note 110028 deleted from function.list by googleguy

Note Submitter: joshua dot never at gmail dot com ---- In addition to dan dot lugg at gmail dot com's note I changed the values to strings <?php $a = array('1','2','3'); list($c, $b, $a) = $a; var_dump($a, $b, $c); //string(1) "3" //string(0) "" //string(1) "3" ?> This is interesting that $b becomes empty string( in stead of NULL) while $c is correctly assigned. I figured out that $b is assigned the second char in $a, and $c is assigned the first char in $a. How does this happen? <?php $a = array('','','','1234'); list($d,$c, $b, $a) = $a; var_dump($a, $b, $c,$d); //string(4) "1234" //string(1) "3" //string(1) "2" //string(1) "1" ?> and dealing with a string: <?php $string = '1234'; list($d,$c, $b, $a) = $string; var_dump($a, $b, $c,$d); //string(1) "4" //string(0) "3" //string(0) "2" //string(1) "1" ?> According to the manual:list() only works on numerical arrays But in this case '1234' equals array('1','2','3','4') Can anyone explane this?