PHP curly braces in array notation

Question

I'd just come across a very weird bit of php code:

$oink{'pig'} = 1;
var_dump($oink);

$oink{'pig'} = '123123';
echo $oink{'pig'}; /* => 123123 */
echo $oink['pig']; /* => 123123 */

It works like an array, but nowhere mentioned in the manual. What is this?

@Jauzsika, if you ever come back, please accept Pacerier's answer as it is of much better quality. — Phil

Pacerier Pacerier · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-07T20:38:38

It is mentioned in the manual. {} is just an alternative syntax to [] §:

Both square brackets and curly braces can be used interchangeably for accessing array elements (e.g. $array[42] and $array{42} will both do the same thing in the example above).

The same goes the strings §:

Characters within strings may be accessed and modified by specifying the zero-based offset of the desired character after the string using square array brackets, as in $str[42]. Think of a string as an array of characters for this purpose. [...]

Note: Strings may also be accessed using braces, as in $str{42}, for the same purpose.

PHP curly braces in array notation

5 Answers