PHP arrays

* In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:
* 1)Numeric array - An array with a numeric index
* 2)Associative array - An array where each ID key is associated with a value
* 3)Multidimensional array - An array containing one or more arrays



1)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):

$array1 = array(3,5,7,2);
echo $array1[0]."
";

$array2 = array(4,"dantha" ,"brown" ,array("x","y","z"));
echo $array2[3][2]."
";


$array2[3] = "Cat";
echo $array2[3]."
";

2. In the following example we assign the index manually:

 $cars[0]="Honda";
$cars[1]="Nissan";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
echo $cars[0]." and ".$cars[1]." are Japanese cars";

2) 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:
*
key value
| |

$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:
*
key value
* | | */

$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34"; 

//The ID keys can be used in a script:

echo "Peter is " . $ages['Peter'] . " years old.";



$array3 = array("first_name" => "Dantha" ,"last_name" => "Elvitigala");
echo $array3["first_name"];
echo "
";

$array4 = array(1 => "Dantha" ,2 => "Elvitigala");
echo $array4[1];
echo "
";
echo count($array4); // count array elements