Core Web Application Development with PHP and MySQL

Chapter 5. Working with Arrays

In previous chapters, we introduced you to the data types available to programmers in PHP, such as arrays and strings. While we have covered the basics of using the two types listed, they are in fact extremely powerful and deserve extra attention. Therefore, we will spend this chapter covering them in greater detail, paying attention to how PHP handles these types internally and some of the tricks and traps to avoid.

Over the course of the chapter, we will

• See how to create and populate arrays in PHP, including the differences between string and integer keys

• Learn how to iterate over arrays and visit all values

• Be introduced to a number of functions that will help us use arrays effectively