array_shift

The array_shift() function in PHP removes an element from the beginning of an array and returns it.

PHP

$my_array = array('a', 'b', 'c', 'd');
$my_element = array_shift($my_array);
print_r($my_element);
/*
Array (
	[0] => a
)
*/

Ruby

my_array = [ "a", "b", "c", "d" ];
puts my_array.shift;
# => ["a"]

array_unique

The array_unique() function in PHP takes an array and filters our any duplicates values, returning the array with only unique values present.

PHP

$elements = array('php', 'ruby', 'perl', 'php');
array_unique($elements);
print_r($elements);
/*
Array (
	[0] => php
	[1] => ruby
	[2] => perl
)
*/

Ruby

elements = [ "php", "ruby", "perl", "php" ];
puts elements.uniq;
# => ["php", "ruby", "perl"]

array_unshift

The array_unshift() function in PHP prepends elements onto the beginning of an array.

PHP

$cue = array('http', 'https', 'ftp');
array_unshift($cue, 'ssh');
print_r($cue);
/*
Array (
	[0] => ssh
	[1] => http
	[2] => https
	[3] => ftp
)
*/

Ruby has an identical Array method, named unshift:

Ruby

cue = [ "http", "https", "ftp" ];
cue.unshift('ssh');
puts cue;
# => [ "ssh", "http", "https", "ftp"]

array_values

The array_values() function in PHP takes an array and returns all it’s values as a numeric array.

PHP

$array = array('go' => 'green', 'stop' => 'red');
var_dump( array_values($array) );
/*
Array (
	[0] => green
	[1] => red
)
*/

To replicate this functionality in Ruby, we need to use a Hash object, since arrays in Ruby don’t use associative key/value pairs.

Ruby

array = { :go => 'green', :stop => 'red' };
puts array.values;
# => ["green", "red"]

list

The list() function in PHP is used to assign multiple variables as if they were an array. Technically, list() is not a function in PHP, it is a language construct.

Ruby has no real need for a function such as list(), as the same can be achieve using parallel assignment - i.e. assigning comma separated variables to elements of an array using the normal assignment operator.

PHP

$langs = array('php', 'ruby', 'perl');
list($lang1, $lang2, $lang3) = $langs;
echo $lang1;	// php
echo $lang2;	// ruby
echo $lang3;	// perl

Ruby

langs = [ "php", "ruby", "perl" ];
lang1, lang2, lang3 = langs;
puts lang1;	# php
puts lang2;	# ruby
puts lang3;	# perl

in_array

The in_array() function in PHP checks if a value exists in an array - returning true if it does, or false otherwise.

The last argument in this function forces a strict type check of the value in PHP. Since Ruby does not consider a Fixnum of 1 and a String of ‘1′ to be the same - it always operates as if the last argument were set to true.

PHP

$my_array = array('a', 'b', 'c', 'd');
if('a', in_array($a), true) {
	echo 'Found it in the array';
}
// => Found it in the array

Ruby

my_array = [ "a", "b", "c", "d" ];
if( my_array.include?('a') ) {
	 puts 'Found it in the array';
}
# => Found it in the array

Numeric Array

Numeric Array

Multidimensional Array

Multidimensional Array

Associative Array

Associative Array

PHP Array

A PHP array can be thought of as a variable which can store multiple other variables. Every item in a PHP array is known as an element and is composed of a key and a value. There are 2 main types of PHP arrays:

1. Numeric Array
2. Associative Array

Each of these can in turn be a Multidimensional Array.

Example Numeric Array:

$terms = array('array', 'element', 'key', 'value');
var_dump($terms);
/* => Array
(
    [0] => array
    [1] => element
    [2] => key
    [3] => value
)
*/

Example Associative Array:

$terms = array(
	'term1' => 'array', 
	'term2' => 'element', 
	'term3' => 'key', 
	'term4' => 'value'
);
var_dump($terms);
/* => Array
(
    [term1] => array
    [term2] => element
    [term3] => key
    [term4] => value
)
*/

Find out more information about PHP’s Numeric Array, Associative Array or Multidimensional Array.