How to retrieve variables defined in a particular include file in php?

Question

I want to know all the variables that have been declared within an include file.

Example code is:

Include file:

<?php
$a = 1;
$b = 2;
$c = 3;
$myArr = array(5,6,7);
?>

Main file:

<?php

$first = get_defined_vars();
include_once("include_vars.php");
$second = get_defined_vars();

$diff = array_diff($second ,$first);
var_dump($diff);

$x = 12;
$y = 13;
?>

My attempt to use difference of get_defined_vars() does not seem to give accurate information. It gives:

array(2) {
  ["b"]=>
  int(2)
  ["c"]=>
  int(3)
}

$a and $myArr seem to be missing. What are other methods I can use?

Don't use global variables. Let me repeat that. Don't use global variables. Pass around variables wrapped in containers such as an object. Note that I said pass around, not call globally. Read about Dependency Injection... — ircmaxell
– ircmaxell, Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 14:06

meze · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-08 14:36:34Z

2

It's really not a good thing to do this, hope it's needed just for debugging. Then you should find a difference between keys of the arrays that get_defined_vars return, not between their values:

$diff = array_diff(array_keys($second),array_keys($first));

If you don't want to include your file, a more complicated way would be using Tokenizer:

$tokens = token_get_all(file_get_contents("include_vars.php")); 

foreach($tokens as $token) {
    if ($token[0] == T_VARIABLE)
        echo $token[1] . ', ';
}

That would return all variables, even non-globals ones and the ones that were unset in that script (!)

edited Feb 8, 2011 at 14:36

answered Feb 8, 2011 at 14:19

meze

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3 Comments

DhruvPathak Over a year ago

Yes it is needed just for debugging purpose. Not a part of core implementation.

DhruvPathak Over a year ago

I would also appreciate if you can suggest other methods too.

meze Over a year ago

Finding difference between those arrays is the best method. Added about Tokenizer, but I wouldn't use it

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