PHP Arrays

An array is used to store multiple values, generally of same type, in a single variable.

For example if you have a list of festivals that you want to store together, or may be a list of stationary items, or list of colors, then you can either keep them in separate variables, but then you will have to create a lot of variables and they won't be related to each other.

In such case, PHP arrays are used. Arrays can store multiple values together in a single variable and we can traverse all the values stored in the array using the foreach loop.

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Creating an Array

We can create an array in PHP using the array() function.

Syntax:

<?php
/* 
    this function takes multiple values
    separated by comma as input to create
    an aray
*/
array();

?>

In PHP there are 3 types of array:

1. Indexed Array: These are arrays with numeric index.
2. Associative Array: These are arrays which have a named key as index, the key can be numeric or text.
3. Multidimensional Array: These are arrays which contain one or more arrays.

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Time for an Example

Let's take a simple example for an array to help you understand how an array is created.

<?php
/* 
    a simple array with car names
*/
$lamborghinis = array("Urus", "Huracan", "Aventador");

?>

To access the data stored in an array, we can either use the index numbers or we can use a foreach loop to traverse the array elements.

Index number for array elements starts from 0, i.e the first element is at the position 0, the second element at position 1 and so on...

<?php
/* 
    a simple array with Lamborghini car names
*/
$lamborghinis = array("Urus", "Huracan", "Aventador");
// print the first car name
echo $lamborghinis[0];
echo "Urus is the latest Super SUV by Lamborghini";

?>

Urus Urus is the latest Super SUV by Lamborghini

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Advantages of Array

Here are a few advantages of using array in our program/script:

1. It's very easy to define simple list of related data, rather than creating multiple variables.
2. It's super easy to use and traverse using the foreach loop.
3. PHP provides built-in functions for sorting array, hence it can be used for sorting information as well.

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