[SOLVED] Call function within another function

[gizmola]

FYI if you want the answer, for what was going on, your test script worked exactly as expected.  PHP is somewhat odd, in that what the global keyword does is say -- reference the "global variable of this name" in the function rather than make a new local variable.  So you set the variable in the global scope at the top, in in the one function you declare the global and echo it.  It displays of course.  In the other you don't and you get no echo. 

 

This is exactly what global does, and why it's a bad idea and a mess that produces spaghetti.  Once you start using it, you might as well have one big gigantic script with no functions at all.

[programguru]

FYI if you want the answer, for what was going on, your test script worked exactly as expected.  PHP is somewhat odd, in that what the global keyword does is say -- reference the "global variable of this name" in the function rather than make a new local variable.  So you set the variable in the global scope at the top, in in the one function you declare the global and echo it.  It displays of course.  In the other you don't and you get no echo. 

 

This is exactly what global does, and why it's a bad idea and a mess that produces spaghetti.  Once you start using it, you might as well have one big gigantic script with no functions at all.

 

I hate globasl! But I added a & (reference) to the front of that the var that was not outputting and now it is:

 

function globalEcho() {

  echo "&$table_name";

}

[programguru]

mastermind my last post!! it was adding the & onto the function that was outputting.

[trq]

The problem is the constants function was not working either.

 

Because you where still refering to the non-existant $connection variable within viewSpecialsUI(). mysql_query() does not need a resource passed to it, it is an optional parameter and if not passed it will simply use the last opended connection.

 

But I'm just on a relentless battle now to figure out something that works, so I don't have to have a redundant $table_name in all of my functions when I could just call one dbConnect() function that holds it.

 

Are you telling us your only going to use one table for your entire application? Seems odd.

 

Anyway...

 

This will work. Just change 'foo' to whatever you need.

 

<?php

define('DBNAME', 'foo');
define('DBHOST', 'foo');
define('DBUSER', 'foo');
define('DBPASS', 'foo');
define('DBTABLE', 'foo');

function dbConnect() {
  mysql_connect(DBHOST, DBUSER, DBPASS) or die(mysql_error());
  mysql_select_db(DBNAME) or die(mysql_error());
}

function viewSpecialsUi() {
  dbConnect();
  $bd_string = "<ul>";
  $sql = "SELECT id, date, date_added, title, image FROM " . DBTABLE . " ORDER by date_added";
  $result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
  if (!mysql_num_rows($result)) {
    echo "<p>There are no records to display.</p>";
   }
}

viewSpecialsUi();

?>

 

You can then modify viewSpecialsUi() to display whatever you want. Though really, functions are most usefull when they simply return result and not echo them.

[trq]

FYI if you want the answer, for what was going on, your test script worked exactly as expected.  PHP is somewhat odd, in that what the global keyword does is say -- reference the "global variable of this name" in the function rather than make a new local variable.  So you set the variable in the global scope at the top, in in the one function you declare the global and echo it.  It displays of course.  In the other you don't and you get no echo. 

 

This is exactly what global does, and why it's a bad idea and a mess that produces spaghetti.  Once you start using it, you might as well have one big gigantic script with no functions at all.

 

I hate globasl! But I added a & (reference) to the front of that the var that was not outputting and now it is:

 

function globalEcho() {

   echo "&$table_name";

}

 

Globals are bad. I don't think you get it.

[programguru]

thorpe,

 

that did work!

 

and you are right. it does not make much sense as i am normalizing my db data.

 

so maybe i went all this way for really no good reason!

 

however, i just realized i can just define all my tables in the costants, so i can still keep it all in one place.

 

im not sure how this applies to viewSpecialsUi():

 

"Though really, functions are most useful when they simply return result and not echo them."

 

do you mean the function output should be returned as opposed to echoed like: echo "<p>There are no records to display.</p>";???

 

 

[programguru]

FYI if you want the answer, for what was going on, your test script worked exactly as expected.  PHP is somewhat odd, in that what the global keyword does is say -- reference the "global variable of this name" in the function rather than make a new local variable.  So you set the variable in the global scope at the top, in in the one function you declare the global and echo it.  It displays of course.  In the other you don't and you get no echo. 

 

This is exactly what global does, and why it's a bad idea and a mess that produces spaghetti.  Once you start using it, you might as well have one big gigantic script with no functions at all.

 

I hate globasl! But I added a & (reference) to the front of that the var that was not outputting and now it is:

 

function globalEcho() {

   echo "&$table_name";

}

 

Globals are bad. I don't think you get it.

 

i don't get a lot of things