phpmailer Invalid Address Error - php

Question

Code:
<?php
if(isset($_POST['data']) && !empty($_POST['data']) && isset($_POST['email']) && !empty($_POST['email'])) {
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
var_dump($email);
$data = explode(',', $_POST['data']);
mailImages($data);
}
function mailImages($data){
require_once "../PHPMailer_5.2.0/class.phpmailer.php";
$mail = new PHPMailer(true); //defaults to using php "mail()"; the true param means it will throw exceptions on errors, which we need to catch
try {
$mail->CharSet = 'UTF-8';
$mail->AddReplyTo('kasper.lassner#peterwolf.agency', 'Colegio Suizo de México');
// $mail->AddAddress('******#****.agency','K L');
//$mail->AddAddress('"'.$email.'"','');
$mail->AddAddress($email,'test');
$mail->SetFrom('*******#********.agency', 'Colegio Suizo de México');
$mail->Subject = 'CSM Fotos';
$mail->AltBody = 'To view the message, please use an HTML compatible email viewer!'; // optional - MsgHTML will create an alternate automatically
$mail->MsgHTML('Test message');
foreach($data as $image){
$mail->AddAttachment(realpath(dirname(__FILE__)).'/'.str_replace(' ','',$image));
}
$mail->Send();
echo 'OK';
} catch (phpmailerException $e) {
//echo $e->errorMessage();
echo $mail->ErrorInfo;
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo 'NO';//Boring error messages from anything else!
}
}
?>
So my problem is the following: I get an "Invalid Address:"" Error. When I comment this line:
$mail->AddAddress($email,'test');
And uncomment this line:
$mail->AddAddress('******#****.agency','K L');
Passing a string value works. So the problem clearly is that the $email variable somehow isn't accepted. The var_dump outputs this: "string(24) "*******#****.com" so it is a string.
I've searched in already existing answers and couldn't find that specific issue.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Your problem is explained in http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php.
By default, every variable you use in a function is implicitly local to that function. The $email in mailImages is unrelated to the $email outside. Because the variable is not set, it causes the "Invalid Address" error.
You can fix this by either adding another function parameter:
function mailImages($data, $email) { ... }
// call as
mailImages($data, $email);
or by explicitly marking $email as global:
function mailImages($data) {
global $email;
...
}