

This is a test.

I have another row in the same mysql table whose same column contains:

K_IM_A_CONSTANT

Earlier on in the PHP script, this line of code exists:

define(K_IM_A_CONSTANT, 'This is a constant.');

How can I echo the contents of the column whereby, the returned value would either be "This is a test." or "This is a constant.", depending on the row selected?

Is eval() the way to do it? If so, how might the eval() syntax look? I have been getting too many errors trying to get eval() to work.

Thanks for helping.

Answer 1

Use the constant function:

if(defined($row['column_name']))
{
    echo constant($row['column_name']);
}