How to declare a global variable in php?

I have code something like this:

<?
    $a="localhost";
    function body(){
        global $a;
        echo $a;
    }

    function head(){
        global $a;
        echo $a;
    }

    function footer(){
        global $a;
        echo $a;
    }
?>

is there any way to define the global variable in one place and make the variable $a accessible in all the functions at once? without making use of global $a; more?

The $GLOBALS array can be used instead:

$GLOBALS['a'] = 'localhost';

function body(){

    echo $GLOBALS['a'];
}

From the Manual:

An associative array containing references to all variables which are currently defined in the global scope of the script. The variable names are the keys of the array.

If you have a set of functions that need some common variables, a class with properties may be a good choice instead of a global:

class MyTest
{
    protected $a;

    public function __construct($a)
    {
        $this->a = $a;
    }

    public function head()
    {
        echo $this->a;
    }

    public function footer()
    {
        echo $this->a;
    }
}

$a = 'localhost';
$obj = new MyTest($a);