Question:

I have a variable that only has a certain number of values, and I was thinking of putting the contents into an array. How do I do that?

Answer:

Defining an array with pre-existing values

The easiest way is to declare the array with the contents as shown in the example below.

<?php
$busy_period = array('May', 'June', 'July');
//display the contents of the array.
print_r($busy_period);

//Remove the array from memory
unset($busy_period);
?>

Output

Array
(
    [0] => May
    [1] => June
    [2] => July
)

Adding a single element to an array

There maybe circumstances where you need to ‘add’ values to an existing array. The example below shows how to add elements to an array.

<?php
$busy_period = array('May', 'June', 'July');
$busy_period[] =  'February';

//display the contents of the array.
print_r($busy_period);

//Remove the array from memory
unset($busy_period);
?>

Output

Array
(
    [0] => May
    [1] => June
    [2] => July
    [3] => February
)

Adding multiple elements to an array

You can add multiple elements to an array at the same time with the array_push function. This function adds the elements onto the end of the array list.

<?php
$busy_period = array('May', 'June', 'July');
array_push($busy_period, 'January', 'February');

//display the contents of the array.
print_r($busy_period);

//Remove the array from memory
unset($busy_period);
?>

Output

Array
(
    [0] => May
    [1] => June
    [2] => July
    [3] => January
    [4] => February
)

PHP Reference Manual

array - Creates an array variable

array_push - Pushes an element onto the end of an array

print_r - Prints contents of an array

unset - Deletes a variable

Arrays

Adding Elements to an array with a keyed index
Learn how to add elements to an array that have a key index, or where you need to specify one.

Accessing the elements of an Array
This article shows examples of how-to access individual elements of an array.

Sorting an Array
This article demonstrates techniques on how to sort the contents of an array, both with the keys and their values.

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