import_request_variables does *not* read from the $_GET, $_POST, or $_COOKIE arrays - it reads the data directly from what was submitted. This is an important distinction if, for example, the server has magic_quotes turned on and you massage the data to run stripslashes on it; if you then use import_request_variables, your variables will still have slashes in them.



In other words: even if you say $_GET=""; $_POST=""; then use import_request_variables, it'll still get all the request data.



If you change the contents of $_GET and you then want to bring this data into global variables, use extract($_GET, EXTR_PREFIX_ALL, "myprefix") instead.