php man page for compact

COMPACT(3)								 1								COMPACT(3)

compact - Create array containing variables and their values

SYNOPSIS
       array compact (mixed  $varname1, [mixed	$...])

DESCRIPTION
	Creates an array containing variables and their values.

	For  each  of  these, compact(3) looks for a variable with that name in the current symbol table and adds it to the output array such that
       the variable name becomes the key and the contents of the variable become the value for that  key.  In  short,  it  does  the  opposite	of
       extract(3).

	Any strings that are not set will simply be skipped.

PARAMETERS
	      o $varname1
		-compact(3)  takes  a variable number of parameters. Each parameter can be either a string containing the name of the variable, or
		an array of variable names. The array can contain other arrays of variable names inside it; compact(3) handles it recursively.

RETURN VALUES
	Returns the output array with all the variables added to it.

EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      compact(3) example

	      <?php
	      $city  = "San Francisco";
	      $state = "CA";
	      $event = "SIGGRAPH";

	      $location_vars = array("city", "state");

	      $result = compact("event", "nothing_here", $location_vars);
	      print_r($result);
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      Array
	      (
		  [event] => SIGGRAPH
		  [city] => San Francisco
		  [state] => CA
	      )

NOTES
       Note

	      Gotcha

	       Because variable variables may not be used with PHP's Superglobal arrays within functions, the Superglobal arrays may not be passed
	      into compact(3).

SEE ALSO
       extract(3).

PHP Documentation Group 														COMPACT(3)