As of PHP 5.4.x you can now use 'short syntax arrays' which eliminates the need of this function.
Example #1 'short syntax array'
<?php
$a = [1, 2, 3, 4];
print_r($a);
?>
The above example will output:
Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
[3] => 4
)
Example #2 'short syntax associative array'
<?php
$a = ['one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3, 'four' => 4];
print_r($a);
?>
The above example will output:
Array
(
[one] => 1
[two] => 2
[three] => 3
[four] => 4
)