note 9875 added to array

OK, is everyone ready for a stupid question? Lets say I want to use a numeric index value for an array member, but the number I choose for the first array member, is in the thousands. In better words: $key = 4236 ; $my_array[$key] = 'blah' ; will instantiating this array member, cause the php scripting engine to automatically instantiate members 0-4235 with 'null' values??? If yes, this would seem to be very ineffecient... Thanx all, MARAT http://www.php.net/manual/function.array.php