Question

Having:

$a as $key => $value;

is the same as having:

$a=array();

?

Answer 1

No, it’s not. It’s more like

list($key, $value) = each($arr);

See the manual

foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
    echo "Key: $key; Value: $value<br />\n";
}

is identical to

$arr = array("one", "two", "three");
reset($arr);
while (list($key, $value) = each($arr)) {
    echo "Key: $key; Value: $value<br />\n";
}

Also see

• The while Control Structure
• list — Assign variables as if they were an array
• each — Return the current key and value pair from an array and advance the array cursor
• reset — Set the internal pointer of an array to its first element