Passing data to views without using sequential with() methods in Laravel 4

Python has a nice built-in function named locals() which returns a dictionary of local symbol table. This makes it easy to pass local variables to views in a single move.

I was wondering if PHP has such nice feature. I searched PHP's documentation and found this familiar built-in function: get_defined_vars()

get_defind_vars() Returns an array of all defined variables within the current scope.

Since PHP 5.0.0, the $GLOBALS variable is included in the results of the array returned.

You can use get_defind_vars() in a controller,closure or anywhere else you need:

<?php
  
  $users = User:all();
  
  return View::make('users.list')->with(get_defined_vars());
?>

The above block of code gets the list of users in User model and makes $users available in users.list view.

You can also combine Laravel's array_except() with get_defined_vars() to exclude data you don't need:

<?php
  $date = date('Y-m-d H:i:ds');
  
  $users = User:all();
  
  return View::make('users.list')->with( array_except( get_defined_vars, ['date'] )  );
?>

The second parameter in array_except() is the list of vars you want to exclude.

Hope This helps someone.

Happy coding.

lavary/get_defined_vars.md