note 53873 deleted from language.variables.scope by sean

Note Submitter: dpk at dpk dot net Reason: bad code ---- Ah, OK. Well, this is still not what I would expect: $GLOBALS['bar'] = 'frank'; var_dump ($bar); function foo () { var_dump ($GLOBALS['bar']); var_dump ($bar); } foo (); This'll print: string(5) "frank" string(5) "frank" PHP Notice: Undefined variable: bar in /.../foo.php on line 6 NULL So using $GLOBALS to set global variables to be used without the $GLOBALS name only works outside of functions. You still have to use "global $bar" inside the function to use the variable as just plain $bar. So basically, there's no good reason whatever that $GLOBALS['bar'] should be identical to $bar (in the global context), since the only time you really need the benefits of a global variable is inside of functions, and it doesn't work there.