[RESOLVED] Associative Arrays =>

AIS4U

While reading a couple of different PHP books I came across the use of => being used to create an Associative Array.

For example:
$prices = array ( "Tires"=>100, "Oil"=>10, "Spark Plugs"=>4 );

Does anyone know what the => means?

It appears that it is only used when you create the associative array initially.

Thanks for the information.

dream_scape

Hi. There is only one kind of array in PHP, so while we sometimes say indexed array and associative arrays, as far as PHP is concerned, both are the same type of array.

The => is just used to assign a value to a key.

According to php.net, the array construct is:

array( [key =>] value
, ...
)
// key may be an integer or string
// value may be any value

So, you see, specifying the key is purely optional, and it defaults to sequential index numbers if you don't use it, so the following are exactly the same:

array('one', 'two', 'three');
array(0 => 'one', 1 => 'two', 2 => 'three');

So, in your example, it is assigning some values to string keys, which you then retrieve like:

echo $prices['Tires']; // 100
echo $prices['Oil']; // 10
echo $prices['Spark Plugs']; // 4

And without any specific keys set, you would directly access array values like $array[0], $array[1], etc...

make sense?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php

AIS4U

dream.scape:

Thank You for your time and effort.

make sense?

Well, I guess it makes sense?

I think I understand the concept of arrays and when and how to use them and I was quite sure that the => was being used as an assignment operator. I just thought that perhaps it might have some particular significance even though I have never found it in any listing of PHP assignment operators.

Thanks again for your information.

dream_scape

It is only used in array construction, to my knowledge anyways, which is probably why you don't find it listed under Operators in the manual, but under Arrays. 😉