If you’re creating variables to save values in your WordPress code, there may well come a time when it’s more efficient for you to use an array.<\/p>\n
An array (or more specifically, an array of variables) lets you save multiple pieces of data using just one variable. It means you can save multiple records in the same way you might save multiple rows in a field, and then fetch each one by using the number in the array that it’s been stored against.<\/p>\n
In this post I’ll explain what arrays are, why they’re useful and show you a couple of worked examples where they make the code more efficient.<\/p>\n
First let’s start by identifying exactly what an array is.<\/p>\n
Wikipedia<\/a> defines an array as:<\/p>\n “a\u00a0data structure<\/a>\u00a0consisting of a collection of\u00a0elements<\/i>\u00a0(values<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0variables<\/a>), each identified by at least one\u00a0array index<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0key<\/i>. An array is stored so that the position of each element can be computed from its index\u00a0tuple<\/a>\u00a0by a mathematical formula.\u00a0<\/sup>The simplest type of data structure is a linear array, also called one-dimensional array.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This means that an array is essentially a list of values, all stored against one variable name. The values are listed in order and you can fetch each one by calling the variable with the corresponding number of that value (or element) within the array.<\/p>\n It may be easier if I show you what a simple array is by way of explanation.<\/p>\n Let’s imagine you’re writing a plugin and you need to create a variable called If your variable was a single static value, you’d create it like this:<\/p>\nA Simple Example of an Array<\/h3>\n
$thing<\/code>.<\/p>\n