Question

I am passing an array to a function and expecting the function to store values in it. Here’s my code

The Function –

    function GetDetailsById ($iStudentId, $aDetailsId)
    {
        /* SQL */

        while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
        {
           array_push($aDetailsId, $row[0]);
        }
    }

Usage –

    $aDetailsId = array();
    $oDetailsTable->GetDetailsById("1", $aDetailsId)

When I try to do

print_r($aDetailsId)

the array shows nothing. Am I doing it the right way?

Answer 1

Your array needs to be passed by reference to the function ; which means the function should be defined this way :

function GetDetailsById ($iStudentId, & $aDetailsId)
{
  // ...
}

For more informations, see Making arguments be passed by reference

Or you could have your function [**return its result**][2] — which might be better idea *(looking at the code that calls the function, you immediately know what it does)* :

function GetDetailsById ($iStudentId)
{
    $result = array();
    // TODO here, fill $result with your data
    return $result;
}

And call the function :

$aDetailsId = $oDetailsTable->GetDetailsById("1");