Title: Calling variables into functions.php
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Calling variables into functions.php

 *  [kieranmcclung](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kieranmcclung/)
 * (@kieranmcclung)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/)
 * Hello,
    I’m probably getting this all confused but is there any way to get a 
   variable from outside of the functions.php file (say in single.php) and feed 
   it into a function?
 * I’ve got a function which adds a field to a custom form and I want to feed a 
   variable into the value of an input. The form is placed at the bottom of a post
   and when submitted it creates a custom post type post that gets displayed at 
   the bottom of the regular post in a list format. I want to get the ID of the 
   parent post. This will then feed into the value of the hidden input of the custom
   post type form, then I can do a query to get all custom post types with the meta_value
   of this ID.
 * So I’ve got this:
 *     ```
       function feed_the_form_hook($form_id, $post_id, $form_settings) {
          $value = '';
   
          if ($post_id) {
             $value = get_post_meta($post_id, 'parent_post_id', true);
          }
          ?>
   
          <div class="wpuf-label">
             <label>Hidden Chalet Review ID</label>
          </div>
   
          <div class="wpuf-fields">
             <input type="text" name="parent_post_id" value="<?php echo esc_attr($parentPostID); ?>">
          </div>
   
          <?php
   
          echo $parentPostID; //Delete this once tested output
       }
   
       add_action('parent_post_id', 'feed_the_form_hook', 10, 3);
       ```
   
 * The $parentPostID variable is getting the ID from the single.php file. I know
   this won’t work as is but is there any way of doing this or am I going about 
   it in the wrong way?
 * I did post something similar a while back but was asked to post in the plugin
   forum. I didn’t get an answer from there but this is actually a different problem.
   I’m simply wondering if this is possible within WordPress, regardless of plugins
   used etc?
 * Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/#post-4208634)
 * Why can’t you use `$post->ID` inside the main Loop?
 *  Thread Starter [kieranmcclung](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kieranmcclung/)
 * (@kieranmcclung)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/#post-4208676)
 * Please excuse my ignorance.
 * I’ve got the ID stored into the $parentPostID variable just fine, it’s trying
   to get that into the function so that when this custom field is added to the 
   form it will contain that variable value.
 * I don’t mean this to sound arsey, because it isn’t meant to, but how will $post-
   >ID help me in this situation? It could be that I’m overcomplicating things, 
   as usual.
 * Thank you 🙂
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/#post-4208680)
 * Can’t you call the function using `feed_the_form_hook( $post->ID, xx)`? Or if
   it’s being called outside of the Loop, save `$post->ID` to a variable within 
   the Loop and then pass that variable via the function call elsewhere?
 *  Thread Starter [kieranmcclung](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kieranmcclung/)
 * (@kieranmcclung)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/#post-4208690)
 * Ahh! Sorry, I understand now.
 * The function is being called outside the loop unfortunately. I will try locate
   where it is actually being called. If I was to do this would the variable need
   to be declared as global?
 * Again, apologies for my lack of knowledge.
 * Edit: The function was taken from documentation and simply adds this field to
   a form that is generated elsewhere, so I just need to find where the form is 
   generated.
 * Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Calling variables into functions.php’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom field](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-field/)
 * [function](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/function/)
 * [functions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/functions/)
 * [variable](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variable/)
 * [variables](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variables/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [kieranmcclung](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kieranmcclung/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/calling-variables-into-functionsphp/#post-4208690)
 * Status: not resolved

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