0

Sorry if this has already been asked, but it's hard to search for it... I tried googlin this topic without success.

What I want to do is this:

$layoutColor = 2;
$colors1 = array ("F57171", "FACCCC");
$colors2 = array ("FF9900", "FFC66F");

$chosenTheme = "colors".$layoutColor;
echo $chosenTheme [0];

I want to join the $layoutColor variable with the word "colors" in order to get the variable $colors2.

How do I do that?

Thanks.

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3
  • You want to treat a string as a name of another variable? Commented May 27, 2013 at 20:15
  • I want to join them both, to get another variable... I used to do this all the time in ActionScript, but I don't how to write it in PHP. I will have a lot of $colors arrays, like $color35, $color36... I wan't to be able to just change the number in the variable $layoutColor, and with that, the variable $chosenTheme will automatically be equal to the colors I want. Commented May 27, 2013 at 20:17
  • 1
    It's called variable variables, and you do NOT want to go there. They lead to utterly unmaintainable code. Use a multidimensional array instead: $colors[1][1] -> FACCCC Commented May 27, 2013 at 20:20

7 Answers 7

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4

You're best off approaching this by just combining all your options into a single multi-dimensional array:

$layoutColor = 2;
$colors = array();
$colors[1] = array ("F57171", "FACCCC");
$colors[2] = array ("FF9900", "FFC66F");

$chosenTheme = $colors[$layoutColor];
echo $chosenTheme [0];
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1 Comment

I haven't thought about this, this seems to be the best way to do it indeed. Much better. Thanks.
2

Try this:

<?php
$layoutColor = 2;
$colors1 = array ("F57171", "FACCCC");
$colors2 = array ("FF9900", "FFC66F");

$chosenTheme = "colors".$layoutColor;
echo ${$chosenTheme}[0];

Prints:

FF9900

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2 Comments

While I maintain that a multidimensional array is the best approach here, this answer is a more direct answer to the question. +1
Agreed. This works perfectly, but the multidimensional array seems to be the better choice for me. I just didn't thought about it... Thanks anyway!
1

I think you can simplify this using multi dimensional arrays:

$colors = array(
    array ("F57171", "FACCCC"),
    array ("FF9900", "FFC66F")
);

So...

echo $colors[0];

Or you can user variable variables:

$chosenTheme = ${"colors".$layoutColor};
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Comments

1

You may try this

$layoutColor = 2;
$$colors2 = "colors".$layoutColor;

So you'll get $colors2 variable

print_r($colors2); // Array ( [0] => FF9900 [1] => FFC66F )

Notice the double $, that will keep the variable name in the variable.

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Comments

1

Try with:

$layoutColor = 2;

$string = "color";

echo $$string.$layoutColor;
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Comments

0

You need to use dynamic variables $$chosenTheme = "colors".$layoutColor;

then access the array by using this variable $chosenTheme

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Comments

0

This might not be an answer to your question but, depending on your specific context, try something like this:

$layoutColor = 2;
$colors = array (
               Array("F57171", "FACCCC"),
               Array ("FF9900", "FFC66F")
           );

echo $colors[$layoutColor][0];

A multi dimensional array is a lot easier to read

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