How to Fill an Array in PHP

In this article, we go over how to fill an array in PHP.

To fill an array means to load it with a certain number of elements of a specified value, such as:

all 100s: 100, 100, 100, 100, 100
all 50s: 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50

The reason why some languages such as PHP have a function to fill an array is to save time for the programmer. Say, if a programmer wants an array with 70 repeated 100 times in the array. Without the array_fill function, a programmer would have to manually type out '70' 100 times. This is tedious. With the array_fill function, we just type in '70' and how many times we want it repeated. This way, we save a lot of time programming.

To fill an array in PHP, we use the array_fill PHP function using the following general syntax:

$array_name= array_fill($start, $count, $value)

where
$start is the index at which the array starts
$count is the number of elements that is in the array
$value is the value of each of the elements in the array

So the array_fill function returns an array filled with $count $values starting at index $start.

Example

So, to create an array that has 7 elements of the number 10 and starts at index 0, the PHP code to do this would be:

$array_name= array_fill(0, 7, 10) //10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

PHP Output

10 10 10 10 10 10 10

So the array is filled with 7 10s.