Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

PHP PHP Arrays and Control Structures PHP Arrays Multidimensional Arrays

Dale Boyd
Dale Boyd
978 Points

Having trouble with 3rd part of multidimensional array exercise

Seemed to have followed the syntax rules and exercise rules, but it tells me that I shouldn't be modifying output at this point. Confused.

index.php
<?php
//edit this array
  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Alena Holligan',
    'email' => 'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Dave McFarland',
    'email' => 'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Treasure Porth',
    'email' => 'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Andrew Chalkley',
    'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

echo "<ul>\n";
//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo "<li>$contacts[0]['name'] : $contacts[0]['email']</li>\n";
echo "<li>$contacts[1]['name'] : $contacts[1]['email']</li>\n";
echo "<li>$contacts[2]['name'] : $contacts[2]['email']</li>\n";
echo "<li>$contacts[3]['name'] : $contacts[3]['email']</li>\n";
echo "</ul>\n";

2 Answers

Dale Boyd
Dale Boyd
978 Points

Andren, thank you! Just adding those curly brackets solved my issue.

andren
andren
28,558 Points

The issue is that you can't embed multidimensional arrays within a string using normal variable interpolation in PHP. This is due to the fact that PHP cannot figure out where the variable ends and regular text begins.

To embed the array within the string you have to place curly braces around the variable you want to embed, like this:

<?php
//edit this array
  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Alena Holligan',
    'email' => 'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Dave McFarland',
    'email' => 'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Treasure Porth',
    'email' => 'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

  $contacts[] = array(
    'name' => 'Andrew Chalkley',
    'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com',
  );

echo "<ul>\n";
//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo "<li>{$contacts[0]['name']} : {$contacts[0]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[1]['name']} : {$contacts[1]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[2]['name']} : {$contacts[2]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[3]['name']} : {$contacts[3]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "</ul>\n";

This is an example of what is called the Complex Syntax for string interpolation in PHP. With that change your code will pass the challenge.