Alternative to Variable Variables in PHP - php

Question

In this loop, i am iterating through an array and performing an API call each time. This works fine but I keep reading that using variable variables is not good practice. How could I rewrite this code without using them?
edit: I am not using an array because I have to pass the variables into another template along has other variables outside that array.
template( 'template-name', [ 'graphOne' => $graphOne, 'graphTwo' => $graphTwo, 'outsideVar' => $anothervalue ] );
<?php
// Array of categories for each graph
$catArray = [
'One' => '3791741',
'Two' => '3791748',
'Three' => '3791742',
'Four' => '3791748'
];
foreach ( $catArray as $graphNum => $cat )
{
// Hit API
$graph_results = theme( 'bwatch_graph_call', [
'project' => '153821205',
'category' => $cat
]
);
${"graph{$graphNum}"} = $graph_results;
// Outputs $graphOne, $graphTwo, $graphThree...
}
// Pass vars to template
template( 'template-name', [
'graphOne' => $graphOne,
'graphTwo' => $graphTwo,
'outsideVar' => $anothervalue ]
);

Answer 1

You can use PHP's array_merge when you make your template() call if you have multiple arrays with different key=>value pairs.
http://php.net/array_merge
Here is an example if you have multiple arrays (key=>value pairs) you want to pass to the template.
// Array of categories for each graph
$catArray = [
'One' => '3791741',
'Two' => '3791748',
'Three' => '3791742',
'Four' => '3791748'
];
// Array of category results
$catResult = [];
foreach ( $catArray as $graphNum => $cat )
{
// Hit API
$catResult['graph' . $graphNum] = theme( 'bwatch_graph_call', [
'project' => '153821205',
'category' => $cat
]
);
}
// Now you have an array of results like...
// $catResult['graphOne'] = 'result for One';
// $catResult['graphTwo'] = 'result for Two';
$otherArray1 = ['outsideVar' => $anothervalue];
$otherArray2 = ['somethingElse' => $oneMoreValue];
// Pass all arrays as one
template('template-name', array_merge($catResult, $otherArray1, $otherArray2));