NYCPHP Meetup

[Andrew Yochum]

On May 25, 2005, at 9:22 PM, Peter Sawczynec wrote:

> Man, I gotta party after that round. But seriously I think variable
> variables belongs "forever in the dog pound". So streamlined and  
> clean --
> like looking at a Bang & Olufsen. Why have five moving parts when  
> you only
> need two or none.

I agree.  There is a time and place for variable variables and they  
are few and far between.  One appropriate scenario is when using the  
reflection APIs, for instance.  With what info we had about the  
scenario originally in question, I don't feel that is a case where I  
think they are appropriate.

As an alternative solution, personally I'd would have reworked it to  
use a 3 dimensional array, even if the first dimension was small.
     $concerts[$year][$i][$field]
No need for variable variables.  Either way its a hash lookup -  
either in the symbol table or the associative array.  I'm sure  
someone out there may know if there is a difference between those in  
PHP - I don't off the top of my head.  Regardless of what the  
difference might be, I think the array is a better solution overall  
for clean code with the least exposures.

Andrew
--
Andrew Yochum
Plexpod
andrew at plexpod.com
718-360-0879