Retrieving variable name? - PHP

"Jeffrey Sambells" <jeff@wecreate.com> wrote in message
news:fdc497e6ac625c59bda4643eaea6aa67@wecreate.com...
> is it possible to retrieve the name of a variable passed into a function
> from within the function?

Short Answer : No
Longer Answer : Maybe, if you have knowledge of PHP internals and a
willingness to write an extension. Even then it may not work.. <g>

l0t3k

> Short Answer : No
> Longer Answer : Maybe, if you have knowledge of PHP internals and a
> willingness to write an extension. Even then it may not work.. <g>


Well, PHP5's magic methods __get()/ __set() could be used to resolve the
variable's name...

> is it possible to retrieve the name of a variable passed into a
> function from within the function?

Sure. Use debug_backtrace to figure out what line and what file the
caller is in, then read that file, find that line, find the function
call within that line, and read what ever is between the parentheses.

Can't think of why you'd want to do this, though...

Maybe something fancy with references?

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.references.php

On 9/21/05, Thorsten Suckow-Homberg <ts@siteartwork.de> wrote:
> > Short Answer : No
> > Longer Answer : Maybe, if you have knowledge of PHP internals and a
> > willingness to write an extension. Even then it may not work.. <g>
>
>
> Well, PHP5's magic methods __get()/ __set() could be used to resolve the
> variable's name...
>
> --
> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>
>

oh well, thanks for the help.

Jeffrey Sambells
Director of Research and Development

We-Create Inc.
519.897.2552 cell
519.745.7374 office
888.615.7374 toll free
http://www.wecreate.com

On 21-Sep-05, at 6:02 PM, Jake Gardner wrote:

> Maybe something fancy with references?
>
> http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.references.php
>
> On 9/21/05, Thorsten Suckow-Homberg <ts@siteartwork.de> wrote:
>>> Short Answer : No
>>> Longer Answer : Maybe, if you have knowledge of PHP internals and a
>>> willingness to write an extension. Even then it may not work.. <g>
>>
>>
>> Well, PHP5's magic methods __get()/ __set() could be used to resolve
>> the
>> variable's name...
>>
>> --
>> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
>> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>>
>>
>
> --
> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>

> Sure. Use debug_backtrace to figure out what line and what file the
> caller is in, then read that file, find that line, find the function
> call within that line, and read what ever is between the parentheses.

Something like this:

<?php
function myTest($input) {
$backtrace = debug_backtrace();
$file = file($backtrace[0]['file']);
$linenum = $backtrace[0]['line'];
$function = $backtrace[0]['function'];
$line = $file[$linenum-1];
preg_match("/{$function}\((.*)\);/", $line, $matches);
echo "This function called with '{$matches[1]}'";
}

$a = 5;
myTest($a);

?>