include() Error

Good morning all: I have recently purchased a computer and am using it as a dedicated server. A friend helped me install PHP and configure. I am saying this because I wonder if using a newer version of PHP (compared to my commercial web host) may be the reasoning behind the error I am receiving. I created a function to generate a form submission key. - This created hidden variable for forms - This is also session variable With this function I have an ‘ include ‘ for the file containing the mySQL database, username and password. I know this file is being accessed because I added: === echo $mySQL_user; === following the login credentials. But when I remove this line from mySQL_user_login.inc.php and place within the function on the line following the include the "echo” returns nothing. === include("mySQL_user_login.inc.php"); echo $mySQL_user; === Can any of you tell me why this is happening? Ron Piggott www.TheVerseOfTheDay.info