Question

In the following example, is it possible to access the ‘str’ value from within the anonymous function?

$foo = array(
  'str' => 'THIS IS A STRING',
  'fn' => function () {
    // is it possible from within here to access 'str'?
  }
);

Answer 1

if $foo is defined in the global namespace you should be able to access it via $GLOBALS['foo']['str'] (or make it available via the global $foo; construct). If it isn’t (local var, parameter, member variable, …), you have to pass it (as reference!) to the anonymous function:

$foo = array(
  'str' => 'THIS IS A STRING',
  'fn' => function () use(&$foo) {
    echo $foo['str'];
  }
);