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

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Use variable name as a string to get the variable name. There are many ways to solve this problem some of them are discussed below:

Method 1: Using $GLOBALS: It is used to reference all variables available in global scope. It is an associative array which contains the reference of all variables which are currently defined in the global scope.

Example: This example uses $GLOBAL reference to get the variable name as a string.

<?php 
  
// Declare and initialize a variable 
$test = "This is a string"; 
  
// Function that returns the variable name 
function getVariavleName($var) { 
    foreach($GLOBALS as $varName => $value) { 
        if ($value === $var) { 
            return $varName; 
        } 
    } 
    return; 
} 
  
// Function call and display the 
// variable name 
print getVariavleName($test); 
  
?> 

Output:

test

Method 2: Using $$ Operator: The $$var_name is known as reference variable where $var_name is a normal variable. The $$var_name used to refer to the variable with the name as value of the variable $var_name.
Example: This example uses $$ operator to get the variable name as a string.

<?php 
  
// Declare and initialize a variable 
$name = "test"; 
  
// Reference variable to store string 
$$name = "This is a string"; 
  
// Display result 
print($name); 
  
?> 