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PHP PHP Arrays and Control Structures PHP Arrays Multidimensional Arrays

Posted by ei2
ei2
2,618 Points

How to use 'echo' to display elements of a multidimensional array.

How do you use echo to display multiple elements of a multidimensional array?

What is the syntax? For example:

echo $contacts[0]['name'];

Will display the name of element 0.

But,

echo $contacts[0]['name']['email'];

Will not display name and email....what is going on?

index.php 
<?php
//edit this array
$contacts = array( 
  (array ('name' => 'Alena Holligan', 'email' => 'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com')),
  (array ('name' => 'Dave McFarland', 'email' => 'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com')),
  (array ('name' => 'Treasure Porth', 'email' => 'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com')),
  (array ('name' => 'Andrew Chalkley', 'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com')),
);

echo "<ul>\n";
//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo $contacts[0]['name'] ['email'];
echo $contacts[1]['name'] ['email'];
echo $contacts[2]['name'] ['email'];
echo $contacts[3]['name'] ['email'];
echo "</ul>\n";
Tylor Boisvert
Tylor Boisvert
12,421 Points

You would use either 'name' or 'email' as the key after the first index value and concatenate. 

<?php
echo $contacts[0]['name'] . $contacts[0]['email'];

When you do this... 

<?php
echo $contacts[0]['name']['email'];

...you are looking for the 'email' key as if it were a three dimensional array and returning a single value. Hope this helps.

4 Answers

Tylor Boisvert
Tylor Boisvert
12,421 Points

What are you getting in your code preview? It looks like you would be getting the right output but because of the nature of the challenge, the raw text output doesn't count. Try surrounding your output in <li> tags using concatenation. I was able to pass the challenge with this code. The array is the same two dimensional array I just used square brackets.

<?php

$contacts = array(['name' =>'Alena Holligan', 'email' =>'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com'], 
                  ['name' =>'Dave McFarland', 'email' =>'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com'], 
                  ['name' =>'Treasure Porth', 'email' =>'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com'], 
                  ['name' =>'Andrew Chalkley', 'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com']);

echo "<ul>\n";

echo "<li>" . $contacts[0]['name'] . " : " . $contacts[0]['email'] . "</li>\n";
echo "<li>" . $contacts[1]['name'] . " : " . $contacts[1]['email'] . "</li>\n";
echo "<li>" . $contacts[2]['name'] . " : " . $contacts[2]['email'] . "</li>\n";
echo "<li>" . $contacts[3]['name'] . " : " . $contacts[3]['email'] . "</li>\n";
echo "</ul>\n";`
corbinb
corbinb
2,655 Points

This worked for me. I didn't realize that I needed to concatenate at the beginning and end of each echo.

KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,972 Points
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,972 Points

You will have to specify each value individually ($contacts[0]['name'], $contacts[0]['email']) and use concatenation.

ei2
ei2
2,618 Points
ei2
ei2
2,618 Points

Ok...when I use concatenation still is not working...getting a result of "Bummer: Try Again!" lol

<?php
//edit this array
$contacts = array(
 array('name'=>'Alena Holligan', 'email' => 'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com'),
 array('name'=>'Dave McFarland', 'email' => 'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com'),
 array('name'=>'Treasure Porth', 'email' => 'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com'),
 array('name'=>'Andrew Chalkley', 'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com'),
 );


//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo $contacts[0]['name'] . $contacts[0]['email'];
echo $contacts[1]['name'] . $contacts[1]['email'];
echo $contacts[2]['name'] . $contacts[2]['email'];
echo $contacts[3]['name'] . $contacts[3]['email'];
ei2
ei2
2,618 Points
ei2
ei2
2,618 Points

Oh, ok. Yes, that does seem to work. The fact that you have to keep the <li> elements, does seem to help out. Thanks!

Tylor Boisvert
Tylor Boisvert
12,421 Points

Right on glad it helped, you're welcome.