How to get a variable name as a string in PHP?

Question

Say i have this PHP code:

$FooBar = \"a string\";

i then need a function like this:

print_var_name($FooBar);

Answer 1

Many replies question the usefulness of this. However, getting a reference for a variable can be very useful. Especially in cases with objects and $this. My solution works with objects, and as property defined objects as well:

function getReference(&$var)
{
    if(is_object($var))
        $var->___uniqid = uniqid();
    else
        $var = serialize($var);
    $name = getReference_traverse($var,$GLOBALS);
    if(is_object($var))
        unset($var->___uniqid);
    else
        $var = unserialize($var);
    return "\${$name}";    
}

function getReference_traverse(&$var,$arr)
{
    if($name = array_search($var,$arr,true))
        return "{$name}";
    foreach($arr as $key=>$value)
        if(is_object($value))
            if($name = getReference_traverse($var,get_object_vars($value)))
                return "{$key}->{$name}";
}

Example for the above:

class A
{
    public function whatIs()
    {
        echo getReference($this);
    }
}

$B = 12;
$C = 12;
$D = new A;

echo getReference($B)."<br/>"; //$B
echo getReference($C)."<br/>"; //$C
$D->whatIs(); //$D

Answer 2

I think you want to know variable name with it's value. You can use an associative array to achieve this.

use variable names for array keys:

$vars = array('FooBar' => 'a string');

When you want to get variable names, use array_keys($vars), it will return an array of those variable names that used in your $vars array as it's keys.

Answer 3

Use this to detach user variables from global to check variable at the moment.

function get_user_var_defined () 
{
    return array_slice($GLOBALS,8,count($GLOBALS)-8);     
}

function get_var_name ($var) 
{
    $vuser = get_user_var_defined(); 
    foreach($vuser as $key=>$value) 
    {
        if($var===$value) return $key ; 
    }
}

Answer 4

You might consider changing your approach and using a variable variable name?

$var_name = "FooBar";
$$var_name = "a string";

then you could just

print($var_name);

to get

FooBar

Here's the link to the PHP manual on Variable variables

Answer 5

I know this is old and already answered but I was actually looking for this. I am posting this answer to save people a little time refining some of the answers.

Option 1:

$data = array('$FooBar');  

$vars = [];  
$vars = preg_replace('/^\\$/', '', $data); 

$varname = key(compact($vars));  
echo $varname;

Prints:

FooBar

For whatever reason you would find yourself in a situation like this, it does actually work.

.
Option 2:

$FooBar = "a string";  

$varname = trim(array_search($FooBar, $GLOBALS), " \t.");  
echo $varname;

If $FooBar holds a unique value, it will print 'FooBar'. If $FooBar is empty or null it will print the name of the first empty or null string it finds.

It could be used as such:

if (isset($FooBar) && !is_null($FooBar) && !empty($FooBar)) {
    $FooBar = "a string";
    $varname = trim(array_search($FooBar, $GLOBALS), " \t.");
}

Answer 6

I couldn't think of a way to do this efficiently either but I came up with this. It works, for the limited uses below.

shrug

<?php

function varName( $v ) {
    $trace = debug_backtrace();
    $vLine = file( __FILE__ );
    $fLine = $vLine[ $trace[0]['line'] - 1 ];
    preg_match( "#\\$(\w+)#", $fLine, $match );
    print_r( $match );
}

$foo = "knight";
$bar = array( 1, 2, 3 );
$baz = 12345;

varName( $foo );
varName( $bar );
varName( $baz );

?>

// Returns
Array
(
    [0] => $foo
    [1] => foo
)
Array
(
    [0] => $bar
    [1] => bar
)
Array
(
    [0] => $baz
    [1] => baz
)

It works based on the line that called the function, where it finds the argument you passed in. I suppose it could be expanded to work with multiple arguments but, like others have said, if you could explain the situation better, another solution would probably work better.