Question

It seems to work, but it feels wrong, I assume it is.

Is it wrong?

If so, I currently have an array with keys being mysql database id’s and the values being their values.

Would it be better to have the key being "record_"+$id and then explode()ing the key and getting the id from that?

Or is it ok to set your own array keys, and php will just assume they are assoc array keys, rather than indexes?

Thanks

Answer 1

Some built-in PHP functions (like array_merge / array_multisort) will re-index your array:

array_merge() If the input arrays have the same string keys, then the later value for that key will overwrite the previous one. If,
however, the arrays contain numeric keys, the later value will not
overwrite the original value, but will be appended. Values in the
input array with numeric keys will be renumbered with incrementing
keys starting from zero in the result array.

---

array_multisort() can be used to sort several arrays at once, or a multi-dimensional array by one or more dimensions. Associative
(string) keys will be maintained, but numeric keys will be re-indexed.

I would advise you not to do that, use a proper value instead, or at the very least prefix it with a short _:

foreach ($array as $key => $value)
{
    $id = ltrim($key, '_');

    // do stuff with the actual $id
}