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 Build a Basic PHP Website (2018) Listing and Sorting Inventory Items Introducing Arrays

Dwayne Munro
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Dwayne Munro
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 13,108 Points
Posted by Dwayne Munro
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Dwayne Munro
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 13,108 Points

The second echo statement was set up to display the number of letters, but it always showed "2", and we have additional

What is wrong with my code

index.php 
<?php

$letters = array();
$letters[] = "A";
$letters[] = "C";
$letters[] = "M";
$letters[] = "E";


echo "Today's challenge is brought to you by the ";
$count_letters = function() {
  echo count($letters);
}
echo " letters: ";
echo "AC";
echo ".";

?>

1 Answer

Serhii Lihus
Serhii Lihus
6,352 Points

Hi there Dwayne!

First of all. Your code wont output result because of two things:

1) You've define closure, but didn't call it.

$count_letters = function() {
  echo count($letters);
}

$count_letters(); // but this call wont output the result and if you read further you'll understand why ;)

2) You need to remember about local and global scope. In your case it's local, and you can only pass your array of letters by reference, or more precisely through a parameter. Your function won't see the array outside of it's scope.

Here is the working code sample:

$letters = array();
$letters[] = "A";
$letters[] = "C";
$letters[] = "M";
$letters[] = "E";

echo "Today's challenge is brought to you by the ";

$count_letters = function($letters) {
  echo count($letters);
};

$count_letters($letters); // this call will output the right result ;)
echo " letters: ";
echo "AC";
echo ".";

Additional info about closures you can read here where you can read in detail about clouser.

Best regards.