newbie array question

Hello, I am trying to create an associative array dynamically. Here's what I did first: $form_val_list = "firstname,lastname,address,address2,city,state,zip,phone,email,resume"; $form_arr = explode (",", $form_val_list); while (list ($key, $val) = each ($form_arr)) { echo "$key is $val<br>"; } This doesn't do the trick, as it creates a regular array with values from my list, as in form_array['1'] = "firstname"; whereas I need form_array['firstname'] Is this possible without being overly complicated? Thanks. stas