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PHP PHP Arrays and Control Structures PHP Arrays Multidimensional Arrays

Stephen Limmex
Stephen Limmex
32,604 Points

Stuck on challenge task 3 - you should not be modifying the output at this point

I am stuck on challenge task 3. I have been working on this for some time and started over a few times; however I continue to eventually get an error message stating 'I do not see the required output, you should not be modifying the output at this point.'

Rather than continue to walk into this wall headfirst and get frustrated I am asking for help. Please advise why I am getting the error message.

Thank you, Steve

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";
//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo "<li>$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";
Juan Ignacio Lambardi
Juan Ignacio Lambardi
3,943 Points

Hi Stephen!, you're missing insert doble quotes between the ":" and the "." to combine the hole sentence. Check with this code if it works! :)

Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,249 Points

Hi Steve,

Just to add to the answers provided that the error is caused by attempting to echo an array item as a string. If you tried to do this on your own site you'd get a PHP notice "NOTICE Array to string conversion..." appearing on-screen, so concatenation is required in this case.

Hope that helps, Joel

You can have array items in double quotes but they have to be enclosed in curly braces.

echo "<li>{$contacts[0]['name']} : {$contacts[0]['email']}</li>\n";

3 Answers

Juan Ignacio Lambardi
Juan Ignacio Lambardi
3,943 Points
<?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 "<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";
?>

I just ran through the challenge that you are working on. The code validator in the quiz doesn't like how you've included your variables inside the double-quotes. I changed my answer to include the snippet below, and it worked.

echo "<ul>\n"; //$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names. 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";

Juan Ignacio Lambardi
Juan Ignacio Lambardi
3,943 Points

And remember adding "<li>" "</li>\n". You're typing "<li$contacts......" that it won't work! :)