Reference an associative array from inside a string?

Question

"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS $tables[users]";

Works but..

"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS $tables['users']";

Does not.

I do not want to do this

$usersTable = $tables['users'];
"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS $usersTable";

I heard that it was considered bad practice to reference a key from an associative array without some sort of quotes around it. Is this true or is my first way of doing it preferred?

Then is it not considered bad practice? I'd rather use that method as it requires the least markup but I thought there was a reason for not using it. — John Smith
– John Smith, Commented Apr 6, 2011 at 2:58

Mark Elliot · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-06 02:08:36Z

8

You can do this with braces:

"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {$tables['users']}";

Or through concatenation:

'CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ' . $tables['users'];

answered Apr 6, 2011 at 2:08

Mark Elliot

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Jacob · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-06 02:07:57Z

1

You can use curly brackets.

"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {$tables['users']}";

answered Apr 6, 2011 at 2:07

Jacob

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Simon H · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-06 02:16:06Z

1

You could do the folling:

$query = sprintf("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS %s", $tables['users']);

// do some other stuff

answered Apr 6, 2011 at 2:16

Simon H

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