PHP - assigning function return to variable

Question

I have a PHP script that returns a random password. How do I echo out the password that is generated?

<?php

function generatePassword($length=9, $strength=0) {
    $vowels = 'aeuy';
    $consonants = 'bdghjmnpqrstvz';
    if ($strength & 1) {
        $consonants .= 'BDGHJLMNPQRSTVWXZ';
    }
    if ($strength & 2) {
        $vowels .= "AEUY";
    }
    if ($strength & 4) {
        $consonants .= '23456789';
    }
    if ($strength & 8) {
        $consonants .= '@#$%';
    }

    $password = '';
    $alt = time() % 2;
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        if ($alt == 1) {
            $password .= $consonants[(rand() % strlen($consonants))];
            $alt = 0;
        } else {
            $password .= $vowels[(rand() % strlen($vowels))];
            $alt = 1;
        }
    }
    return $password;
}

?>

do you wrote all that code and you don't know about echo?

dynamic
– dynamic

2011-02-20 23:32:06 +00:00
Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 23:32 — dynamic
– dynamic, Commented Feb 20, 2011 at 23:32

Phil · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-20 23:31:14Z

2

As prodigitalson mentioned, you can directly echo out the return value or assign it to a variable, eg

$password = generatePassword();

answered Feb 20, 2011 at 23:31

Phil

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Comments

ariefbayu · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-21 23:11:08Z

2

err.. change

return $password;

to

echo $password;

Or.. better yet:

$somevar = generatePassword();
echo $somevar;

edited Feb 21, 2011 at 23:11

answered Feb 20, 2011 at 23:30

ariefbayu

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3 Comments

Phil Over a year ago

Functions that echo are so Wordpress. Also, "Wordpress" is my new vernacular for "bad", hopefully it catches on ;)

ariefbayu Over a year ago

Hahaha, I agree on that (function that echo are bad). But, I don't want to start 'religion' wars ;)

Archonic Over a year ago

@Phil Or you could just use the right function. get_ in front of the function name will return the output instead of echo'ing.

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