Summary

  • Arrays are a great way of storing variables that natural collect together, such as colours, days of the week, members of a team, or items in a shopping basket.

  • Multidimensional arrays allow you to store array within arrays to store very complex data in one convenient location.

  • Use the extract() function to pull all items out of an array and into the global scope, as it is faster and also easier to work with.

  • Cycle through your arrays using foreach() or similar means, as holes in your array can cause more simple loops to access empty values.

  • The var_dump() function is a great way to see what is inside your variables, whether they are arrays or not - make liberal use of it when debugging to save headaches!

 

Want to learn PHP 7?

Hacking with PHP has been fully updated for PHP 7, and is now available as a downloadable PDF. Get over 1200 pages of hands-on PHP learning today!

If this was helpful, please take a moment to tell others about Hacking with PHP by tweeting about it!

Next chapter: Exercises >>

Previous chapter: Saving arrays

Jump to:

 

Home: Table of Contents

Copyright ©2015 Paul Hudson. Follow me: @twostraws.