Scope

Variable Scope

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The scope of a variable is the context within which it is defined. For the most part all PHP variables only have a single scope. This single scope spans included and required files as well. For example:

<?php
$a = 1;
include 'b.inc';
?>

Here the $a variable will be available within the included b.inc script. However, within user-defined functions a local function scope is introduced. Any variable used inside a function is by default limited to the local function scope. For example:

<?php
$a = 1; /* global scope */ 

function test()
{ 
    echo $a; /* reference to local scope variable */ 
} 

test();
?>

This script will not produce any output because the echo statement refers to a local version of the $a variable, and it has not been assigned a value within this scope. You may notice that this is a little bit different from the C language in that global variables in C are automatically available to functions unless specifically overridden by a local definition. This can cause some problems in that people may inadvertently change a global variable. In PHP global variables must be declared global inside a function if they are going to be used in that function.

Refer to the documentation to read about static and global variables

Globals

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An associative array containing references to all variables which are currently defined in the global scope of the script. The variable names are the keys of the array.

Superglobals

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Several predefined variables in PHP are "superglobals", which means they are available in all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to do global $variable; to access them within functions or methods.