ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus

IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies

Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

Chapter 3: PHP Arrays and Array

Structures
ARRAYS
An array stores multiple values in one single variable:

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
echo "I like " . $cars[0] . ", " . $cars[1] . " and " . $cars[2] . ".";
?>

What is an Array?

An array is a special variable, which can hold more than one value at a time. If you have a list of items (a list of car
names, for example), storing the cars in single variables could look like this:

$cars1 = "Volvo";
$cars2 = "BMW";
$cars3 = "Toyota";

However, what if you want to loop through the cars and find a specific one? And what if you had not 3 cars, but 300?
The solution is to create an array! An array can hold many values under a single name, and you can access the values
by referring to an index number.

In PHP, there are three types of arrays:

 Indexed arrays - Arrays with a numeric index

 Associative arrays - Arrays with named keys
 Multidimensional arrays - Arrays containing one or more arrays

Create an Array in PHP

<?php
$cars = array(“Volvo”,”BMW”,”Toyota”);

echo $cars[0]; // prints Volvo

echo $cars[1]; // prints BMW
echo $cars[2]; // prints Toyota

Get The Length of an Array

The count() function is used to return the length (the number of elements) of an array:

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

echo count($cars); // prints 3

?>

PHP Indexed Arrays

There are two ways to create indexed arrays:

The index can be assigned automatically (index always starts at 0), like this:

$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");

or the index can be assigned manually:

$cars[0] = "Volvo";
$cars[1] = "BMW";
$cars[2] = "Toyota";

The following example creates an indexed array named $cars, assigns three elements to it, and then prints a text
containing the array values:

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
echo "I like " . $cars[0] . ", " . $cars[1] . " and " . $cars[2] . ".";
?>

Loop Through an Indexed Array

To loop through and print all the values of an indexed array, you could use a for loop, like this:

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");

foreach($cars as $x) {
echo $x."<br />";
}
?>

PHP Associative Arrays

Associative arrays are arrays that use named keys that you assign to them.

There are two ways to create an associative array:

$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

or:

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

$age['Peter'] = "35";
$age['Ben'] = "37";
$age['Joe'] = "43";

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

The named keys can then be used in a script:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
echo "Peter is " . $age['Peter'] . " years old.";
?>

Loop Through an Associative Array

To loop through and print all the values of an associative array, you could use a foreach loop, like this:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

foreach($age as $x => $x_value) {

echo "Key=".$x.", Value=".$x_value;
echo "<br />";
}
?>

or

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

foreach($age as $x => $x_value) {

print "Key=".$x.", Value=".$x_value."<br />";
}
?>

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

PHP - Multidimensional Arrays

A multidimensional array is an array containing one or more arrays.

The dimension of an array indicates the number of indices you need to select an element.

 For a two-dimensional array you need two indices to select an element

 For a three-dimensional array you need three indices to select an element

PHP - Two-dimensional Arrays

A two-dimensional array is an array of arrays. First, take a look at the following table:

Name Stock Sold

Volvo 22 18

BMW 15 13

Saab 5 2

Land Rover 17 15
We can store the data from the table above in a two-dimensional array, like this:

$cars = array
(
array("Volvo",22,18),
array("BMW",15,13),
array("Saab",5,2),
array("Land Rover",17,15)
);

Now the two-dimensional $cars array contains four arrays, and it has two indices: row and column.

To get access to the elements of the $cars array we must point to the two indices (row and column):

<?php
echo $cars[0][0].": In stock: ".$cars[0][1].", sold: ".$cars[0][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[1][0].": In stock: ".$cars[1][1].", sold: ".$cars[1][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[2][0].": In stock: ".$cars[2][1].", sold: ".$cars[2][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[3][0].": In stock: ".$cars[3][1].", sold: ".$cars[3][2].".<br>";
?>

We can also put a for loop inside another for loop to get the elements of the $cars array (we still have to point to the
two indices):

<?php
$cars = array
(
array("Volvo",22,18),

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

array("BMW",15,13),
array("Saab",5,2),
array("Land Rover",17,15)
);
foreach($cars as $car ) {
foreach($car as $c ) {
echo $c." ";
}
echo $c."<br />";
}
?>

The elements in an array can be sorted in alphabetical or numerical order, descending or ascending.

PHP - Sort Functions For Arrays

In this chapter, we will go through the following PHP array sort functions:

 sort() - sort arrays in ascending order

 rsort() - sort arrays in descending order
 asort() - sort associative arrays in ascending order, according to the value
 ksort() - sort associative arrays in ascending order, according to the key
 arsort() - sort associative arrays in descending order, according to the value
 krsort() - sort associative arrays in descending order, according to the key

Sort Array in Ascending Order - sort()

The following example sorts the elements of the $cars array in ascending alphabetical order:

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
sort($cars);
?>

The following example sorts the elements of the $numbers array in ascending numerical order:

<?php
$numbers = array(4, 6, 2, 22, 11);
sort($numbers);
?>

Sort Array in Descending Order - rsort()

The following example sorts the elements of the $cars array in descending alphabetical order:

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ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY Echague Main Campus
IT224 – Integrative Programming and Technologies
Chapter 3 - PHP Arrays and Array Structures
Primitivo S. Gatmen Jr, Subject Teacher

<?php
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
rsort($cars);
?>

The following example sorts the elements of the $numbers array in descending numerical order:

<?php
$numbers = array(4, 6, 2, 22, 11);
rsort($numbers);
?>

Sort Array (Ascending Order), According to Value - asort()

The following example sorts an associative array in ascending order, according to the value:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
asort($age);
?>

Sort Array (Ascending Order), According to Key - ksort()

The following example sorts an associative array in ascending order, according to the key:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
ksort($age);
?>

Sort Array (Descending Order), According to Value - arsort()

The following example sorts an associative array in descending order, according to the value:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
arsort($age);
?>

Sort Array (Descending Order), According to Key - krsort()

The following example sorts an associative array in descending order, according to the key:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
krsort($age);
?>

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