Question

I’m trying to access an array declared in a class from a function within the same class. I’ve attempted a couple different ways to try to make it work but I’m relatively new to PHP. This is a snippet of my code

class Site extends CI_Controller {

    var $dates = array(
        "Task" => NULL,
        "Date1" => NULL,
        "Date2" => NULL,
        "TimeDiff" => NULL
    );

function index() 
{   
    if($this->$dates['Date1'] != NULL && $this->$dates['Date2'] != NULL)
    {
        $this->$dates['TimeDiff'] = $this->$dates['Date2']->getTimestamp() - $this->$dates['Date1']->getTimestamp();            
    }

    $this->load->view('usability_test', $this->$dates);
}

I also attempted using the global keyword as such

global $dates;

And I still receive a “Undefined variable” error regardless. Thanks!

Answer 1

You want $this->dates['Date1'] instead of $this->$dates['Date1']. Notice the absence of the $ before dates.

As a side note, be sure you’re properly extending CI_Controller by defining the __construct()like this:

class Site extends CI_Controller {

    // class properties, etc.

    function __construct(){
        parent::__construct();
    }

    // class methods, etc.

}

Another thing to note, var is deprecated as of PHP5. You’ll want to use either public, private, or protected depending on your needs (Edit: assuming, of course, that you are using PHP5).