Bug #16185 Updated: global required in functions

ID: 16185 Updated by: hholzgra@php.net Reported By: adam@adeptsoftware.com Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: WinXP PHP Version: 4.1.2 New Comment: #1 don't use globals. period. we are *not* going to change the language to support bad design techniques #2 you can get all global symbols by doing foreach($GLOBALS as $key => $value) global $$key; Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-03-20 10:07:18] derick@php.net Changing this would break waaay to much, and it's against the nature of PHP. i think it's a bad idea to change this. Derick ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-03-20 10:06:40] mboeren@php.net I agree with Rasmus (and I really like his story :-), but to help you shoot yourself in the foot: Declare and use your globals like this: $g->id = 1000; $g->username = "Marc"; // etc. until you have 20 of them function fn() { global $g; $g->username = "Rasmus"; } with the added benefit of auto-global for any new global var you add in a later stage of the project. This looks very similar to using $GLOBALS["username"] inside your function, which is what I use if I desperately _need_ a global. Cheerio, Marc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-03-20 09:58:22] rasmus@php.net This simply will not change. It is a characteristic of the language. Perhaps you shouldn't be using 20 global variables? See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-general&m=97984136422910&w=2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-03-20 09:51:10] adam@adeptsoftware.com "In PHP global variables must be declared global inside a function if they are going to be used in that function." I really think PHP should not be different from C here - or at least there should be a setting for this. Even something like "global ALL;" would be better, but not ideal. The most common problem I run into by FAR is variables not being available in the local scope. Making me register 20 of them as global by name in every single function is counterproductive and goes against the idea of keeping code as simple as possible. Your justification for this is: "This can cause some problems in that people may inadvertently change a global variable." That is a very rare problem compared to the new problem this has introduced. JavaScript handles this better, requiring declaration with "var" to force a variable to be local only. I would much prefer this, and PHP doing it the way every other language does would also be preferable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=16185&edit=1