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“During a recent project I discovered a totally new concept in programming for myself, variable variables. I
needed to update multiple records from one page. After banging my head on the wall for quite some time,
I stumbled across the variable variable and all my troubles went away!”
So, just what the heck is a variable variable anyway? According to the PHP manual, a variable variable
takes the value of a variable and treats that as the name of a variable. While this may seem pretty
straightforward, it can be a little confusing with so many uses of the word variable in one sentence.
What the definition simply states is that you can set a variable — x equals this — and then set the variable variable,
meaning you set the value of x as a new variable of x. In this example, the variable this would equal is cake.
“So, just what the heck is a variable variable anyway? According to the PHP manual, a variable variable
takes the value of a variable and treats that as the name of a variable. While this may seem pretty
straightforward, it can be a little confusing with so many uses of the word “variable” in one sentence.
What the definition simply states is that you can set a variable — x equals this — and then set the variable variable,
meaning you set the value of x as a new variable of x. In this example, the variable this would equal is cake.”
