Why can't I access array element in string here?

Question

I have an array

$array = ['first'=>'hi','second'=>'bye'];

Why following syntax is not working

 echo " i wanna print $array['first']";

The error message is

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting identifier (T_STRING) or variable (T_VARIABLE) or number (T_NUM_STRING) in

But when I tried

 echo "i wanna print $array[first]";

did work fine.

So can someone explain what difference single quotes (') making here. And what does above error really mean, any ideas?

the clean way would by `echo "i wanna print ".$array['first'];` — Franz Gleichmann, Oct 18 '16 at 14:50
@RiggsFolly I don't like how PHP makes a special exception to `$array[index]` when it's within a string. Seems dirty. — apokryfos, Oct 18 '16 at 14:55
It also was adding comedic value when paired with the first comment — apokryfos, Oct 18 '16 at 14:57
@apokryfos I thought it may have been for the comedic value when I first saw it — RiggsFolly, Oct 18 '16 at 14:58

score -2 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 18 '16 at 15:25

-2

Use:

echo "i wanna print ".$array['first'];

Instead of

echo " i wanna print $array['first']";

edited Oct 18 '16 at 15:25

Maher Abuthraa

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answered Oct 18 '16 at 14:52

Pradyut Manna

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score -2 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 18 '16 at 14:59

-2

here php will not able to parse the multi dimension array from double quote string, to acheive same functionality you have to enquote the array variable inside {} brackets.

Try below line of code it will work without error.

echo " i wanna print {$array['first']}";

I hope this help you in understanding.

edited Oct 18 '16 at 14:59

RiggsFolly

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answered Oct 18 '16 at 14:54

Anant Waykar

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RiggsFolly what is wrong with my answer – Anant Waykar Oct 18 '16 at 15:15

Why can't I access array element in string here?

2 Answers2