Variable Variable Array

Hi Folks, I've been using "variable variables" for years with PHP. $var = "myVarName"; $$var = "Some Val"; echo $myVarName; //outputs "Some Val" ... Today I am trying to assign an Associative Array value to a "variable variable". For some reason it doesn't take. Does anyone know why? Example: $var['first']='bob'; $var['second']='frank'; $varName = "myVarName"; $$varName = $var; echo $$varName['second']; //should output "frank" but doesn't. :-\ <----------------------------- echo $var['second']; //should output "frank" works fine. The reason I want to do this is to speed up access to DATABASE query results by use of the associative array. Since the results are keyed on a specific column I'd like to load the very small recordset and then access each row associatively on that column value. Currently I have to requery the database every time, which is faster than loop/testing the whole result set each time. I'd use a hashtable in Java but PHP ain't Java. If ne1 has a better way I'm game. Thanks for your help. <>< Ryan