# \[PHP\] Variable changes by itself!

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-variable-changes-by-itself/242965>\
**Category:** programming\
**Created:** [November 1, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-variable-changes-by-itself/242965 "2007-11-01T02:36:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NeoDreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ccd318/32.png) [@NeoDreamer](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/NeoDreamer)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-variable-changes-by-itself/242965/1 "2007-11-01T02:36:34Z")

</div>

In my constructor for my Flickr class, I set $baseURL to equal Flickr’s folder for API calls. For some reason, $baseURL took on the value of $key without me doing anything!

\*\*index.php \*\*

```php

<?php
	include_once('Flickr.php');
	
	$photos = new Flickr();
	$userID = $photos->getUserID('fart');
?>

```

Abridged version of **Flickr.php**

```php

function Flickr()
{
	$this->$baseURL = 'http://www.flickr.com/services/rest/';
	$this->$key = '123'; 
}

function getUserID($name)
{
	echo 'base url: ' . $this->$baseURL . '<br />';
	
	$url = $this->$baseURL . '?method=flickr.people.findByUsername' . 
			'&api_key=' . $this->$key . 
			'&username=' . $name;
	
	echo 'url: ' . $url . '<br />';
}

```

When I run **index.php**

```auto

base url: 1234
url: 1234?method=flickr.people.findByUsername&api_key=1234&username=fart

```