PHP Indexed Arrays

PHP Indexed Arrays

In indexed arrays each item has an index number.

By default, the first item has index 0, the second item has item 1, etc.

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

Access Indexed Arrays

To access an array item you can refer to the index number.

$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
echo $cars[0];

Change Value

To change the value of an array item, use the index number:

$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
$cars[1] = "Ford";
var_dump($cars);

Loop Through an Indexed Array

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

$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
foreach ($cars as $x) {
  echo "$x <br>";
}

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

Index Number

The key of an indexed array is a number, by default the first item is 0 and the second is 1 etc., but there are exceptions.

New items get the next index number, meaning one higher than the highest existing index.

So if you have an array like this:

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

And if you use the array_push() function to add a new item, the new item will get the index 3:

array_push($cars, "Ford");
var_dump($cars);

But if you have an array with random index numbers, like this:

$cars[5] = "Volvo";
$cars[7] = "BMW";
$cars[14] = "Toyota";

And if you use the array_push() function to add a new item, what will be the index number of the new item?

array_push($cars, "Ford");
var_dump($cars);

PHP Exercises

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