Arrays and iterables
Now that we have looked at the simple scalar types, we should look at the single most utilized compound type in PHP – the array – and its close relation, iterables.
Arrays
Arrays in PHP are hugely powerful and useful. You can use it to pass a handful of values around, or you can let it grow to tremendous sizes and eat all your system's RAM if you so choose.
Have a look at the official docs for arrays:
PHP: Arrays - Manual
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php
What the docs say, in more words than me, is that arrays are the single tool that ticks a load of data structure boxes. An array consists of keys and associated values. The keys can be int
or string
. If they are not specified, then they are int
starting at 0.
There are a huge number of built-in functions that assist with efficiently processing arrays. You should always try to use the built-in functions instead of creating your own, so try to learn the...