array_push

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

array_pushPush one or more elements onto the end of array

Description

array_push(array &$array, mixed ...$values): int

array_push() treats array as a stack, and pushes the passed variables onto the end of array. The length of array increases by the number of variables pushed. Has the same effect as:

<?php
$array
[] = $var;
?>
repeated for each passed value.

Note: If you use array_push() to add one element to the array, it's better to use $array[] = because in that way there is no overhead of calling a function.

Note: array_push() will raise a warning if the first argument is not an array. This differed from the $var[] behaviour where a new array was created, prior to PHP 7.1.0.

Parameters

array

The input array.

values

The values to push onto the end of the array.

Return Values

Returns the new number of elements in the array.

Changelog

Version Description
7.3.0 This function can now be called with only one parameter. Formerly, at least two parameters have been required.

Examples

Example #1 array_push() example

<?php
$stack
= array("orange", "banana");
array_push($stack, "apple", "raspberry");
print_r($stack);
?>

The above example will output:

Array
(
    [0] => orange
    [1] => banana
    [2] => apple
    [3] => raspberry
)

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 11 notes

up
1243
Rodrigo de Aquino
12 years ago
If you're going to use array_push() to insert a "$key" => "$value" pair into an array, it can be done using the following:

$data[$key] = $value;

It is not necessary to use array_push.
up
710
bxi at apparoat dot nl
16 years ago
I've done a small comparison between array_push() and the $array[] method and the $array[] seems to be a lot faster.

<?php
$array
= array();
for (
$x = 1; $x <= 100000; $x++)
{
$array[] = $x;
}
?>
takes 0.0622200965881 seconds

and

<?php
$array
= array();
for (
$x = 1; $x <= 100000; $x++)
{
array_push($array, $x);
}
?>
takes 1.63195490837 seconds

so if your not making use of the return value of array_push() its better to use the $array[] way.

Hope this helps someone.
up
135
mrgreen dot webpost at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Rodrigo de Aquino asserted that instead of using array_push to append to an associative array you can instead just do...

$data[$key] = $value;

...but this is actually not true. Unlike array_push and even...

$data[] = $value;

...Rodrigo's suggestion is NOT guaranteed to append the new element to the END of the array. For instance...

$data['one'] = 1;
$data['two'] = 2;
$data['three'] = 3;
$data['four'] = 4;

...might very well result in an array that looks like this...

[ "four" => 4, "one" => 1, "three" => 3, "two" => 2 ]

I can only assume that PHP sorts the array as elements are added to make it easier for it to find a specified element by its key later. In many cases it won't matter if the array is not stored internally in the same order you added the elements, but if, for instance, you execute a foreach on the array later, the elements may not be processed in the order you need them to be.

If you want to add elements to the END of an associative array you should use the unary array union operator (+=) instead...

$data['one'] = 1;
$data += [ "two" => 2 ];
$data += [ "three" => 3 ];
$data += [ "four" => 4 ];

You can also, of course, append more than one element at once...

$data['one'] = 1;
$data += [ "two" => 2, "three" => 3 ];
$data += [ "four" => 4 ];

Note that like array_push (but unlike $array[] =) the array must exist before the unary union, which means that if you are building an array in a loop you need to declare an empty array first...

$data = [];
for ( $i = 1; $i < 5; $i++ ) {
$data += [ "element$i" => $i ];
}

...which will result in an array that looks like this...

[ "element1" => 1, "element2" => 2, "element3" => 3, "element4" => 4 ]
up
22
yhusky at qq dot com
6 years ago
There is a mistake in the note by egingell at sisna dot com 12 years ago. The tow dimensional array will output "d,e,f", not "a,b,c".

<?php
$stack
= array('a', 'b', 'c');
array_push($stack, array('d', 'e', 'f'));
print_r($stack);
?>

The above will output this:
Array (
[0] => a
[1] => b
[2] => c
[3] => Array (
[0] => d
[1] => e
[2] => f
)
)
up
49
willdemaine at gmail dot com
16 years ago
If you're adding multiple values to an array in a loop, it's faster to use array_push than repeated [] = statements that I see all the time:

<?php
class timer
{
private
$start;
private
$end;

public function
timer()
{
$this->start = microtime(true);
}

public function
Finish()
{
$this->end = microtime(true);
}

private function
GetStart()
{
if (isset(
$this->start))
return
$this->start;
else
return
false;
}

private function
GetEnd()
{
if (isset(
$this->end))
return
$this->end;
else
return
false;
}

public function
GetDiff()
{
return
$this->GetEnd() - $this->GetStart();
}

public function
Reset()
{
$this->start = microtime(true);
}

}

echo
"Adding 100k elements to array with []\n\n";
$ta = array();
$test = new Timer();
for (
$i = 0; $i < 100000; $i++)
{
$ta[] = $i;
}
$test->Finish();
echo
$test->GetDiff();

echo
"\n\nAdding 100k elements to array with array_push\n\n";
$test->Reset();
for (
$i = 0; $i < 100000; $i++)
{
array_push($ta,$i);
}
$test->Finish();
echo
$test->GetDiff();

echo
"\n\nAdding 100k elements to array with [] 10 per iteration\n\n";
$test->Reset();
for (
$i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++)
{
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
$ta[] = $i;
}
$test->Finish();
echo
$test->GetDiff();

echo
"\n\nAdding 100k elements to array with array_push 10 per iteration\n\n";
$test->Reset();
for (
$i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++)
{
array_push($ta,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i,$i);
}
$test->Finish();
echo
$test->GetDiff();
?>

Output

$ php5 arraypush.php
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5
Content-type: text/html

Adding 100k elements to array with []

0.044686794281006

Adding 100k elements to array with array_push

0.072616100311279

Adding 100k elements to array with [] 10 per iteration

0.034690141677856

Adding 100k elements to array with array_push 10 per iteration

0.023932933807373
up
6
raat1979 at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Unfortunately array_push returns the new number of items in the array
It does not give you the key of the item you just added, in numeric arrays you could do -1, you do however need to be sure that no associative key exists as that would break the assumption

It would have been better if array_push would have returned the key of the item just added like the below function
(perhaps a native variant would be a good idea...)

<?php

if(!function_exists('array_add')){
function
array_add(array &$array,$value /*[, $...]*/){
$values = func_get_args(); //get all values
$values[0]= &$array; //REFERENCE!
$org=key($array); //where are we?
call_user_func_array('array_push',$values);
end($array); // move to the last item
$key = key($array); //get the key of the last item
if($org===null){
//was at eof, added something, move to it
return $key;
}elseif(
$org<(count($array)/2)){ //somewhere in the middle +/- is fine
reset($array);
while (
key($array) !== $org) next($List);
}else{
while (
key($array) !== $org) prev($List);
}
return
$key;
}
}
echo
"<pre>\n";
$pr = array('foo'=>'bar','bar'=>'foo');
echo
"Taken array;";
print_r($pr);

echo
"\npush 1 returns ".array_push($pr,1)."\n";
echo
"------------------------------------\n";
$pr = array('foo'=>'bar','bar'=>'foo');
echo
"\npush 2 returns ".array_push($pr,1,2)."\n";
echo
"------------------------------------\n";
$pr = array('foo'=>'bar','bar'=>'foo');
echo
"\n add 1 returns ".array_add($pr,2)."\n\n";
echo
"------------------------------------\n";
$pr = array('foo'=>'bar','bar'=>'foo');
echo
"\n add 2 returns ".array_add($pr,1,2)."\n\n";
echo
"<pre/>\n\n";
?>
Outputs:
Taken array;Array
(
[foo] => bar
[bar] => foo
)

push 1 returns 3
------------------------------------

push 2 returns 4
------------------------------------

add 1 returns 0

------------------------------------

add 2 returns 1
up
53
egingell at sisna dot com
18 years ago
If you push an array onto the stack, PHP will add the whole array to the next element instead of adding the keys and values to the array. If this is not what you want, you're better off using array_merge() or traverse the array you're pushing on and add each element with $stack[$key] = $value.

<?php

$stack
= array('a', 'b', 'c');
array_push($stack, array('d', 'e', 'f'));
print_r($stack);

?>
The above will output this:
Array (
[0] => a
[1] => b
[2] => c
[3] => Array (
[0] => a
[1] => b
[2] => c
)
)
up
6
helpmepro1 at gmail dot com
15 years ago
elegant php array combinations algorithm

<?

//by Shimon Dookin

function get_combinations(&$lists,&$result,$stack=array(),$pos=0)
{
$list=$lists[$pos];
if(
is_array($list))
foreach(
$list as $word)
{
array_push($stack,$word);
if(
count($lists)==count($stack))
$result[]=$stack;
else
get_combinations($lists,$result,$stack,$pos+1);
array_pop($stack);
}
}

$wordlists= array( array("shimon","doodkin") , array("php programmer","sql programmer","mql metatrader programmer") );

get_combinations($wordlists,$combinations);

echo
'<xmp>';
print_r($combinations);

?>
up
1
gfuente at garrahan dot gov dot ar
7 years ago
If the element to be pushed onto the end of array is an array you will receive the following error message:

Unknown Error, value: [8] Array to string conversion

I tried both: (and works, but with the warning message)

$aRol = array( $row[0], $row[1], $row[2] );
$aRoles[] = $aRol;

and
array_push( $aRoles, $aRol);

The correct way:

$cUnRol = implode("(",array( $row[0], $row[1], $row[2] ) );
array_push( $aRoles, $cUnRol );

thanks.
up
3
andrew at cgipro dot com
19 years ago
Need a real one-liner for adding an element onto a new array name?

$emp_list_bic = $emp_list + array(c=>"ANY CLIENT");

CONTEXT...
drewdeal: this turns out to be better and easier than array_push()
patelbhadresh: great!... so u discover new idea...
drewdeal: because you can't do: $emp_list_bic = array_push($emp_list, c=>"ANY CLIENT");
drewdeal: array_push returns a count and affects current array.. and does not support set keys!
drewdeal: yeah. My one-liner makes a new array as a derivative of the prior array
up
2
steve at webthoughts d\ot ca
18 years ago
Further Modification on the array_push_associative function
1. removes seemingly useless array_unshift function that generates php warning
2. adds support for non-array arguments

<?
// Append associative array elements
function array_push_associative(&$arr) {
$args = func_get_args();
foreach (
$args as $arg) {
if (
is_array($arg)) {
foreach (
$arg as $key => $value) {
$arr[$key] = $value;
$ret++;
}
}else{
$arr[$arg] = "";
}
}
return
$ret;
}

$items = array("here" => "now");
$moreitems = array("this" => "that");

$theArray = array("where" => "do we go", "here" => "we are today");
echo
array_push_associative($theArray, $items, $moreitems, "five") . ' is the size of $theArray.<br />';

echo
"<pre>";
print_r($theArray);
echo
"</pre>";

?>

Yields:

4 is the size of $theArray.
Array
(
[where] => do we go
[here] => now
[this] => that
[five] =>
)
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