How to declare a global variable in php?

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.

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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);

If the variable is not going to change you could use define

Example:

define('FOOTER_CONTENT', 'Hello I\'m an awesome footer!');

function footer()
{
    echo FOOTER_CONTENT;
}