Why are my variables going out of scope? PHP

Question

Language is PHP 5.4 on an Apache 2.2 server. It\'s a script being called by ajax.

$usr = new User();

function getMyName(){
    echo $usr->username;
}
getMyNa         


        

Answer 1

It's not ridiculous. This is how variable scope is supposed to work. You need to pass your $usr variable in as a function parameter, otherwise it'll be out of scope. Functions were designed to take in input and send back a result/output. You should stick with your second example, instead of messing around with globals...

$usr = new User();
$name = $usr->username;

function getMyName($n){
    echo $n;
}
getMyName($name);

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

In computer science, a subroutine, also termed procedure, function, routine, method, or subprogram, is a part of source code within a larger computer program that performs a specific task and is relatively independent of the remaining code.

Answer 2

$usr = new User();

function getMyName(){
    global $usr;
    echo $usr->username;
}
getMyName();

alternatively:

$usr = new User();

function getMyName($usr){
    echo $usr->username;
}
getMyName($usr);