PHP pass variable to include

Question

I'm trying to pass a variable into an include file. My host changed PHP version and now whatever solution I try doesn't work.

I think I've tried every option I could find. I'm sure it's the simplest thing!

The variable needs to be set and evaluated from the calling first file (it's actually $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], and needs to return the path of that file, not the included second.php).

OPTION ONE

In the first file:

global $variable; $variable = "apple"; include('second.php'); 

In the second file:

echo $variable; 

OPTION TWO

In the first file:

function passvariable(){     $variable = "apple";     return $variable; } passvariable(); 

OPTION THREE

$variable = "apple"; include "myfile.php?var=$variable"; // and I tried with http: and full site address too.   $variable = $_GET["var"] echo $variable 

None of these work for me. PHP version is 5.2.16.

What am I missing?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the extract() function
Drupal use it, in its theme() function.

Here it is a render function with a $variables argument.

function includeWithVariables($filePath, $variables = array(), $print = true) {     $output = NULL;     if(file_exists($filePath)){         // Extract the variables to a local namespace         extract($variables);          // Start output buffering         ob_start();          // Include the template file         include $filePath;          // End buffering and return its contents         $output = ob_get_clean();     }     if ($print) {         print $output;     }     return $output;  } 

./index.php :

includeWithVariables('header.php', array('title' => 'Header Title')); 

./header.php :

<h1><?php echo $title; ?></h1> 

Answer 2

Option 3 is impossible - you'd get the rendered output of the .php file, exactly as you would if you hit that url in your browser. If you got raw PHP code instead (as you'd like), then ALL of your site's source code would be exposed, which is generally not a good thing.

Option 2 doesn't make much sense - you'd be hiding the variable in a function, and be subject to PHP's variable scope. You'ld also have to have $var = passvariable() somewhere to get that 'inside' variable to the 'outside', and you're back to square one.

option 1 is the most practical. include() will basically slurp in the specified file and execute it right there, as if the code in the file was literally part of the parent page. It does look like a global variable, which most people here frown on, but by PHP's parsing semantics, these two are identical:

$x = 'foo'; include('bar.php'); 

and

$x = 'foo'; // contents of bar.php pasted here