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You can assign your own keys to array elements -- and they don't have to be numbers. In fact, your code can be easier to read and understand if you use a name for a key. This is called an Associative Array, because a specific key is associated with a specific value.
Arrays are also referred to as a hash or dictionary
Comma After Elements
The comma after the last array element is optional and can be omitted. This is usually done for single-line arrays, i.e. array(1, 2) is preferred over array(1, 2, ). For multi-line arrays on the other hand the trailing comma is commonly used, as it allows easier addition of new elements at the end.
Extract
You can use the extract function to extract the key value pairs as individual variables.
$var_array = array("color" => "blue",
"size" => "medium",
"shape" => "sphere");
extract($var_array);
Gives us the variables $color = "blue", $size = "medium", and $shape = "sphere".
Example
You can even use spaces to line up the values.
$iceCream = array(
'Alena' => 'Black Cherry',
'Dave' => 'Cookies and Cream',
'Treasure' => 'Chocolate',
'Rialla' => 'Strawberry'
);
Shortcut for assigning values
$iceCream = [
'Alena' => 'Black Cherry',
'Dave' => 'Cookies and Cream',
'Treasure' => 'Chocolate',
'Rialla' => 'Strawberry'
];
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