variable variables

Question

how do i create variable variables inside a for loop?

this is the loop:

for ( $counter = 1; $counter <= $aantalZitjesBestellen; $counter ++) {

}         


        

Answer 1

Firstly, I would use an array for this unless I'm missing something. Having variables like $seat1, $seat2, etc tends to have far less utility and be far more cumbersome than using an array.

That being said, use this syntax:

for ( $counter = 1; $counter <= $aantalZitjesBestellen; $counter ++) {
  $key = 'seat' . $counter;
  $$key = $_POST[$key];
}

Lastly, PHP has an inbuilt function for extracting array keys into the symbol table: extract(). extract() has enormous potential security problems if you use it with unfiltered user input (eg $_POST) so use with caution.

Answer 2

for ( $counter = 1; $counter <= $aantalZitjesBestellen; $counter ++) {
   $name = 'seat' . $counter;
   $$name = $_POST['seat' . $counter];
}

It's recommended to use arrays, as you can check them easier.

Answer 3

You can use extract but I don't recommended to do what you are trying to do.

Answer 4

(Expanded for clarity - you may be able to do a one-liner)

for ( $counter = 1; $counter <= $aantalZitjesBestellen; $counter ++) {
    $varname = 'seat' . $counter;
    $$varname = $POST[$varname];
}

BUT! You really shouldn't do this. (And if you really must, see cletus' answer for the built-in PHP way to do it - this is considered bad practice too, though.)

Reconsider your problem and see if arrays might be the solution (I guess it will). This will make both inspection (via e.g. var_dump()) and iteration easier and does not pollute the global variable space.

Answer 5

This will work as well:

for ( $counter = 1; $counter <= $aantalZitjesBestellen; $counter ++) {
    ${'seat' . $counter} = $_POST['seat' . $counter];
}