PHP 8 reference · Array Functions

PHP extract() Function

Create variables from an array's keys and values in the current scope. Never use it on user input.

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Syntax

extract(array &$array, int $flags = EXTR_OVERWRITE, string $prefix = ""): int

Parameter	Description
`array`	The `name => value` pairs.
`flags` optional	How to handle existing variables, such as `EXTR_SKIP` or `EXTR_PREFIX_ALL`. Default: `EXTR_OVERWRITE`
`prefix` optional	A prefix for the variable names, used with prefix flags. Default: `""`

The number of variables created.

Array to variablesTry it yourself

<?php
$row = ["title" => "Arrays", "views" => 1200];
extract($row);
echo "$title has $views views\n";

Output

Arrays has 1200 views

Don't overwrite existing variablesTry it yourself

<?php
$title = "kept";
$data = ["title" => "new", "author" => "Ada"];
echo extract($data, EXTR_SKIP), "\n";
echo "$title by $author\n";

Output

1
kept by Ada

extract($_GET) or extract($_POST) lets visitors overwrite any variable. Read the keys you need explicitly.

Version	Change
PHP 4.0	Added

compact() · Create an array from variable names, using each name as the key and the variable's value as the value.
PHP Arrays · tutorial
PHP Array Functions · tutorial

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