The term scope refers to the places within a script where a particular variable is visible.
The six basic scope rules in PHP are as follows:
- Built-in superglobal variables are visible everywhere within a script
- Constants, once declared, are always visible globally; that is, they can be used inside and outside functions
- Global variables declared in a script are visible throughout that script, but not inside functions
- Variables inside functions that are declared as global refer to the global variables of the same name
- Variables created inside functions and declared as static are invisible from outside the function but keep their value between one execution of the function and the next.
- Variables created inside functions are local to the function and cease to exist when the function terminates
The arrays $_GET and $_POST and some other special variables have their own scope rules. They are known as superglobals and can be seen everywhere, both inside and outside functions
The complete list of superglobals is as follows
$GLOBALS—An array of all global variables (Like the global keyword, this allows you to access global variables inside a function—for example, as $GLOBALS[‘myvariable’].)
- $_SERVER—An array of server environment variables
- $_GET—An array of variables passed to the script via the GET method
- $_POST—An array of variables passed to the script via the POST method
- $_COOKIE—An array of cookie variables
- $_FILES—An array of variables related to file uploads
- $_ENV—An array of environment variables
- $_REQUEST—An array of all user input including the contents of input including $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE (but not including $_FILES)
- $_SESSION—An array of session variables