What is an Array?

What is an Array?

An array is a special variable, which can hold more than one value at a time.
If you have a list of items (a list of car names, for example), storing the cars in single variables could look like this:

$cars1="Volvo";
$cars2="BMW";
$cars3="Toyota";

However, what if you want to loop through the cars and find a specific one? And what if you had not 3 cars, but 300?
The solution is to create an array!
An array can hold many values under a single name, and you can access the values by referring to an index number.

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Create an Array in PHP

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

array();

In PHP, there are three types of arrays:

• Indexed arrays - Arrays with numeric index
• Associative arrays - Arrays with named keys
• Multidimensional arrays - Arrays containing one or more arrays

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PHP Indexed Arrays

There are two ways to create indexed arrays:
The index can be assigned automatically (index always starts at 0):

$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");

or the index can be assigned manually:

$cars[0]="Volvo";
$cars[1]="BMW";
$cars[2]="Toyota";

The following example creates an indexed array named $cars, assigns three elements to it, and then prints a text containing the array values:

Example

<?php
$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
echo "I like " . $cars[0] . ", " . $cars[1] . " and " . $cars[2] . ".";
?>

Run example »

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Get The Length of an Array - The count() Function

The count() function is used to return the length (the number of elements) of an array:

Example

<?php
$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
echo count($cars);
?>

Run example »

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Loop Through an Indexed Array

To loop through and print all the values of an indexed array, you could use a for loop, like this:

Example

<?php
$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
$arrlength=count($cars);

for($x=0;$x<$arrlength;$x++)
  {
  echo $cars[$x];
  echo "<br>";
  }
?>

Run example »

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PHP Associative Arrays

Associative arrays are arrays that use named keys that you assign to them.
There are two ways to create an associative array:

$age=array("Peter"=>"35","Ben"=>"37","Joe"=>"43");

or:

$age['Peter']="35";
$age['Ben']="37";
$age['Joe']="43";

The named keys can then be used in a script:

Example

<?php
$age=array("Peter"=>"35","Ben"=>"37","Joe"=>"43");
echo "Peter is " . $age['Peter'] . " years old.";
?>

Run example »

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Loop Through an Associative Array

To loop through and print all the values of an associative array, you could use a foreach loop, like this:

Example

<?php
$age=array("Peter"=>"35","Ben"=>"37","Joe"=>"43");

foreach($age as $x=>$x_value)
  {
  echo "Key=" . $x . ", Value=" . $x_value;
  echo "<br>";
  }
?>

Run example »

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Multidimensional Arrays

Multidimensional arrays will be explained in the PHP advanced section.

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Complete PHP Array Reference

For a complete reference of all array functions, go to our complete PHP Array Reference.
The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!