1
PHP Arrays
An array stores multiple values in one single variable.
What is an Array?
A variable is a storage area holding a number or text. The problem is, a variable will hold only
one value.
An array is a special variable, which can store multiple values in one single variable.
In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:
Numeric array - An array with a numeric index
Associative array - An array where each ID key is associated with a value
Multidimensional array - An array containing one or more arrays
Numeric Arrays
A numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index.
There are two methods to create a numeric array.
1. In the following example the index are automatically assigned (the index starts at 0):
$cars=array("Saab","Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
2. In the following example we assign the index manually:
$cars[0]="Saab";
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
Example
In the following example you access the variable values by referring to the array name and
index:
<?php
$cars[0]="Saab";
2
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
echo $cars[0] . " and " . $cars[1] . " are Swedish cars.";
?>
The code above will output:
Saab and Volvo are Swedish cars.
Associative Arrays
An associative array, each ID key is associated with a value.
When storing data about specific named values, a numerical array is not always the best way to
do it.
With associative arrays we can use the values as keys and assign values to them.
Example 1
In this example we use an array to assign ages to the different persons:
$ages = array("Peter"=>32, "Quagmire"=>30, "Joe"=>34);
Example 2
This example is the same as example 1, but shows a different way of creating the array:
$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
The ID keys can be used in a script:
<?php
$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
echo "Peter is " . $ages['Peter'] . " years old.";
3
?>
The code above will output:
Peter is 32 years old.
Multidimensional Arrays
In a multidimensional array, each element in the main array can also be an array. And each
element in the sub-array can be an array, and so on.
Example
In this example we create a multidimensional array, with automatically assigned ID keys:
$families = array
(
"Griffin"=>array ("Peter","Lois","Megan"),
"Quagmire"=>array("Glenn"),
"Brown"=>array("Cleveland","Loretta","Junior")
);
The array above would look like this if written to the output:
Array
(
[Griffin] => Arra (
[0] => Peter
[1] => Lois
[2] => Megan
)
[Quagmire] => Array(
[0] => Glenn
)
[Brown] => Array(
[0] => Cleveland
[1] => Loretta
[2] => Junior
)
4
Example 2
Lets try displaying a single value from the array above:
echo "Is " . $families['Griffin'][2] .
" a part of the Griffin family?";
The code above will output:
Is Megan a part of the Griffin family?
array() creates an array, with keys and values. If you skip the keys when you specify an array, an
integer key is generated, starting at 0 and increases by 1 for each value.
Syntax
array(key => value)
Example 1
<?php
$a=array("a"=>"Dog","b"=>"Cat","c"=>"Horse");
print_r($a);
?>
The output of the code above will be:
Array ( [a] => Dog [b] => Cat [c] => Horse )
Example 2
<?php
$a=array("Dog","Cat","Horse");
print_r($a);
?>
The output of the code above will be:
Array ( [0] => Dog [1] => Cat [2] => Horse )
