If what you're really after involves reading configuration variables in from a standard .INI file, you don't need to write custom code to parse the file and read in the variable-value pairs. Instead, just use PHP's
parse_ini_file() function, which automatically takes care of this for you.

Consider the following sample .INI file,

  [global]

  printing = bsd

  default case = lower

  log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

  printcap name = /etc/printcap

  max log size = 50

  domain master = yes

  dns proxy = no

[temp]

  comment = Temporary file space

  path = /tmp

  read only = no

  public = yes

  create mask = 0777

  force group = nobody

  force user = nobody

  

and the PHP code to parse it:

  <?php

// set file to read

  $filename = "samba.ini";
// read INI file into array

  $data = parse_ini_file($filename);
// print array

  print_r($data);
?>

  

A quick glance at the output shows that PHP has, indeed, read the file, parsed its contents, and converted the variable-value pairs into an associative array.

Array
(
[printing] => bsd
[default case] => lower
[log file] => /var/log/samba/log.%m
[printcap name] => /etc/printcap
[max log size] => 50
[domain master] => 1
[dns proxy] =>
[comment] => Temporary file space
[path] => /tmp
[read only] =>
[public] => 1
[create mask] => 0777
[force group] => nobody
[force user] => nobody
)

The only problem with the approach, however, is that variables with the same name from different sections will override each other; if there are multiple configuration variables with the same name, the output array will always contain only the last value. In order to illustrate, look what happens when I add a new section to the sample file above which repeats some of the variables from a previous section:

  [global]

  printing = bsd

  default case = lower

  log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

  printcap name = /etc/printcap

  max log size = 50

  domain master = yes

  dns proxy = no

[temp]

  comment = Temporary file space

  path = /tmp

  read only = no

  public = yes

  create mask = 0777

  force group = nobody

  force user = nobody

  

  [shared]

  comment = Shared area

  path = /shared

  printable = no

  create mode = 0770

  directory mode = 0770

  writeable = yes

  

Here's the output:

Array
(
[printing] => bsd
[default case] => lower
[log file] => /var/log/samba/log.%m
[printcap name] => /etc/printcap
[max log size] => 50
[domain master] => 1
[dns proxy] =>
[comment] => Shared area
[path] => /shared
[read only] =>
[public] => 1
[create mask] => 0777
[force group] => nobody
[force user] => nobody
[printable] =>
[create mode] => 0770
[directory mode] => 0770
[writeable] => 1
)

As you can see, some of the variable-value pairs (from the "temp" section of the file) have been lost. PHP offers a solution to this problem by allowing a second, optional argument to parse_ini_file() - a Boolean indicating whether the namespaces of the various sections should be respected. When I add that to the script above,

  <?php

// set file to read

  $filename = "samba.ini";
// read INI file into array

  // process each section separately

  $data = parse_ini_file($filename, true);
// print array

  print_r($data);
?>

  

look how drastically the output changes:

Array
(
[global] => Array
(
[printing] => bsd
[default case] => lower
[log file] => /var/log/samba/log.%m
[printcap name] => /etc/printcap
[max log size] => 50
[domain master] => 1
[dns proxy] =>
)

)

With the addition of the second argument to parse_ini_file(), PHP now creates a nested array, with the outer array referencing the sections, and each inner one referencing the variables in each section.