Question

This seem so simple, and yet I can’t find a solution anywhere.

What I want to do is add the contents (r-value) of a variable to an associative array instead of a reference to the variable.

For example, I want this:

$myStr1 = "sometext";
$myStr2 = "someothertext";

$myArray = array(
    "key1"=>$myStr1,
    "key2"=>$myStr2
);

echo($myArray["key1"]);

To produce this:

"sometext"

Instead of this:

"1"        // why??

Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT:

The above works; my bad. Here’s the real problem – my $myStr1 variable isn’t just assiged a string literal like in the above; it’s created using the following syntax:

$myStr1 = "sometext" + anObject->intProperty + "moretext";

Basically I use the + to concatenate various types into a string. Maybe + isn’t doing what I think it’s doing?

EDIT:

It was definitely the + operator. I casted all non-strings to strings and used . to concatenate instead.

Answer 1

You’ve got it correct the first time. Try this:

$myStr1 = "sometext";
$myStr2 = "someothertext";

$myArray = array(
    "key1"=>$myStr1,
    "key2"=>$myStr2
);

unset($myStr1);

echo($myArray["key1"]);

Even though we unset() the $myStr1 variable, it still echoed sometext.

It should be noted that while it is possible to set $myStr1 by reference, it’s not the default.