can i get the name of the array???? - Webmaster Forum - Web Design, Programming and SEO forums

06-13-2007, 11:33 AM

montyauto

Status: Junior Member
Join date: Apr 2006
Location:
Expertise:
Software:

Posts: 68

iTrader: 0 / 0%

montyauto is on a distinguished road

can i get the name of the array????

i'm having lots of arrays with values and i have a funtion which does some operations based on the array passed as an argument..

(i.e) i want to check the name of the array and then do operations based on that.

So i want to get the name of the array passed into the funtion .

for eg:

if $cutomer = array('sefdsf','sdfsdf','sdfsdf');

i want to get the value 'customer'

is there any function to do this???

06-13-2007, 11:56 AM

Salathe

Status: Community Archaeologist
Join date: Jul 2004
Location: Scotland
Expertise: Software Development
Software: vim, PHP

Posts: 3,820

iTrader: 25 / 100%

Salathe will become famous soon enough

PHP Code:


			
<?php

/*
    Getting variable names
    From: http://uk.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.php#49997
*/

$fruits = array('apple', 'banana', 'orange');
$colours = array('blue', 'red', 'yellow');

echo myfunc($fruits); // Output: We have fruits!
echo myfunc($colours); // Output: We have colours!



// Note the pass by reference (&$item), this is important
function myfunc(&$item)
{
    switch(vname($item))
    {
        case 'fruits':
            return 'We have fruits!';
        case 'colours':
            return 'We have colours!';
        default:
            return 'Unknown variable';
    }
}

function vname(&$var, $scope = false, $prefix = 'unique', $suffix = 'value')
{
    $vals = ($scope) ? $scope : $GLOBALS;
    $old = $var;
    $var = $new = $prefix . rand() . $suffix;
    $vname = FALSE;
    foreach($vals as $key => $val)
        if($val === $new) 
            $vname = $key;
    $var = $old;
    return $vname;
}

?>

06-18-2007, 10:47 AM

vesselin

Status: I'm new around here
Join date: Feb 2007
Location: Bulgaria
Expertise:
Software:

Posts: 20

iTrader: 0 / 0%

vesselin is on a distinguished road

In PHP several variables can share the same object. For example:

$customer = array('sefdsf','sdfsdf','sdfsdf');
$customer_2 = $customer;
$customer_3 = $customer;

All the 3 variables $customer, $customer_2 and $customer_3 will not only contain the same value, but they will also point internally to the same object. So it is not possible to tell definitely which variable is the owner of the array.

You will need to save the owner inside the variable explicitly. Something like this:

Code:

$customer = array(
    "owner" => "customer",
    "values" => array ('sefdsf','sdfsdf','sdfsdf')
);

06-22-2007, 12:20 AM

bluesaga

Status: Member
Join date: Feb 2007
Location:
Expertise:
Software:

Posts: 137

iTrader: 1 / 100%

bluesaga is on a distinguished road

Originally Posted by vesselin

This is actually incorrect, these variables are all completely different, however they are all the same. $customer is not referenced in any way, thus they do not point to the same object they simply create clones of it.

$customer_2 = &$customer.

means it creates a pointer to the other variable, and doesnt simply clone it. So if $customer_2 is changed so is $customer.

Anyway, enough of the lesson...

To OP:
Salathe's code would of worked, if you know how to use it, to simplify it:

PHP Code:


			


$cutomer = array('sefdsf','sdfsdf','sdfsdf');



print vname($customer);



//Should print "customer" if the function works :)





function vname(&$var, $scope = false, $prefix = 'unique', $suffix = 'value')

{

    $vals = ($scope) ? $scope : $GLOBALS;

    $old = $var;

    $var = $new = $prefix . rand() . $suffix;

    $vname = FALSE;

    foreach($vals as $key => $val)

        if($val === $new) 

            $vname = $key;

    $var = $old;

    return $vname;

}