How to get a variable name as a string in PHP?

Question

Say i have this PHP code:

$FooBar = \"a string\";

i then need a function like this:

print_var_name($FooBar);

Answer 1

This is exactly what you want - its a ready to use "copy and drop in" function that echo the name of a given var:

function print_var_name(){
    // read backtrace
    $bt   = debug_backtrace();
    // read file
    $file = file($bt[0]['file']);
    // select exact print_var_name($varname) line
    $src  = $file[$bt[0]['line']-1];
    // search pattern
    $pat = '#(.*)'.__FUNCTION__.' *?\( *?(.*) *?\)(.*)#i';
    // extract $varname from match no 2
    $var  = preg_replace($pat, '$2', $src);
    // print to browser
    echo trim($var);
}

USAGE: print_var_name($FooBar)

PRINT: FooBar

HINT Now you can rename the function and it will still work and also use the function several times in one line! Thanks to @Cliffordlife