I have this piece of code:

$exists = false;
foreach ($outsiderTests as $key => $outsiderTest) {
   $textExists = null;
   foreach ($tests as $test) {
       if ($outsiderTest->getName() == $test->getName()) {
           $exists = true;
           $existingTest = $test;
           break;
       } else
           $exists = false;
   }

   var_dump($existingTest, $test);
}

As you can see, I want to see if there is an equivalent to an outsiderTest in $tests array. I thought I would have to save the existing equivalent $test on another variable as it would be gone after the foreach ends, but it does not.

The value of $existingTest and $test is the same when I dump them. This is cool, and makes me able to get rid of the mentioned $existingTest variable, but makes me wonder if I am understanding PHP's loop functionality.

Doesn't the $test variable only exist inside the foreach scope? Does PHP temporarily save the value of the last index the execution has run through?

CodePudding user response：

PHP's variable scope is explained here: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php

Effectively you have 2 scopes:

• The global scope
• The local function scope

So a loop variable will be accessible out of it's scope and will contain the last value it had. This is why you got this behaviour.

If you have a loop calling a function then you have multiple options:

• Declare the external variable with the global keyword inside the function.
• Access globals with the $GLOBALS variable.
• Pass the globals you need to your anonymous function with the use () syntax.