How can I concatenate a string with a variable and use it as another variable?

Question

I have a variable $language, which can be: "en", "nl", or "fr".I have 3 other variables $menu_en, $menu_fr and $menu_fr.

I have a php page where I want the menu to appear in any of the 3 languages.

I tried this:

echo '$menu_' . $language;

What I want is the result to be the value of $menu_en and not the string $menu_nl.

How can I do this? Can eval() help?

[Variable variables](http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php) — Mark Baker, Apr 30 '15 at 22:25
@MarkBaker I have a feeling that's not what the OP is asking — Mike, Apr 30 '15 at 22:27
OP: I think you want to do: `echo $menu . $language;`. When you put single quotes around a variable it is not parsed as PHP. — Mike, Apr 30 '15 at 22:28

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 30 '15 at 22:27

How about using an array?

$menu = array("en" => "Hi!", "it" => "Ciao!", "es" => "Hola!");

$language = "en";
echo $menu[$language]; // this will print Hi!
echo $menu["it"]; // will print Ciao!

Some ref on arrays: http://php.net/manual/it/language.types.array.php

user2182349 · Answer 2 · 2015-04-30T22:35:35.700

3

You can use variable variables - like so:

$menuVar = 'menu_'.$language;
echo $$menuVar;

Note the double dollar signs.

Ref: http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php

edited Apr 30 '15 at 22:35

answered Apr 30 '15 at 22:28

user2182349

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Reversal's suggestion of an array is a better solution. – user2182349 Apr 30 '15 at 22:28
The dollar sign in the string is not required and means you'll actually reference a variable who's name begins with a dollar sign. – Scopey Apr 30 '15 at 22:34

How can I concatenate a string with a variable and use it as another variable?

2 Answers2