How to get a variable name as a string in PHP

Question

i have this PHP code:

$FooBar = "a string";

i then need a function like this:

print_var_name($FooBar);

which prints:

FooBar

Any Ideas how to achieve this? Is this even possible in PHP?

Answer 1

Hello @kartik,

You can use this:

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
)

Hope it helps!!

Thank you!!