What does "=>" mean in PHP?

php

=> is the separator for associative arrays. In the context of that foreach loop, it assigns the key of the array to $user and the value to $pass.

Example:

$user_list = array(
    'dave' => 'apassword',
    'steve' => 'secr3t'
);

foreach ($user_list as $user => $pass) {
    echo "{$user}'s pass is: {$pass}\n";
}
// Prints: 
// "dave's pass is: apassword"
// "steve's pass is: secr3t"

Note that this can be used for numerically indexed arrays too.

Example:

$foo = array('car', 'truck', 'van', 'bike', 'rickshaw');
foreach ($foo as $i => $type) {
    echo "{$i}: {$type}\n";
}
// prints:
// 0: car
// 1: truck
// 2: van
// 3: bike
// 4: rickshaw

It means assign the key to $user and the variable to $pass

When you assign an array, you do it like this

$array = array("key" => "value");

It uses the same symbol for processing arrays in foreach statements. The '=>' links the key and the value.

According to the PHP Manual, the '=>' created key/value pairs.

Also, Equal or Greater than is the opposite way: '>='. In PHP the greater or less than sign always goes first: '>=', '<='.

And just as a side note, excluding the second value does not work like you think it would. Instead of only giving you the key, It actually only gives you a value:

$array = array("test" => "foo");

foreach($array as $key => $value)
{
    echo $key . " : " . $value; // Echoes "test : foo"
}

foreach($array as $value)
{
    echo $value; // Echoes "foo"
}

What does "=>" mean in PHP?

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