# PHP Simple Arrays

# What is a Simple Array

Simple arrays are arrays that are indexed using numbers and is the default behavior for arrays in PHP.

# Declaring an Array

There are two way to declare an array in PHP, with the array function OR using the array literal.

$names = array();
$names = [];

Both methods create an empty array so that you can place items inside of it. If you want, you can create a simple array that contains items by added a comma-separated list, using either the array function or the array literal.

$names = array("Oscar", "Brent", "Davis", "Hank");
$names = ["Oscar", "Brent", "Davis", "Hank"];

Both examples will create an array with the four initial names but can still have more added afterwards.

# Retrieving Array Values

The items inside the array are numbered from zero to three. We could write these items out like this:

echo $names[0]; // Oscar
echo $names[3]; // Hank

# Retrieving Array Length

If you want to find out how many items are inside an array, you can use either the sizeof() OR count() function. NOTE: Both functions are exactly the same, as sizeof() is simply an alias of count().

echo sizeof( $names ); //outputs 4
echo count( $names ); //outputs 4

# Updating Array Values

If you want to update an item in an existing array, use the same syntax to retrieve followed by the assignment operator and the new value.

$names[1] = "Fitzy"; // $names = ["Oscar", "Fitzy", "Davis", "Hank"]
$names[3] = "Bob"; // $names = ["Oscar", "Fitzy", "Davis", "Bob"]

This will replace the name "Brent" with the name "Fitzy" and the name "Hank" with the name "Bob"

# Adding a New Item to an Array

If you want to add a new item to an existing simple array then we use a similar syntax to the update. We add the square brackets after the array name but we leave them empty.

$names[] = "Bill"; // $names = ["Oscar", "Fitzy", "Davis", "Bob", "Bill"]

This will add the name "Bill" to the end of the array.