Page 86 - Open Soource Technologies 304.indd
P. 86

Unit 6: Building Blocks of PHP



            [2] => 3                                                                              Notes
            )

            Array

            (
            [0] => 1

            [1] => 2

            [2] => 3
            )

            So, you can see that you can use both the array() construct and the $arr[key] notation to create
            arrays. Usually, array() is used to declare arrays whose elements are known at compile-time,
            and the $arr[key] notation is used when the elements are only computed at runtime. PHP also
            supports a special notation, $arr[], where the key is not specified. When creating new array
            offsets using this notation (fo example, using it as the l-value), the key is automatically assigned
            as one more than the largest previous integer key.
            Therefore, the previous example can be rewritten as follows:

            $arr1 = array(1, 2, 3);

            $arr2[] = 1;
            $arr2[] = 2;

            $arr2[] = 3;
            The result is the same as in the previous example.

            The same holds true for arrays with string keys:

            $arr1 = array(“name” => “John”, “age” => 28);
            $arr2[“name”] = “John”;

            $arr2[“age”] = 28;
            if ($arr1 == $arr2) {

            print ‘$arr1 and $arr2 are the same’ . “\n”;

            }
            The message confirming the equality of both arrays is printed.

            Reading Array Values

            You can use the $arr[key] notation to read array values. The next few examples build on top
            of the previous example:

            print $arr2[“name”];

            if ($arr2[“age”] < 35) {



                                             LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY                                    81
   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91