About
In Php, an array is an (ordered|sorted) map (keys/value)
Array can contain others arrays.
Element Structure
(Key|Index)
The key can either be an integer or a string (in the same array - PHP does not distinguish between indexed and associative arrays. ).
While automatically indexing occurs, php will start with the integer 0 and add an increment of 1.
'bar' is a string, while bar is an undefined constant. PHP automatically converts a bar string (an unquoted string which does not correspond to any known symbol) into a string which contains the bar string.
Beware that for other data type, the key will be casted Ie a float of 1.5 will be casted to 1).
Value
The value can be of any type.
Because the value of an array can be anything, it can also be another array. This enables the creation of recursive and multi-dimensional arrays.
// Create a new multi-dimensional array
$juices["apple"]["green"] = "good";
Length
sizeof($array)
Offset
offset is not a property but is used by function such as array_splice
To retrieve the offset from a key, search the array of key
$offset = array_search($key, array_keys($myArray), true);
Management
Initialization
If multiple elements in the array declaration use the same key, only the last one will be used as all others are overwritten.
Empty
// Before 5.4
$myArray = array();
// As of PHP 5.4
$myArray = []; -- empty array, inside the square brackets, you have an expression. $arr[somefunc($bar)] will work
Non Empty
$array = [
"key" => "value",
"foo" => "bar",
"bar" => "foo",
];
//or
$array = array (
"key" => "value",
"foo" => "bar",
"bar" => "foo",
);
Add / Append
Array assignment always involves value copying. (ie not by reference).
At the beginning
- append one element at the beginning
array_unshift($array, "first");
- append two elements at the beginning
array_unshift($queue, "0", "1");
At the end
- Append one element at the end
$input[] = $x; // assign the next index automatically (ie the last one + 1)
- append two elements at the end
array_push($input, $x, $y);
- array_splice append an array at the end
array_splice($input, count($input), 0, array($x, $y));
// insert into ''$origin'' at index 3, deleting 0, inserting the array ''$inserted''
array_splice( $original, 3, 0, $inserted );
- array_merge: Only if the arrays contain numeric keys: the value will not overwrite the original value, but will be appended.
$result = array_merge($array1, $array2);
Key / Value Existence (In Operator | Contains )
if array_key_exists('key', $myarray) {
echo "The 'key' element is in the array";
}
- in_array — Checks if a value exists in an array
if in_array('value', $myarray) {
echo "'value' is in the array";
}
- in_array — Checks if a object exists in an array
if in_array($object, $myarray, TRUE) {
echo "'object' is in the array";
}
Remove
Remove one element by index
- unset:
- preserve the internal pointer position
- does not rearrange the key sequence
unset($myArray[0]);
$myArray[0] == null
-
- does not preserve the internal pointer position (the pointer is reset to the begining)
- rearrange the key sequence (from 0,1,2)
array_splice ( $array , 0 , 1 , [] );
$myArray[0] == "value of second element"
Remove one element by value
if (($key = array_search($valueToDelete, $array)) !== false) {
unset($array[$key]);
}
Remove the whole array
unset($myArray);
- a value
if (($key = array_search($value, $array)) !== false) {
unset($array[$key]);
}
Remove at the end (pop)
$lastElement = array_pop($array);
Remove at the start (shift)
$lastElement = array_shift($array);
(List|Print)
- To the console
var_dump($array);
print_r($array); // Echo Human readable information
- In a variable (Retrieve the information in a variable, ie Return the output instead of printing it)
arrayInfo = print_r($array,true);
- Json
$json = json_encode($_REQUEST)
Reindex
Reindexed using the array_values() function
Slice
array_slice ( array $array , int $offset [, int $length = NULL [, bool $preserve_keys = FALSE ]] ) : array
Loop
For / While
- PHP - While (and array_shift)
List
See list
// My
list($var1, $var2, $var3, $var4) = $myArrayOf4Variables;
// From the doc
$info = array('coffee', 'brown', 'caffeine');
list($drink, $color, $power) = $info;
echo "$drink is $color and $power makes it special.\n";
Functional Programming
Count
count($array);
Replace
Scalar value At position
$myArray[1] = "one";
$myArray[3] = "three";
Array by Array (splice)
Compare / Diff / Equality
It is possible to compare arrays with the array_diff() function and with array operators.
Sorting
Arrays are ordered. The order can be changed using various sorting functions.
<?php
sort($files);
print_r($files);
?>
Copy
Array assignment always involves value copying. Use the reference operator to copy an array by reference.
$a =& $b; -- =& is the reference operator
a and b point to the same variable space.
Join (to String)
$array = array('lastname', 'email', 'phone');
$comma_separated = implode(",", $array);
echo $comma_separated; // lastname,email,phone
Sort
Sort by value
Ordinal Data - Sorting (Problem / Algorithm) an array in php in ascendant
// if the array contains number
usort($myArray, function($a, $b) {
return $b - $a; // $a - $b descendant
});
// if the value contains array and that you want to sort on a key
usort($myArray, function($a, $b) {
return $b['key'] - $a['key'];
});
Sort by key
Merge / Union
if the arrays contain numeric keys, the value will not overwrite the original value, but will be appended.
$array1 = array("color" => "red", 2, 4);
$array2 = array("a", "b", "color" => "green", "shape" => "trapezoid", 4);
$result = array_merge($array1, $array2);