PHP Indexed Arrays
PHP Indexed Arrays
In indexed arrays each item has an index number.
By default, the first item has index 0, the second item has item 1, etc.
Example
Create and display an indexed array:
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
var_dump($cars);
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Access Indexed Arrays
To access an array item you can refer to the index number.
Example
Display the first array item:
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
echo $cars[0];
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Change Value
To change the value of an array item, use the index number:
Example
Change the value of the second item:
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
$cars[1] = "Ford";
var_dump($cars);
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Loop Through an Indexed Array
To loop through and print all the values of an indexed array, you could use a foreach
loop, like this:
Example
Display all array items:
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
foreach ($cars as $x) {
echo "$x <br>";
}
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For a complete reference of all array functions, go to our complete PHP Array Reference.
Index Number
The key of an indexed array is a number, by default the first item is 0 and the second is 1 etc., but there are exceptions.
New items get the next index number, meaning one higher than the highest existing index.
So if you have an array like this:
$cars[0] = "Volvo";
$cars[1] = "BMW";
$cars[2] = "Toyota";
And if you use the array_push()
function to add a new item,
the new item will get the index 3:
But if you have an array with random index numbers, like this:
$cars[5] = "Volvo";
$cars[7] = "BMW";
$cars[14] = "Toyota";
And if you use the array_push()
function to add a new item,
what will be the index number of the new item?