Table of Contents
Introduction
An array is one kind of data structure, which can store multiple items of related data types. The printing of an array is one of the fundamental functions of PHP.
How to print an array in PHP?
You can print an array with the values in different ways using the var_dump() or print_r() or json_encode() or foreach loop functions. These functions can print the value of an array in the human-readable format or print the output value of the program array.
1) print_r() function:
print_r() function is one of the built-in functions in PHP used to print or show the contents of a variable. It typically prints a human-readable format about a variable and the value, if it is a string, integer, or float. If you provide an array, it can show the values in a format that includes keys and elements.
Syntax
print_r($variableName, $boolVariable)
The first parameter $variableName is a mandatory parameter, and another parameter $boolVariable is an optional variable set to false by default.
Example
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<?php $myarray = array("x" => "Department", "y" => "Employee", "z" => "Salary"); print_r ($myarray); ?> |
Output
Array
(
[x] => Department
[y] => Employee
[z] => Salary
)
2) var_dump() function:
The var_dump() function is one of the built-in functions in PHP used to output the information about variables. This function performs the information regarding one or more expressions that include a type and value of an expression. An array will extend the values recursively that shows its structure through indentation.
Syntax
var_dump($variableName)
The above syntax takes only one parameter $variableName and returns the structured information of the variable.
Example
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<?php $myarray = array(1, 2, 3, 4, array("arpit", "raja", "jai","adithya")); var_dump($myarray); ?> |
Output
array(5) {
[0]=> int(1)
[1]=> int(2)
[2]=> int(3)
[3]=> int(4)
[4]=>
array(4) {
[0]=>
string(5) “arpit”
[1]=>
string(4) “raja”
[2]=>
string(3) “jai”
[3]=>
string(7) “adithya”
}
}
3) json_encode() function:
json_encode() function can return a string that contains a JSON representation of value. This function is used to encode an array that results in a human-readable JSON string format in PHP.
Syntax
string json_encode( $value, $option, $depth )
$value is a mandatory parameter, which defines a value to be encoded.
Example
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<?php $myarray = array("Employee Name" => "Arpit", "Employee Id" => "110", "Address" => array("Street No 1", "Madhapur", "Hyderabad")); echo json_encode($myarray); ?> |
Output
{“Employee Name”:”Arpit”,”Employee Id”:”110″,”Address”:[“Street No 1″,”Madhapur”,”Hyderabad”]}
4) foreach() loop:
The foreach() loop can provide a simple way to access array indexes. In PHP, the foreach() loop only works for arrays or objects. If you are trying to use a variable with different data types, it will throw an error.
Syntax
foreach (array_expression as $value)
The above syntax is for foreach loop that will continue its iteration till the length of an array and assign the value of each element to $value variable. This variable can able to access inside a body of the foreach loop.
Example
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<?php echo "Welcome to Java2Blog \n"; $arr = array("Java", "PHP", "Python", "Scala", "JavaScript"); foreach ($arr as $value) { echo "$value \n"; } ?> |
Output
Welcome to Java2Blog
Java
PHP
Python
Scala
JavaScript
That’s all about how to print an array in PHP.
