Re[2]: [PHP] Odd behaviour of non-existent keys?

John, >> >> Why does the non-existent key in the array below evaluate to the >> first char of the array value? >> >> $foo = '' ; >> $foo['one']['two'] = 'test-value' ; >> >> // Evaluates to: string(1) "t" >> var_dump( $foo['one']['two']['three'] ) ; >> JH> Strings are arrays. PHP probably takes the string 'three' and converts it to JH> a integer to see what "key" of the string you're requesting. JH> $foo = 'bar'; JH> echo $foo[1]; //should echo 'a' JH> Does that help or do you need a deeper explanation (that I probably can't JH> provide!) ;) I think you are probably right - but this behaviour causes problems. For example: $foo['one']['two'] = "test-string" ; // Evaluates to TRUE (not what's wanted!) isset( $foo['one']['two']['three'] ) ; I need a reliable way to test for the non-existence of a multi-dimensional key. Any ideas? I guess I could convert the keys into a string via a loop and compare that, but there must be a more elegant way, surely? ------------------ Geoff Caplan