PHP variable name syntax: numbers and variables as part of a variable name

Question

I have a variable defined as an array, which is built in a loop:

$years=array("2010","2011","2012");

    foreach($years as $year)
    {
    ///an SQL query + some PDO that queries a different table based on $year
    $dataset_full_{$year} = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
    }

so you end up with a set of arrays named

$dataset_full_2010
$dataset_full_2011
$dataset_full_2012

when I print_r($dataset_full_2012); however I get nothing, but if I go ahead and define

$current_year="2012";

then

print_r($dataset_full_{$current_year});

I get my array. What piece of syntax am I misusing here?

Thanks in advance

Chris Trahey · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18 02:24:33Z

1

To be safe, you can always use an intermediate string:

$var_name = "dataset_full_" . $year;
$$var_name = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

You can also use concatenation within curly braces:

${"dataset_full_" . $year} = ...

Here's the docs

answered Feb 18, 2013 at 2:24

Chris Trahey

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