Maximum execution time exceeded

[Jesdisciple]

First, I have a question about the scopes of variables. In the below code, I tried to use var as I would in JavaScript, including inside functions, but got "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VAR" for each instance of that. Now, some variables are originally declared in the form $name;, because I want their scopes to reach the levels of those statements. Do all variables declared in a function have the whole function as their scope, or do I need to use this declaration form?Problem:I'm trying to write a function that will recursively interpret the text in a cookie as several key-value pairs, but the script always outputs "Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\wamp\www\cookies\cookies.php [approx.] on line 75". (BTW, I am accessing the page via localhost.) Am I supposed to make it more efficient, is there an infinite loop, or what? EDIT: My do...while is looping infinitely; I'm using echo to debug, as I didn't know to do before.Implementation:Each key-value pair should be stored in the output array as both an Association object (see the bottom of cookies.php) at the default index and an association (i.e., $array['key'] == 'value') if the key is defined. Also, "[key1=value1;value2;(...)]" should be interpreted as a sub-array (and a value), with unlimited depth.test.php

<?php	function COOKIE($name){		if(isset($name) && !isnull($name)){			return parseArray($_COOKIE[$name]);		}else{			return NULL;		}	}		/**	 * array parseArray(string $string)	 * 	 * Returns an interpretation of $string as a numerical, associative, and multidimensional array, ignoring newline	 * characters (but not other whitespace). For example,	 * parseArray("sampleValue; laughs=[hah; lol;rofl ;];ages=[Charles=30;Nina=24;Debbie=3;];") will return	 * 	(to be determined upon proper execution)	 */	function parseArray($string){		$string = preg_replace('/\n/', '', $string);		$results;		$index = 0;		$semicolon;		$open;		$close;		$assignment;		for($i0 = 0; $i0 < strlen($string){			$semicolon = strpos($string, ';', $i0);			$open = strpos($string, '[', $i0);			$close = strpos($string, ']', $i0);			$assignment = strpos($string, '=', $i0);						$key = NULL;			$value;						if($close < $open){				throw new Exception("']' before '[' at string index $close");			}						if($semicolon < $open || $open == -1){				$start;				$end = $semicolon == -1 ? strlen($string) : $semicolon;				if($assignment != -1 && $assignment < $semicolon){					$key = substr($string, $index + 1, $assignment);					$start = $assignment + 1;				}else{					$start = $index + 1;				}				$value = substr($string, $start, $end);				$i0 = $semicolon + 1;			}else{				$start = $openArray + 1;				$end = getEndOfArray(substr($string, $start));				$value = parseArray(substr($string, $start, $end));								if($assignment != -1 && ($assignment < $open || $open == -1)){					$key = substr($string, $index, $assignment);				}								new Association($key, $value, $results);								$i0 = strpos($string, ';', $end) + 1;			}			$index++;		}		return results;	}		function getEndOfArray($string){		$level = 0;		$index = 0;		$open;		$close;		do{			$open = strpos($string, '[', $index);			$close = strpos($string, ']', $index);						if($open < $close){				$level++;				$index = $open;			}else{				$level--;				$index = $close;			}		}while($level > 0);				if($level < 0){			throw new Exception("']' before '[' at string index $close");		}				return $index;	}		class Association {		var $key;		var $value;		public function Association($key, $value, $array){			$this->key = $key;			$this->value = $value;			if(isset($array)){				$array[] = $this;				if(!isnull($key)){					$array[$key] = $value;				}			}		}	}?>

(Also, how do you debug in PHP? Should I use echo like JavaScript's alert?)

[Jesdisciple]

EDIT: Never mind; I didn't understand how to debug PHP, will post back here if I get hopelessly stuck.