Re: Help with associative array in a PHP class. Not working as I'd expect it to?!

Daevid Vincent wrote:

I'm pulling out my hair on this. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong and I've tried it with PHP 4.3.4 (cli) (built: Nov 7 2003 03:47:25) AND also v4.1.2 on Linux. With the line commented as shown, I get this output: ------

[daevid=pts/4]6:18pm@dev:{/home/daevid}> ./test.php        packetArray:

Array (

    [a] => foo
    [b] => bar
    [c] => 1
    [d] => 2
    [e] => 3

) myPacket: ------ How come I don't get ANY array under "myPacket:"? How come I don't get a "[test] => 2345245" under "myPacket:" when I explicitly set it? Uncommenting the 'blah' element causes this error: Parse error: parse error, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION' or T_FUNCTION' or T_VAR' or '}'' in /home/daevid/test.php on line 16 The 'var' keyword seems to be required, or I get that same error also. I've tried other combinations and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong? ------------------------ snip ----------------- #!/usr/bin/php <?php $PACKET = array('a'=>'foo', 'b'=>'bar', 'c'=>'1', 'd'=>'2', 'e'=>'3'); $AP = array(); $ap['11111'] = new kismetap($PACKET); $ap['11111']->printMyVars(); class kismetap {

     var $myPacket = array();

// $myPacket["blah"] = "asdfasdfasdf";

    function kismetap( $packetArray )
    {
        echo "packetArray:\n";
        print_r($packetArray);

        $this->myPacket = $packetArray;
        $this->myPacket["test"] = 2345245;

        global $myPacket;
        $myPacket = $packetArray;
    } //kismetap::constructor

    function printMyVars()
    {
         echo "myPacket:\n";
         print_r($myPacket);
    }

} //kismetap class ?>

You've got a few problems here. That commented line of code is invalid. It is a normal assignment statement, but it is in the class, but not in a function. If you want to initialize a class variable do it in the var statement. var $myPacket = array('blah' => 'asdfasdfasdf'); Or, you can set it in a function (like the costructor) class kismetap { function kismetap() {

    $this->$myPacket = array('blah' => 'asdfasdfasdf');

} } Doing global $myPacket; is the equivelent of: $myPacket =& $GLOBALS['myPacket']; whicks brings the global variable $myPacket into the local namespace of the function. This does NOT export the class variable for global use. If you want to make the class variable $myPacket the same as the global, in your constructor you could do: $this->myPacket =& $GLOBALS['myPacket']; But that's really not a good idea. Why not just do function printMyVars() { echo "myPacket:\n"; print_r($this->myPacket); } This will give you your expected output. Please remember ot use globals sparingly as they make very kludgy code. -- paperCrane <Justin Patrin>