<?php
$name1 = 'Bob';
$name2 = 'Sarah';
$name3 = 'Foo';
// http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.array.php
// http://php.net/manual/en/ref.array.php
$arrayOfVariableNames = [$name1, $name2, $name3];
// the above can also alternatively (if the $name variables are not used elsewhere) be written in less code to avoid having less variables
/// $arrayOfVariableNames[0] = 'Bob'; $arrayOfVariableNames[1] = 'Sarah';
// or even like
/// $arrayOfVariableNames = ['Bob', 'Sarah', 'Foo'];
// http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php
// http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.for.php
foreach ($arrayOfVariableNames as $key => $name)
{
// http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.switch.php
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15903193/php-switch-vs-if
// http://phpswitch.com/
// the content from here could be passed into a(nother) function to keep each part of the code doing its job, and doing it well
// these can be written with ifs, but if there are many different options a switch is most likely your best bet
switch ($name)
{
case 'Bob':
// do things with $name...
break;
case 'Sarah':
// do things with $name... for example, previously in the code create an array $namesBeginningWith and assign each letter of the alphabet to the array as a key, and the initial value at each position to 0, then increment the count $namesBeginningWith['S']++; could be done with any language, just for fun
break;
case 'Foo':
// do things with $name... for example, echo 'Foo is the name, Foo Bar';
break;
case 'Bar':
// do things with $name... for example,
/// you wanted to replace the variable names, so here you could do $arrayOfVariableNames[$key] = 'Bob2';
//// No Bar's allowed!
break;
default:
// if the name is not one that you know, do something "else" with it!
break;
}
}
/*
// for some extra fun, you asked to "do things with $name2"
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2206387/what-is-a-class-in-php/2206835#2206835
// http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.php
class Person
{
private $name;
private $age;
// http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.typehinting.php
// http://www.sitepoint.com/type-hinting-in-php/
public function doStuffWith(Person $person)
{
return ($this->name . ' and ' . $person->getName() . " just did stuff! \n\n");
}
public function setName($name)
{
$this->name = $name;
}
public function setAge($age)
{
$this->age = $age;
}
public function getName()
{
return $this->name;
}
public function getAge()
{
return $this->age;
}
}
$person1 = new Person();
$person1->setName('Bob');
$person1->setAge(21);
$person2 = new Person();
$person2->setName('Sarah');
$person2->setAge(21);
$person3 = new Person();
$person3->setName('Foo');
$person3->setAge(42);
$peopleList =
[
$person1->getName() => $person1,
$person2->getName() => $person2,
$person3->getName() => $person3
];
foreach ($peopleList as $key => $person)
{
// if ('Foo' !== $person->getName())
echo $person->doStuffWith($peopleList['Foo']);
}
*/
?>