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PHP PHP Basics (Retired) PHP Datatypes Associative Arrays

Posted by Adiv Abramson
Adiv Abramson
6,919 Points

Echo and print_r do not accurately reflect strings

From the video examples, both echo and print_r seem to inaccurately display the keys and values that are strings.

$my_index_list = array("red", "green", "blue");
$state_capitals = array("California" => "Sacramento",
      "Washington" => "Olympia",
     "Wisconsin" => "Madison");

print_r($my_index_list);
print_r($state_capitals);

The output will be (I think): Array( [0] => red [1] => green [2] => blue )

Array ( [California] => Sacramento [Washington] => Olympia [Wisconsin] => Madison )

Why aren't the keys and values that are of string type not outputted with quote delimiters? It looks like their constants, just not capitalized according to convention.

I would expect something more like this:

Array( [0] => 'red' [1] => 'green' [2] => 'blue' )

Array ( ['California'] => 'Sacramento' ['Washington'] => 'Olympia' ['Wisconsin'] => 'Madison' )

If I include a reference to a string value from an array in an expression, will PHP supply the quotes to delimit the string value or do I need to provide them myself?

1 Answer

Scott Evans
Scott Evans
4,236 Points
Scott Evans
Scott Evans
4,236 Points

If you are using your arrays values to access associative array indexes, you will not need to encapsulate the value within quotes. You are right in thinking PHP will do that for you.

the reason for echo and print_r() not showing the quotes is because they are purely for printing in human readable format. If you were to var_dump($state_capitals) you would also see the data type and any coresponding encapsulation.

Hope this helps you understand