'as' operator in PHP

Question

In PHP, what does the operator 'as' do? For example,

foreach ( $this->Example as $Example )

Thanks.

Answer 1

Let's take an example:

foreach ($array as $value) {}

This means

foreach element (of $array) defined as $value...

In other words this means that the elements of the array will be retrieved inside the loop as $value. Notice that you can specify also this syntax:

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {}

In both ways the vars $key and $value will exists inside the foreach and will correspond to the 'current' element of the array.

Answer 2

On each iteration of the foreach loop, $Example is assigned to the current element in the loop.

Answer 3

Just to expand on existing answers. There's more than one use of as keyword. Besides the obvious:

foreach ($dictionary as $key => $value) {}

It's also used to alias imported resources:

<?php
namespace foo;
use Full\Class\Path as MyAlias;
new MyAlias();

Which is useful, e.g. as a shorthand for AVeryLongClassNameThatRendersYourCodeUnreadable or to substitute an object with your implementation when extending third party code.