Core PHP Programming, Third Edition

5.3. Initializing Arrays

In the situations where you want to fill an array with several values before you use it, it can become cumbersome to write an assignment for each element. PHP offers the array function to help in this matter. It takes a list of values and returns an array. Listing 5.4 uses array to build an array of the months of the year.

Each value is just as it would be if it were on the right side of the assignment operator. Commas separate the values. By default, as with using empty brackets, elements are numbered starting with zero. You can override this by using the => operator. In Listing 5.4 I have set January to have the index 1. Each subsequent element is indexed by the next integer.

Listing 5.4. Initializing an array

<?php ...