strange array behaviour

[hutchic]

<?php
$map['user'] = 'breadcrumb_user()';
$map['user']['index'] = 'hello';

print_r($map);

echo '<br />';

print_r($map['user']);

echo '<br />';

print_r($map['user']['index']);
?>

This snippet of code does not output what I expected it to. If someone could explain it would be greatly appreciated.

Output is:

Array ( [user] => breadcrumb_user() )
breadcrumb_user()
b

[byron3@earthlink]

You enclosed the function in single quotes, the array stores the string "breadcrumb_user()" not the output of the function.

[byron3@earthlink]

Actually I ran your code on my machine, the output is :
Array ( [user] => hreadcrumb_user() )
hreadcrumb_user()
h

What is happening is you are manipulating the $map['user'] string array, it replaces the "b" with a "h". If you will change either the first variable to something with a second index ( ie.: $map['user']['trail']) or change the name of the second to something other than ['user'] the strange behavior will go away.

[hutchic]

Actually I ran your code on my machine, the output is :
Array ( [user] => hreadcrumb_user() )
hreadcrumb_user()
h

What is happening is you are manipulating the $map['user'] string array, it replaces the "b" with a "h". If you will change either the first variable to something with a second index ( ie.: $map['user']['trail']) or change the name of the second to something other than ['user'] the strange behavior will go away.

sorry typo

I expect it to store the string not the function but I was expecting it to error on print_r($map['user']['index']); not print the first letter of $map['user']

[logic_earth]

PHP automatically converts ['index'] into [0] when used upon a string. because a string is not an array it cannot have keys so it tries to compensate for your mistakes.

Could be argued if PHP should do that but thats a different discussion.