PHP 7 Fundamental Tutorial for Beginners – PHP Arrays?

What is PHP Arrays

Arrays are complex variables that allow us to store more than one value or a group of values under a single variable name. Let’s suppose you want to store colors in your PHP script. Storing the colors one by one in a variable could look something like this:

Example:-

An array stores multiple values in one single variable:

Example:

Create an Array in PHP

In PHP, the array() function is used to create an array:

But what, if you want to store the states or city names of a country in variables and this time this not just three may be hundred. It is quite hard, boring, and bad idea to store each city name in a separate variable. And here array comes into play.

Types of Arrays in PHP

There are three types of arrays that you can create. These are:

1. Indexed array — An array with a numeric key.
2. Associative array — An array where each key has its own specific value
3. Multidimensional arrays – Arrays containing one or more arrays

Indexed Arrays

An indexed or numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index. The following examples shows two ways of creating an indexed array, the easiest way is:

Example:-

Associative Arrays

In an associative array, the keys assigned to values can be arbitrary and user defined strings. In the following example the array uses keys instead of index numbers:

Example:-

Multidimensional Arrays

The multidimensional array is an array in which each element can also be an array and each element in the sub-array can be an array or further contain array within itself and so on. An example of a multidimensional array will look something like this:

Example:-

Viewing Array Structure and Values

You can see the structure and values of an array by using one of two statements — var_dump() or print_r(). The print_r() the statement, however, gives somewhat less information. Consider the following Example:

The print_r() statement gives the following output:Array ( [0] => London [1] => Paris [2] => New York )

This output shows the key and the value for each element in the array. To get more information, use the following statement:

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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