Question

In php, I often need to map a variable using an array … but I can not seem to be able to do this in a one liner. c.f. example:

// the following results in an error: echo array('a','b','c')[$key];  // this works, using an unnecessary variable: $variable = array('a','b','c'); echo $variable[$key]; 

This is a minor problem, but it keeps bugging every once in a while … I don’t like the fact, that I use a variable for nothing 😉

Answer 1

I wouldn’t bother about that extra variable, really. If you want, though, you could also remove it from memory after you’ve used it:

$variable = array('a','b','c'); echo $variable[$key]; unset($variable); 

Or, you could write a small function:

function indexonce(&$ar, $index) {   return $ar[$index]; } 

and call this with:

$something = indexonce(array('a', 'b', 'c'), 2); 

The array should be destroyed automatically now.