PHP Arrays

An array stores multiple values in one single variable:

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:

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.

Create an Array in PHP

In PHP, the array() function is used to create an array:

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

Get The Length of an Array - The count() Function

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

Complete PHP Array Reference

For a complete reference of all array functions, go to our complete PHP Array Reference.

The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!

$fruits = array("Apple", "Banana", "Orange");
echo ;