note 20818 deleted from function.list by wez

I agree that it would be nice if list($nums['one'], $nums['two']) = array(1,2); gave Array ( [one] => 1 [two] => 2 ) and not Array ( [two] => 2 [one] => 1 ) but we're basically complaining about how PHP is ordering its actions, that is, adding elements to the array. Since PHP arrays have no inherent order we must sort them as we wish. A few posts back there was an example similar to this: list($fields[], $fields[]) = array(1,2); This one is really living dangerously because there's really no documented order that $fields will receive 1 or 2. Is it $fields[] = 1; // put at index 0 $fields[] = 2; // put at index 1 or $fields[] = 2; // put at index 0 $fields[] = 1; // put at index 1 or will it change in the next PHP version? I say DON'T do this, explicitly name your indexes and then either sort your array or iterate using for with an index. Don't use foreach or while(list() = each()) and expect the values to appear in a certain order unless you've ordered (sorted) them.