I hate arrays!!!

hatmaster

One thing that has held me back as a programmer is that I have never quite gotten a grip on working with arrays. I've used them only a few times in minor programs, and as such I simply don't understand them too well. As a result, I end up with very convoluted solutions that might be easier if I used the stupid things. :glare:

Do any of you have any suggestions on how I can learn arrays better, such as some basic exercises that I can work on, then slowly work into more complicated tasks. I'm looking for no-cost options, as I can't afford any books at this time (although I might be able to request a book from our regional library system, but the selection is all too limited, unfortunately)

Thanks ahead of time for your ideas!

hatmaster

TheDefender

What part of array manipulation is messing you up? For me personally, I stumbled on them a little right away too, but after digging in the manual, and spending a few "unproductive" hours just writing little scripts here and therre to manipulate arrays, it just clicked in my head.

Dig into the manual and look at the array functions, and be a bit more specific about what kind of troubles you're having, and we'd be more than happy to help you along. Who knows, maybe you are already on the right track, and just need some nudging along...

Shrike

The thing that threw me in the first place about arrays was multi-dimensionalism. I think this is a bad term to describe them - in reality they are just nested arrays, that is, arrays within arrays. After thinking it that manner everything became more straightforward.

Another fairly big one is the difference between a list and a hash. Even though PHP makes no differentiation between the two it is good to treat them separately. Think of a list as just a set of values and a hash as a set of values each having a key to reference them by.

As TheDefender says the manual offers good explanations for arrays and their associated functions.