Undefined variables

I bought a book on PHP, and in one of the examples it declares a variable without assigning it a variable, then it uses the gettype() method to show that the result would be "NULL". Well, when I test the script I get the following error: Notice: Undefined variable: testing in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\test.php on line 7 A few months ago I remember that the script would run without a problem (I had to stop reading it and I picked it up again), but now it seems that I have to assing a value to variables before I can use them. Is this a change from a recent PHP update? I looked at their update section but I can't find anything that says this is something new. Or is this something that I have to set in php.ini? Thanks for your help George _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail