PHP combine two associative arrays into one array

Question

$array1 = array("$name1" => "$id1");  $array2 = array("$name2" => "$id2", "$name3" => "$id3"); 

I need a new array combining all together, i.e. it would be

$array3 = array("$name1" => "$id1", "$name2" => "$id2", "$name3" => "$id3"); 

What is the best way to do this?

Sorry, I forgot, the ids will never match each other, but technically the names could, yet would not be likely, and they all need to be listed in one array. I looked at array_merge but wasn't sure if that was best way to do this. Also, how would you unit test this?

Answer 1

array_merge() is more efficient but there are a couple of options:

$array1 = array("id1" => "value1");  $array2 = array("id2" => "value2", "id3" => "value3", "id4" => "value4");  $array3 = array_merge($array1, $array2/*, $arrayN, $arrayN*/); $array4 = $array1 + $array2;  echo '<pre>'; var_dump($array3); var_dump($array4); echo '</pre>';   // Results:     array(4) {       ["id1"]=>       string(6) "value1"       ["id2"]=>       string(6) "value2"       ["id3"]=>       string(6) "value3"       ["id4"]=>       string(6) "value4"     }     array(4) {       ["id1"]=>       string(6) "value1"       ["id2"]=>       string(6) "value2"       ["id3"]=>       string(6) "value3"       ["id4"]=>       string(6) "value4"     } 

Answer 2

Check out array_merge().

$array3 = array_merge($array1, $array2);