How to get $var outside the function without using global php? - php

Question

Need small help here. Was reading how bad it is to add global var within function and call it outside but having small issue getting the vars outside. Global helped but I want to be safe also since I am handling some files here
my loop is this
<?php
require_once('functions.php');
?>
<?php
foreach( $files as $key=> $file ){
global $download_link;
get_file_info($key,$file);
?>
<span><?php echo $file->name ?></span>
<?php } ?>
PART of my function.php / is about 150 lines long but this is main snipp
function get_file_info($key,$file){
global $download_link;
$access = explode(",",$file->access);
$permission = in_array(1,$access);
if($permission){
$download_link = 'ok to download';
}else{
$download_link = 'canot download';
}
}
beside the link var I also have few others like date , counter etc but they are all bound by some condition.
I tried to do
return $link; at the end of the function instead using global but getting undefined variable error;
SO base question here is , how to get the download_link var outside the function without using global ?

Answer 1

You can do this a lot easier by modifying your File class
class File {
# ...
function get_url() {
return in_array(1, explode(',', $this->access))
? $this->url # return the file's url
: "/path/to/subscribe" # return a default path for non-access
;
}
}
Your HTML would use it as follows
<?php
foreach ($files as $file) {
echo 'Download this '.$file->name.'';
}

Answer 2

Since you just use get_file_info to set $download_link, why not just return $permission and define $download_link outside the function?
<?php
function get_file_info($key,$file){
$access = explode(",",$file->access);
$permission = in_array(1,$access);
return $permission;
}
foreach( $files as $key=> $file ){
$download_link = 'canot download';
if(get_file_info($key,$file)) {
download_link = 'ok to download';
}
echo '<span>'. $file->name . '</span>';
}
?>

Answer 3

You may change your loop like this:
<?php
require_once('functions.php');
?>
<?php
foreach( $files as $key=> $file ){
$download_link = get_file_info($key,$file);
?>
<span><?php echo $file->name ?></span>
<?php } ?>
And your function code:
function get_file_info($key,$file){
$access = explode(",",$file->access);
$permission = in_array(1,$access);
if($permission){
return 'ok to download';
}
else {
return 'canot download';
}
}