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.
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 a numeric index.
Associative arrays – Arrays with named keys.
Multidimensional arrays – Arrays containing one or more arrays.
(1)PHP Indexed Arrays :
There are two ways to create indexed arrays:
The index can be assigned automatically (index always starts at 0), like this:
$cars = array(“Volvo”, “BMW”, “Toyota”);
or the index can be assigned manually:
$cars[0] = “Volvo”;
$cars[1] = “BMW”;
$cars[2] = “Toyota”;
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<?php
$cars = array(“Volvo”, “BMW”, “Toyota”);
echo “I like ” . $cars[0] . “, ” . $cars[1] . ” and ” . $cars[2] . “.”;
?>
</body>
</html>
(2)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”;
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<?php
$age = array(“Peter”=>”35”, “Ben”=>”37”, “Joe”=>”43”);
echo “Peter is ” . $age[‘Peter’] . ” years old.”;
?>
</body>
</html>
(3)Multidimensional Associative Array:
<?php
$marks=array(
“mohammad”=>array
(
“physics”=> 35,
“maths”=> 30,
“chemistry”=>39
),
“zara”=>array
(
“physics”=> 35,
“maths”=> 40,
“chemistry”=> 21
),
“quara”=>array
(
“physics”=> 45,
“maths”=> 48,
“chemistry”=> 45
)
);
echo “value of mohammad array”.'<br>’;
echo $marks[“mohammad”][“physics”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“mohammad”][“maths”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“mohammad”][“chemistry”].'<br>’;
echo” value of zara array”.'<br>’;
echo $marks [“zara”][“physics”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“zara”][“maths”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“zara”][“chemistry”].'<br>’;
echo”value of quara array”.'<br>’;
echo $marks[“quara”][“physics”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“quara”][“maths”].'<br>’;
echo $marks[“quara”][“chemistry”].'<br>’;
?>
OUTPUT :
value of mohammad array
35
30
39
value of zara array
35
40
21
value of quara array
45
48
45
(4)Multidimensional Index Array :
<?php
$abc=array
(
array(1,2,3),
array(4,5,6),
array(6,7,8)
);
echo”value of position 0,0=”.$abc[0][0].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 0,1=”.$abc[0][1].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 0,2=”.$abc[0][2].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 1,0=”.$abc[1][0].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 1,1=”.$abc[1][1].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 1,2=”.$abc[1][2].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 2,0=”.$abc[2][0].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 2,1=”.$abc[2][1].'<br>’;
echo “value of position 2,2=”.$abc[2][2];
?>
OUTPUT :
value of position 0,0=1
value of position 0,1=2
value of position 0,2=3
value of position 1,0=4
value of position 1,1=5
value of position 1,2=6
value of position 2,0=6
value of position 2,1=7
value of position 2,2=8