simpleXML variables in functions

programming
1

I have this code on one part of an html page


<?php
    
    
    $file = 'events.xml';
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($file);
    
    function popCal(){
        echo $xml->day->event[0]->name;
           }
    
    echo $xml->day->event[0]->name;
    
    
    $day=array(0 => 0, 1 => 1, 2 => 2, 3 => 3, 4 => 4, 5 => 5, 6 => 6, 7 => 7);

    
    
    
?>

and this code in a table cell somewhere else in same page


<?php popCal(); ?>

If I put a simple statement like echo “Foo”; in popCal function it works. If I put echo $xml->day->event[0]->name; outside the function, it works. Is there any obvious reason why this shouldn’t work inside the function popCal()?