is string an array in php

Question

you can do numeric index in string like in array.
ex.

$text = "esenihc gnikcuf yloh";
echo $text[0];
echo $text[1];
echo $text[2];
...................
...................
...................

But if you put string in print_r() not same will happen like in array and you cant do count() with string.

I read the documentation and it says. count() return 1 if not an array in the parameter

print_r() if string is in parameter it just prints that string.

this is not the exact word but something like this.

Why both these functions dont treat string same as an array?

So final question is string an array?

I know that, and thats not my question.

user1628256
– user1628256

2012-09-19 08:27:24 +00:00
Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 8:27 — user1628256
– user1628256, Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 8:27

clentfort · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-19 08:29:38Z

5

Unlike for example C, PHP has an inbuilt string datatype. The string datatype allows you array-like access to the single characters in the string but will always be a string. So if you pass it to a function that accepts the mixeddatatype this function will determine the datatype of the passed argument and treat it that way. That is way print_r() will print it in the way it was programmed to output strings and not like an array.

If you want a function that works does the same as count for arrays have a look at strlen.

If you want you can "turn" your string into an array through str_split.

answered Sep 19, 2012 at 8:29

clentfort

2,49418 silver badges19 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Mihai Iorga · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-19 08:25:44Z

2

A string is an array if you treat it as an array, eg: echo $text[0], but print_r Prints human-readable information about a variable, so it will output that variable.

It's called Type Juggling

$a    = 'car'; // $a is a string
$a[0] = 'b';   // $a is still a string
echo $a;       // bar

To count a string's length use strlen($string) then you can for a for()

answered Sep 19, 2012 at 8:25

Mihai Iorga

39.8k17 gold badges109 silver badges109 bronze badges

2 Comments

user1628256 Over a year ago

So your answer is, string is an array. It just that count() and print_r() didnt work with string like in normal array.

Mihai Iorga Over a year ago

count() works only on arrays types, if you treating as an array like $string[0] it will show up as array. print_r will print that string or array, in this case string. You can use str_split() to make it array

Mayank K. Swami · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-19 08:27:10Z

1

no a string is no array

A string is series of characters, where a character is the same as a byte and An array in PHP is actually an ordered map. A map is a type that associates values to keys.

answered Sep 19, 2012 at 8:27

Mayank K. Swami

57.3k23 gold badges130 silver badges148 bronze badges

4 Comments

Mayank K. Swami Over a year ago

@Joe sorry i dont understand please tell more

user1628256 Over a year ago

the answer above says it array, then you said it is not.

Joe Over a year ago

I was surprised that PHP strings are like C strings (i.e. an array of bytes not Unicode characters) hence the inability to store and manipulate Unicode strings.

Joe Over a year ago

No, your answer is a perfect quote of the documentation. I thought it might be wrong (I assumed PHP could handle Unicode (hence the question mark)) but I never said it was wrong!

Barry · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-14 12:12:49Z

0

simply everything in the sense every variable in PHP is an array.

edited Sep 14, 2018 at 12:12

Barry

3,3287 gold badges26 silver badges43 bronze badges

answered Sep 19, 2012 at 12:04

krishna

1461 gold badge1 silver badge13 bronze badges

Comments

Maximiliano Bertiaux · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-12 01:04:52Z

0

Maybe too late but:

<?php
    $text = "esenihc gnikcuf yloh";
    $arrText = explode(" ", $text);

    foreach($arrText as $word) {
        echo $word . "<br>";
    }
?>

answered Jan 12, 2019 at 1:04

Maximiliano Bertiaux

806 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

is string an array in php

5 Answers 5

Comments

2 Comments

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

Comments

2 Comments

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related