Question

I have a php file that contains an array $myArray.

<?php 
$myArray = array(
  'key1'=>'value1',
  'key2'=>'value2',
);
?>

I need to read the value of key1 from that array. Is there a way to directly read key1, without including the whole file? Right now I’m using include like this.

$includedArray = include('/path/to/myArray.php');

but this is creating a problem for me, because even though I include it under a new name $includedArray, it still recognizes the old name $myArray which causes naming conflicts.

To solve this problem, I would have changed the included array from a named array ($myArray) to an un-named array, but I can’t make changes to the included files. So is there a way to either:

• include the file containing the named array, but have it completely forget the original name ($myArray), and have it use ONLY the new name I give it ($includedArray)?

• or is there a way to simply read 1 key from the array without including the whole file?

Answer 1

Then copy the array to another variable and unset the original array?

path/to/myNewArray.php:

return call_user_func(function() {
  include "/path/to/myArray.php";
  return $myArray;
});

/*
if (isset($myArray)) {
  $tmpMyArray = $myArray; // storing the $myArray if defined
}

$includedArray = $myArray;
unset($myArray);
if (isset($tmpMyArray)) {
  $myArray = $tmpMyArray; // restoring the previous $myArray
}
*/

usage:

$whatEver = include("/path/to/myNewArray.php"); // no interference now