Use variable name as a string to get the variable name. There are many ways to solve this problem some of them are discussed below:
Method 1: Using $GLOBALS: It is used to reference all variables available in global scope. It is an associative array which contains the reference of all variables which are currently defined in the global scope.
Example: This example uses $GLOBAL reference to get the variable name as a string.
<?php // Declare and initialize a variable $test = "This is a string"; // Function that returns the variable name function getVariavleName($var) { foreach($GLOBALS as $varName => $value) { if ($value === $var) { return $varName; } } return; } // Function call and display the // variable name print getVariavleName($test); ?> |
Output:
test
Method 2: Using $$ Operator: The $$var_name is known as reference variable where $var_name is a normal variable. The $$var_name used to refer to the variable with the name as value of the variable $var_name.
Example: This example uses $$ operator to get the variable name as a string.
<?php // Declare and initialize a variable $name = "test"; // Reference variable to store string $$name = "This is a string"; // Display result print($name); ?> |
Output:
test
