Bug #51686 [Com]: Problem with global scoping

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51686&edit=1 ID: 51686 Comment by: support at shockandawemedia dot com Reported by: quaspam at yahoo dot com Summary: Problem with global scoping Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: Scripting Engine problem Operating System: Windows PHP Version: 5.3.2 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I also wanted to add this, which I just discovered on another related issue which explains why PHP handles this as it does (for anyone else looking at this issue): http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.spot.php Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-11-15 16:52:19] support at shockandawemedia dot com With all due respect to degeberg@php.net, this is a fundamental design problem in PHP. In any *real* production grade language, you cannot do away with variables out of the symbol table. Doing so presents valid problems this user previously mentioned. I recognize the difference-- PHP allows this. But because of that, developers run into problems not presented in symbol-table based languages-- for example (in PHP you cannot zero an array unless you write a function to manually pop all the values out of it and reset its pointer). A better solution would be to be able to simply unset() and reallocate() the array-- but you can't. Because PHP doesn't support global scoping as robustly as it should. <?php $myVar = array(); /***** * * FOO * *****/ function foo() { global $myVar; if(!isset($myVar)) { echo("Set 'myVar' before calling foo()\n"); exit(0); }; unset($myVar); $myVar = array(); $myVar[] = array('frost' => 'bite','water' => 'spiggot','jack' => 'daw'); } $myVar[] = array('egg' => 'plant','biscuit' => 'gravy'); foo(); var_dump($myVar); ?> The above snippet generates the following: array(1) { [0]=> array(2) { ["egg"]=> string(5) "plant" ["biscuit"]=> string(5) "gravy" } } Not useful. Instead of marking this user's complaint as 'bogus', trying considering it as a change/feature request that would improve your language dramatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-04-28 20:20:44] degeberg@php.net Sorry, but your problem does not imply a bug in PHP itself. For a list of more appropriate places to ask for help using PHP, please visit http://www.php.net/support.php as this bug system is not the appropriate forum for asking support questions. Due to the volume of reports we can not explain in detail here why your report is not a bug. The support channels will be able to provide an explanation for you. Thank you for your interest in PHP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-04-28 20:17:47] quaspam at yahoo dot com Description: ------------ I had trouble running the following using php 5.3.2: <?php $username = 'dummy value'; function fetchUsername(){ global $username; //Imitate retrieval $username ='Sample Value'; } fetchUsername(); echo $username; ?> The above printed the dummy value (dummy value). Am i missing something? Pliz help Test script: --------------- <?php $username = 'dummy value'; function fetchUsername(){ global $username; //Imitate retrieval $username ='Sample Value'; } fetchUsername(); echo $username; //Prints 'dummy value' ?> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51686&edit=1