Arrays in PHP
 

Just as a question... how often do you think a PHP programmer will use arrays? I am learning about them right now, and multidimensional arrays seem a bit confusing... There's this line of code in my book that I'm pretty sure explains how to get the content out of three-dimensional arrays with a for loop that I don't really understand how it works... I don't really understand what it means by layer and columns.

[PHP]for ( $layer = 0; $layer < 3; $layer++ )
{
echo "Layer $layer<br />";
for ( $row = 0; $row < 3; $row++ )
{
for ( $column = 0; $column < 3; $column++ )
{
echo '|'.$categories[$layer][$row][$column];
}
echo '|<br />';
}
}[/PHP]

I understand how a for loop works, but I don't really know what it means by $column, $row etc.

Is it just random variable examples that it's using? Or does it actually mean something in the array?

EDIT: Actually, I figured out the code, and how to use the arrays better. If you could answer my first question on how often arrays are used though, that would be nice! :D :banana:

[php]
<?php
$test = array(array(array(1337)));
echo "{$test[0][0][0]} == 1337<br />\r\n";
?>
[/php]

Just a nested array...

They are used more often than in C++ (I think), because you also use them as structs and vectors, and for other things (because entries can have a name, so not only a number you can use them to store information and dump that in e.g. an email).

Arrays are handy for storing lists of items (ie like a shopping card). I use em on a lot of sites that i have coded over the years.

You use them all the freakin' time. I just rewrote a web page to be a lot more interesting: it features arrays inside classes inside arrays. :)

I have a calendar, list of poems, list of stories, birthdays, letters, songs, blogs and they are all situated into one page that has an array for each. Anything that is a table is probably in an array of some sort. With Arrays will always come loops. I hope that helps.

Thanks guys, I was having a bit of trouble with arrays before, but I think I've got it figured out now... so it isn't a problem if I need to use them all the time.