Declaring arrays? Good practice?

Sorry if this question sounds noobish: $foo = array(); // Declare first, good practice. $foo = array('one', 'two', 'three'); Using above as example, is it good to always declare the array first? I usually/always declare my arrays first, but sometimes I get a bit confused... for example: function give_foo() { $the_foo = array(); // Declare first, good practice. $the_foo = array('one', 'two', 'three'); // Do some stuff here... return $the_foo; } $foo = give_foo(); // Declare $foo also? So, should I declare $foo as array and then give it the value of the function? Example: $foo = array(); // Declare first, good practice. $foo = give_foo(); That seems kinda redundant. Thoughts? Sorry if this is a stupid question... I am self-taught, and I am trying to shake all my bad coding habits.