RE: [PHP] parsing variables inside a variable?

On 29 January 2004 14:56, jimbo wrote: > Hi, > > I have a query regarding variable parsing. > > I have some text in a MySQL database in which I have included some > variable names. Eg (but w/o quotes): "thankyou $name for registering > on our web site". > > I query and use mysql_fetch_array to get the data into an associative > array. I then build a string and output it like this: > echo "blah blah ".$row["thecolumn"]." blah blah"; > > However, the output is simply: "blah blah thankyou $name for > registering on our web site blah blah" - i.e. $name does not get > parsed. I have tried wrapping $name with curly brackets in the > database but that doesn't help and I have also tried using both > addslashes and removeslashes on $row["thecolumn"] and I have also > tried this: echo "blah blah $row['thecolumn'] blah blah" - again both > with and without curly brackets. > > Nothing seems to work. Is what I am trying to do possible? Yes, but you need to force PHP to re-evaluate the string you retrieve from the database -- normally, PHP just uses values retrieved at runtime as-is and doesn't do any special interpretation on them. The function you need to do this is eval() (http://www.php.net/eval), and one possible way of using it to achieve your desired result is (off the top of my head, untested): eval('echo "blah {$row[\'thecolumn\']} blah";'); Cheers! Mike --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Ford, Electronic Information Services Adviser, Learning Support Services, Learning & Information Services, JG125, James Graham Building, Leeds Metropolitan University, Beckett Park, LEEDS, LS6 3QS, United Kingdom Email: m.ford@leedsmet.ac.uk Tel: +44 113 283 2600 extn 4730 Fax: +44 113 283 3211