initializing 2d arrays in php

[gsherp]

How do i initialize a 2d array in php,
if i use the 2d array in a class declaration.

 
class ANIMALS {
  var $array[ ] [ ] = 0;    //?? how do I initialize the array if I don't know what the size is going to be...

.....
}

since I don't know how big size is going to be, ie...how many rows...
How do I initialize it? say array was rows x 5 (columns)... rows is supposed to be determined on the fly...depending on how many records get fetched from the database. How do I initialize this array?

Thanks.

[TheServant]

I don't know what you mean by initialize it? Just declare your arrays:

$array['var1']['name'] = "var1";
$array['var1']['value'] = 66;
$array['var2']['name'] = "var2";
$array['var2']['value'] = 154;
$array['var3']['name'] = "var3";
...

What have you tried? Are you getting an error? How are you fetching from the database?

[gsherp]

Don't I need to initialize it.....like set it to the value of 0. In case someone tries to access that array before it is ready. I don't want it to return a null or some random value.

You declare the array name. The size is unknown. How do you initialize it without putting the array in a loop to set all the values at all the indexes to 0?

hope that was clear.

[TheServant]

You can look up the function "array_fill()", and then combine it with count() - which finds the length and I am sure you can come up with a solution. Check out all the array functions if you haven't already.

[Dormilich]

you don't need to initialize. to check if you have an array at all, use is_array(). you can also set an empty array by

$a = array();

[gsherp]

I guess it goes down to this question....doe s one need to initialize a variable in php before using it?


do i have to do this:

$variable = 0;
....
$variable = $variable2 + $variable3;

or can I just forgo the $variable=0; statement?

Thanks for all the help

[TheServant]

No, there is no initialization/declaration required in PHP. Just define it with no declaration. No parameter definitions (content type or size) are required.
So if $variable2 and $variable3 already have values, then you can make $variable equal to them added, you don't need to pre define $variable.

Hope that helps.

[gsherp]

Yeah...that is good. Thanks for all the help

[TheServant]

No worries. Hope to see you around sometime.