Multidimensional Array Not Echoing As Expected

Question

I am setting this array manually:

$schools = array( 'Indiana University'=>array( 'initials'=>'IU', 'color'=>'red', 'directory'=>'indiana' ) );

But it won't echo "IU" when I use:

echo $schools[0][0];

It does show correctly when I do:

print_r($schools);

I'm sure I'm messing up something dumb, but I have no idea what and I've been staring at it for hours. This array is actually part of a larger array with multiple universities, but when I trim it down to just this, it doesn't work.

fubar · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-15 22:29:17Z

PHP arrays support two types of keys - numerical and strings.

If you just push a value onto an array, it will use numerical keys by default. E.g.

$schools[] = 'Indiana University'; echo $schools[0]; // Indiana University

However, when you use string keys, you access the array values using the string key. E.g.

$schools = array( 'Indiana University' => array( 'initials' => 'IU', 'color' => 'red', 'directory' => 'indiana' ) ); echo $schools['Indiana University']['initials']; // UI

Thank you so so much for explaining this part to me, I had missed that part in the docs and examples! I had no idea! It worked immediately when I used the string keys. I will mark this correct in 9 mins when stack overflow allows me to.

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