Question

I have the following code which works fine inline with my code:

    if ($progressData[1] == "yes") {

        echo "Complete";
    }
    else

        echo "Not Yet Complete";

However, I would like to call it from a function:

function progressOutput () {

    if ($progressData[1] == "yes") {

        echo "Complete";
    }
    else

        echo "Not Yet Complete";

}   

When I call progressOutput(), I get “Not Yet Complete”, even though $progressData[1] is equal to “yes”.

Here is how I am calling the function:

Mission Status: <?php progressOutput(); ?>

What do I need to do to get progressOutput() to return “Complete” when $progressData[1] is in fact equal to “yes”?

Answer 1

You need to pass the variable from the calling scope into the function in order for the function to have access to it.

Your function should accept an argument:

function progressOutput ($progressData) {
    if ($progressData[1] == "yes")
        echo "Complete";
    else
        echo "Not Yet Complete";
}   

And when you call it, you should provide an argument:

Mission Status: <?php progressOutput($progressData); ?>

It’s typically a bad idea for your functions to output data directly; you could clean it up by returning a value instead of echoing it:

function progressOutput ($progressData) {
    if ($progressData[1] == "yes")
        return "Complete";
    return "Not Yet Complete";
}  

And outputting the value returned by the function:

Mission Status: <?= progressOutput($progressData); ?>