Table of Contents
Smarty has several different types of variables. The type of the variable depends on what symbol it is prefixed or enclosed within.
Variables in Smarty can be either displayed directly or used as arguments for functions, attributes and modifiers, inside conditional expressions, etc. To print a variable, simply enclose it in the delimiters so that it is the only thing contained between them.
Example 4.1. Example variables
{$Name}
{$product.part_no} <b>{$product.description}</b>
{$Contacts[row].Phone}
<body bgcolor="{#bgcolor#}">
An easy way to examine assigned Smarty variables is with the debugging console.
Assigned variables that are referenced by
preceding them with a dollar ($) sign.
Example 4.2. Assigned variables
PHP code
<?php
$smarty = new Smarty();
$smarty->assign('firstname', 'Doug');
$smarty->assign('lastname', 'Evans');
$smarty->assign('meetingPlace', 'New York');
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
index.tpl source:
Hello {$firstname} {$lastname}, glad to see you can make it.
<br />
{* this will not work as $variables are case sensitive *}
This weeks meeting is in {$meetingplace}.
{* this will work *}
This weeks meeting is in {$meetingPlace}.
This above would output:
Hello Doug Evans, glad to see you can make it. <br /> This weeks meeting is in . This weeks meeting is in New York.
You can also reference associative array variables by specifying the key after a dot "." symbol.
Example 4.3. Accessing associative array variables
<?php
$smarty->assign('Contacts',
array('fax' => '555-222-9876',
'email' => 'zaphod@slartibartfast.example.com',
'phone' => array('home' => '555-444-3333',
'cell' => '555-111-1234')
)
);
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
index.tpl source:
{$Contacts.fax}<br />
{$Contacts.email}<br />
{* you can print arrays of arrays as well *}
{$Contacts.phone.home}<br />
{$Contacts.phone.cell}<br />
this will output:
555-222-9876<br /> zaphod@slartibartfast.example.com<br /> 555-444-3333<br /> 555-111-1234<br />
You can reference arrays by their index, much like native PHP syntax.
Example 4.4. Accessing arrays by index
<?php
$smarty->assign('Contacts', array(
'555-222-9876',
'zaphod@slartibartfast.example.com',
array('555-444-3333',
'555-111-1234')
));
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
index.tpl source:
{$Contacts[0]}<br />
{$Contacts[1]}<br />
{* you can print arrays of arrays as well *}
{$Contacts[2][0]}<br />
{$Contacts[2][1]}<br />
This will output:
555-222-9876<br /> zaphod@slartibartfast.example.com<br /> 555-444-3333<br /> 555-111-1234<br />
Properties of objects
assigned from PHP can be referenced by specifying the property
name after the -> symbol.
Example 4.5. Accessing object properties
name: {$person->name}<br />
email: {$person->email}<br />
this will output:
name: Zaphod Beeblebrox<br /> email: zaphod@slartibartfast.example.com<br />