array_merge() - Append To Array PHP

The PHP function array_merge() is a powerful tool for efficiently appending to arrays in PHP. It seamlessly combines multiple arrays into a single array, making it particularly useful for operations like append to array php. Although commonly used for appending associative arrays, it also works seamlessly with sequentially indexed arrays

Syntax:

array_merge(array $array1, array $array2, ...): array

Parameters

• $array1, $array2, ...: Arrays to be merged, and multiple arrays can be passed.

Return Value: A new array containing all elements from the input arrays.

Example:

$array1 = ['fruit' => 'apple', 'color' => 'red']; 
$array2 = ['fruit' => 'banana', 'color' => 'yellow']; 

$result = array_merge($array1, $array2); 

print_r($result);

Output:

Array ( [fruit] => banana [color] => yellow )

Comparison with Other Functions

• array_merge() combines arrays in the order provided without considering keys.
• array_merge_recursive() performs recursive merging, while array_merge() overwrites values if there are overlapping keys.

Advantages

1. Easy to use with a simple syntax.
2. Flexible when dealing with multiple input parameters.

Disadvantages

1. Does not intelligently handle overlapping keys like array_merge_recursive().

Real-world Applications

1. Creating consolidated data structures from various sources.
2. Facilitating the creation of a new array from existing arrays for utility operations.

3 ways to combine 2 arrays in PHP

1. Leveraging array_merge

A widely adopted approach involves employing the array_merge() function. For instance:

$a = array('a', 'b'); 
$b = array('c', 'd'); 

print_r(array_merge($a, $b));

Result:

2. Utilizing array_push

Example: Updating both the $b and $a arrays.

$a = array('a', 'b'); 
$b = array('c', 'd'); 
array_push($a, ...$b); 

print_r($a);

3. Employing a loop

As a final, albeit more manual method, we can use a loop

$fruits = ['Apple','Orange','Mango'];
$more_fruits = ['Strawberry', 'Watermelon','Pear'];
foreach($more_fruits as $fruit)
{
    $fruits[] = $fruit;
}
// Output the array to the console.
print_r($fruits);

In summary, array_merge() is an extremely useful function in PHP used to merge multiple arrays into a single array. This function can be employed to address a variety of common programming challenges, such as combining data from different sources or creating a new array from elements of various arrays. array_merge is also highly versatile, allowing you to customize the result in many different ways, such as altering the order of elements or eliminating duplicate elements.

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