Are there any potential pitfalls to be aware of when manipulating arrays in PHP?

One potential pitfall when manipulating arrays in PHP is accidentally modifying the original array when working with a copy of it. To avoid this, always make sure to use functions like array_slice() or array_merge() to create a new array when needed, instead of directly assigning values to a variable referencing the original array. 

// Incorrect way - modifying original array
$originalArray = [1, 2, 3];
$newArray = $originalArray;
$newArray[] = 4;

// Correct way - creating a new array
$originalArray = [1, 2, 3];
$newArray = array_merge($originalArray, [4]);

Keywords

array manipulation PHP errors data structures functions

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