Help with an essoteric syntax

[anotherJEK]

Some time ago I got help from this forum on how to
convert a string to a variable in php.

Essentially, I have an associative array that contains array names as strings.
I want to get to the values contained in arrays as strings. So I need to
convert the string rep of the array to the actual array variable.

PHP Code:

 ${$_arrayNames['_arrayX']} ['Acrylics']; 


Here $_arrayNames contains the string representation of an array name with
the value 'Acrylics'. So I want the value in $_arrayX['Acrylics']
This does work. BUT.....
in OOP context:

PHP Code:

$this->depts = self::$_arrayNames['departments']; // string '_deptDefaults'
print ${$this->depts}['hm']; // nada
require_once(${$this->depts}['hm']); // Fatal error.... etc...
/// ..etc... 


The ultimate value is supposed to be a file name with path as the value
for $_deptDefaults['hm']
require_once() is failing

SO.... any suggestions about how to get this to work?

(as I look over this I think I know why it isn't working... there is not a record in the object, of the arrays that are being referenced in arrayNames)

Well, thanks for time and attention

[anotherJEK]

But I decided to piggy back another similar question:

PHP Code:

$_functList = array();
$_functList[''] = "genIntro";
$_functList['em'] = "genForm";
$_functList['sub'] = "contactResult";
$_functList['test'] = "testFunction";

$_do = {$_functList['test']}(); // Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '{' in  (path)/contact.php on line 34 (this is line 34)

function testFunction()
         {
          print "Hello???.....";
          return;
         } 


IE: how to apply the same conversion idea to a function name???
.... or can I do anonymous functions, like in javascript?

[Fou-Lu]

For the first one, what is the scope of the $_deptDefaults array? Is it declared within the method? Variable variables would require something to see. Enable the error reporting to see if it cannot find the variable or offsets specified.

The second one doesn't require the use of variable variables. A simple $_funcList['test'](); does what you want. Variable functions are not the same as invoking a string, so therefore you do not want to end up with 'string'().
To create an anonymous function, you can use the create_function syntax or invoke the closure:

PHP Code:

$func = create_function('', 'print "Hello???....."; return false;');
$func = function(){
    print "Hello???. . . . .";
    return false;
}; 


The latter requires 5.3+.

As for your actual use of variable variables, these are debugging nightmares. Fortunately, there is only one situation I've run into that requires them, and that is using a completely dynamic bind_param on the mysqli library since it doesn't accept either values nor one bind at a time. Other than that, I've never found a block that requires the use of variable variables.

[anotherJEK]

for the first question, I did not actually have the arrays at the other end of the reference chain
referenced in the object method so ${$_someArray['x']} didn't actually point to anything.

on the second question
I was experimenting around and came up with a way:

PHP Code:

$_functList = array()
$_functList['test'] = "testFunction";
function testFunction()
         {
          print "Hello???.....";
          return;
         }
$_do = $_functList['test'](); // ***BINGO***
//// *** but suggests a liability for inadvertantly calling executable code. 


I am running php v5.2x

The whole point of this exercise is that I am doing a web site and want to
make a site that is essentially one page that processes itself. The content is
based on $_GET queries appended to internal links. The page is completely
self processing, including a contact form that uses post method. So,
the code has to decide what do do with get and post vars without knowing
before hand exactly what the user will request. Particularly, the contact form
has several phases based on the result of executing a captcha graphic screen
process.