Search code examples
phpvariablesstring-length

What happened with length variable in this example, PHP

Maybe this is stupid question but I don't understand what is going on with the length of variable, what is happening in each step?

$text = 'John';
$text[10] = 'Doe';

echo strlen($text);
//output will be 11

Why will var_dump($text)display string(11) "John D"? Why will it not be a full name John Doe?

Can someone explain this moment?

Solution 
  • // creates a string John
$text = 'John';

// a string is an array of characters in PHP
// So this adds 1 character from the beginning of `Doe` i.e. D
// to occurance 10 of the array $text
// It can only add the 'D' as you are only loading 1 occurance i.e. [10]
$text[10] = 'Doe';

echo strlen($text);  // = 11

echo $text; // 'John      D`
// i.e. 11 characters

    To do what you want use concatenation like this

    $text = 'John';
$text .= ' Doe';

    If you really want all the spaces

    $text = 'John';
$text .= '      Doe';

    Or maybe

    $text = sprintf('%s      %s', 'John', 'Doe');