How can I target a specific variable by name using a for loop?

Question

Is it possible to use a for loop where $i is part of the variable name? I'm trying to get this for loop to list the fruits:

$item1name = "apple";
$item2name = "orange";
$item3name = "banana";

for($i=0, $i<2, $i++) {
  echo = "<li>$item?????</li>";
}

// should result in:
// <li>apple</li><li>orange</li><li>banana</li>

I realize I can put the fruits in an $itemname array and easily echo $itemname[$i], but that isn't what I'm asking. Is it possible to do this when $i is part of the variable name?

Of course, I already noted that I could do that, but it's not what I'm asking. Thanks @Amal. — JoshR
– JoshR, Commented Mar 30, 2014 at 20:08

Amal · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-30 20:08:45Z

3

It is possible with the use of variable variables:

for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++) {
    echo "<li>" . ${'item'.$i.'name'} . "</li>";
}

Note that your original code wasn't syntactically correct. I've fixed it. Also note how $i value changed. Your variable numbers are from 1 to 3, not 0 to 1.

But I don't see why you'd want this. Simply use an array instead.

Demo

answered Mar 30, 2014 at 20:08

Amal

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2 Comments

JoshR Over a year ago

Thanks Amal. That's what I was looking for. I'm working with existing data columns named similar to $itemXname. In my case, they're simple enough to load into an array like "array($item1name,$item2name,$item3name)", but your answer is helpful in cases where that cannot be done programmatically or where the numbers in the column names would not correspond to their indexed value. Thanks again!

Amal Over a year ago

@JoshRencher: No problem. Glad to have been of help!

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