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Consider the following PHP script:
<?php
$diameter = 20;
$circumference = 0;
function circumference() {
...
}
circumference();
echo $circumference;
?>
What should be placed at the dots to get (a proper estimate of) the circumference of a circle of 20 px, pt, ex, sea miles, cows or whatever printed in your browser window?
A: global $diameter; return $circumference = $diameter * 3.14;
B: $circumference = $diameter * 3.14;
C: global $circumference; $circumference = $diameter * 3.14;
D: $GLOBAL["circumference"] = $GLOBAL["diameter"] * 3.14;
Check all that apply.
Answer
If you want this to work you'll need a way to access the global variables $diameter and $circumference from within the function calculate(). This can be done by the keyword global or through the $GLOBAL array.
So answer B is false: the variables $diameter and $circumference will not be known to the function.
Anwer A is tricky: it will calcuate the circumference and store it in variable $circumference. However this version of $circumference is known to the function only and will not affect the global one because only $diameter was listed as global variabe. The function correctly returns the value of the circumference but its value was not assigned to the global variable $circumference in line 10. So answer A is not correct.
Something alike applies to answer C. This would have worked if $circumference and $diameter were both listed as global. Only $diameter is, so this answer is false too.
In answer D the $GLOBALS array was used to alter the value of the $circumference variable and this will work, so answer D is true.
Note that using globals in a situation like this (if not any situation) is considered very bad programming. If however you choose/need to use global variables in your function please treat them as constants and do not alter their values from within a function as was attempted in this example: your fellow programmers will be very grateful.
