19

Here is the full context of the situation:

I recently got a new Mac, I'm a php developer so I downloaded MAMP and started developing.

First I noticed that my includes were not being included, but I changed that by configuring my php.ini.

However now, when I try to include a file with a function it does not recognize the function.

For example I have a file named functions.php:

<?php
function doit(){
    echo "did it";
}
?>

and a file that includes it called index.php

<?php include("functions.php"); doit();?>

and I get this error message

Fatal error: Call to undefined function doit() in index.php on line 4

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2
  • 1
    Are you getting a warning that a file is not being included? Commented Apr 23, 2011 at 3:50
  • what @tandu said. check if error_reporting settings. Commented Apr 23, 2011 at 3:59

7 Answers 7

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40

Sometimes the current directory isn't what you expect it to be, such as when you include a file from an included file.

I like to use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] on my includes so that I can always reference them absolutely from the root of my site:

<?php
    include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/includes/functions.php");
    doit();
?>

If your includes directory is above your document root, you can use .. to still reference from the root.

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2 Comments

A million times yes, and thank you! This was driving me up the wall not knowing why my stuff wasn't working.
Had similar issue with WordPress when using $get_stylesheet_directory_uri, so I began referencing with ABSPATH instead. $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] would have been fine, however, if my dev and production environments had the same directory structure.
9

So if anyone ever stumbles on this forum because they are having the same issue let me explain what and why it went wrong.

If you include a function not in your directory(e.g c:// or file://) but instead include using http. The include can only return what was echoed in the file, but something like a variable or function will not be shown. So always include functions and variables through a directory

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1 Comment

I spent the better part of the last day at work trying to figure out this /exact/ problem. Because of the weirdness with PHP, it was not finding my functions inside any of my included files and I did reference via HTTP, but then I ran across the comment above using $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] and it has made everything work wonderfully (finally!).
4

Try require() instead of include. Perhaps include is failing and errors are not being shown.

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8 Comments

Which means functions.php is in a different directory. To test you could use the full path to the file. For example /var/www/site/functions.php
The path I use is this localhost:8888/perfectur/perfectur/functions/formfunctions.php
The behavior is very strange since if I just tell it to echo text it does however if I include a function it can not see it and gives me and error.
localhost:8888/perfectur/perfectur/functions/formfunctions.php -- this is not a file path!.
You need to try the path of functions.php within the system and not its url. Do you have console access? If so just find out what directory is the file in and include it using the full path.
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3

I have been got that problem too.

In my case, I find out it may be your "functions.php" file Permission denied.

Please try to "chmod 777 functions.php" in the server.

Let the functions.php can execute in the web server.

Thanks Thatjuan, Becasue when I change to use require(), the server show off the right error message.

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1

For me the problem was due to a function name in the included file having the same name as a function in the initial file.

I made all the function names unique and no longer have the problem.

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1 Comment

Crap - spent 8 hours trying to troubleshoot this same issue. include file had a function of the same name already loaded from another file. Drove me nUtS!
0

I think a slightly better approach than the one shown in the most upvoted post is not to point to the root folder, but to use relative paths.

So as this can sometimes can point to unexpected path:

include('/../post-excerpt.php');

you can do instead:

include(__DIR__.'/../post-excerpt.php');
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0

I was using the wrong slash 🐒 (no error message, nothing...)

Wrong (might work on Windows, but not the average hosting)

include 'folder\file.php';

Correct

include 'folder/file.php';
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