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From: Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.php
Subject: Re: Using count() as an array index
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:46:15 +0200
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Jerry Stuckle, 16.06.2012 20:44:

> On 6/16/2012 1:56 PM, Martin Leese wrote:
>> Chuck Anderson wrote:
>>
>>> You can not use a function call within a quoted string.
>>>
>>> You should use:
>>>
>>> echo $anArray[count($array)] . "\n";
>>
>> Thank you. I actually understood this
>> explanation.
>>
> 
> Actually, you can easily use a function call within a quoted string, but
> since it is not a simple variable, you need to use curly braces, i.e.
> 
> <?php
>     $anArray[1] = "This is element one";
>     $anArray[2] = "This is element two";
>     $anArray[3] = "This is the last element";
>     echo "{$anArray[count($anArray)]}\n";
> ?>
> 
> prints "This is the last element" (without the quotes, of course).

Please compare:

$anArray[count($array)] . "\n";

"{$anArray[count($anArray)]}\n";

You see the difference? Your suggestion is longer (even whitespaces
which can me omitted) and totally unreadable for people you are not
familiar with this.

> Be aware, though - the typical array in PHP starts counting at 0, not 1.
>  So an array of 3 elements would be numbered 0, 1 and 2.  In this case,
> an element with an index of 3 (count($anArray)) is not set (and will
> give a warning if you try to use it).

ACK.

> You need to get used to this idea; it's used throughout PHP.

Just because something is possible does not mean you have to use it ;-)
Curly braces should only be used for code blocks and not to replace
string concatenation.


-- 
Arno Welzel
http://arnowelzel.de
http://de-rec-fahrrad.de