Question

Consider the following function which fills an array with strings(questions):

global $questions;
function printQuestions($lines){
    $count = 1;
    foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {
        if($line_num%3 == 1){
            echo 'Question '.$count.':'.'<br/>'.'<input type="text" value="' . $line . '" class="tcs"/>'.'<br/>';
            $count++;
            $questions[] = $line;
        }
    }
}

The questions array is defined as global but it’s not accessible outside the function. The following code block located at the bottom of the page returns nothing:

<?php
    if(isset($_POST['Submit'])){
        foreach($questions as $qs)
            echo $qs;   
        }
?>

I know I could use session variables but I’m interested in this particular problem regarding global variables. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You should move global inside the function.

function printQuestions($lines){
    global $questions;
    // ...

The global keyword brings a global variable into local scope, so you can operate on it. If you don’t use global in the printQuestions() function to bring the global $questions variable in the scope of the function, then $questions will be local and will be a different variable than the global one you’re looking for.