PHP eval(array_as_string) returns null

Question

$arr = eval("array('foo'=>'bar');");

// returns null
var_dump($arr);

Can someone please explain why did I get null instead of an array?

Answer 1

You need to return the array.

From the docs:

eval() returns NULL unless return is called in the evaluated code, in which case the value passed to return is returned.

So you need to do:

$arr = eval("return array('foo'=>'bar');");