Question

Is it bad form to reuse the variable name when you’re manipulating a string like the example below?

    <?php
    $string = "Jimmy <b>likes</b> red shoes";
    $string = strip_tags($string);
    $string = str_replace("red", "blue", $string);
    $string = strtoupper($string);
    echo $string;
    ?>

If it’s a no-no, what is preferred? Should one try to make it into one line of code? Or use 4 different variable names?

I tried searching, but the only reference I could find was in regards to changing the variable from an array to a string or something like that.

Answer 1

There’s nothing wrong with it, as long as you don’t need the original $string value again later. Once you’ve done $string = something($string), the original value is destroyed and replaced with the modified version.

In theory, you could simply chain the entire sequence together

echo strtoupper(str_replace('red', 'blue', strip_tags('Jimmy likes...')));

but that makes for unreadable and unmaintainable code.