creating multidimensional arrays

Hi All I want to create a multi dimensional arrays as below $result[$something]['$key_string_01] = value_01 $result[$something]['$key_string_02] = value_02 $result[$something]['$key_string_03] = value_03 $result[$something]['$key_string_04] = value_04 $result[$something][0] = value_06 $result[$something][1] = value_07 $result[$something][2] = value_08 . . . Here is what I did 1. use some assign statement $result[$something]['$key_string_0n'] = value_0n for the first four elements 2. for the fifth elements onward, I used this $result[$something] = preg_split(....); However, as I test it with foreach loop, I am only getting $result[$something][0] = value_06 $result[$something][1] = value_07 $result[$something][2] = value_08 . . . I lost the first four elements!! Can anyone help on this please? Thanks /dl