Question

Isn’t there another way of using global variables in a Java stlye manner in PHP without the use of the global keyword?

The below example is something very common and simple. I would do it with the define keyword, but as you can see, the varibales are dependent from each other, and I believe you can’t achieve that with define.

In the below example I am getting an error, of course.

Really looking forward a solution for this. It just seems to me that having to write a global definition for which funciton I want to use a global variable seems such an ineffective solution that should be a better one.

$BASE_URL = "mysite.com";
$PRODUCTS_URL = $BASE_URL . "/products";
$ABOUT_URL = $BASE_URL . "/about";

function foo() {
    echo $BASE_URL;
}

Answer 1

I would do it with the define keyword, but as you can see, the varibales are dependent from each other, and I believe you can’t achieve that with define.

Not quite true, this will work just fine – and it’s the way I would probably approach this:

define('BASE_URL', "mysite.com");
define('PRODUCTS_URL', BASE_URL . "/products");
define('ABOUT_URL', BASE_URL . "/about");

Just be careful about eating up constant namespace, you might want to write a function instead, maybe something like this (could use tweaking, just an example):

function get_url($item = NULL, $include_base = TRUE)
{
    $urls = array(
        'base'  =>  'mysite.com',
        'products'  =>  '/products',
        'about' =>  '/about',
    );
    $output = $include_base ? $urls['base'] : '';
    if (isset($urls[$item])) $output .= $urls[$item];
    return $output;
}

Then call it like echo get_url('products');. As long as this is defined when foo() is called, it will work. I would always strive to avoid global or $GLOBALS.