PHP assiging a variable to an array

[Claus Mygind]

Do you encapsulate a variable with " " when assigning a variable to an array.


Which of these is correct

$x = array("foo" => '"'.$bar.'"');

or

$x = array("foo" => $bar);

All examples shown are always constants

I would assume option #2 is the correct method.

[Rabbit]

This is easy to test. Code both and test the results.

[Claus Mygind]

Yes but I do not have an easy way to display results. Question do you know which is correct?

[Rabbit]

Technically the second. The first will work as well as long as the variable is a string.

[lightfighter]

The first one is just a string concatenation, so that the value of $bar would be converted into string. Here is the output for $bar=2;

$x => Array (1)
(
|    ['foo'] = String(3) ""2""
)
$x => Array (1)
(
|    ['foo'] = Integer(1) 2
)
 

As you see the second one takes the value of $bar as it is. More clearly you can see the difference if $bar is an array like :

$bar = array("drink" => "milk", "desert" => "pudding");
 

The output is :

$x => Array (1)
(
|    ['foo'] = String(7) ""Array""
)
$x => Array (1)
(
|    ['foo'] => Array (2)
|    (
|    |    ['drink'] = String(4) "milk"
|    |    ['desert'] = String(7) "pudding"
|    )
)
 

[Dormilich]

Which of these is correct

$x = array("foo" => '"'.$bar.'"');

or

$x = array("foo" => $bar);

both are correct. the difference is that the first one is always a string and that it is 2 chars (preceding and following ") longer.

[Claus Mygind]

Thanks for all the great responses.