How can associative arrays be utilized in PHP to improve data organization and manipulation?

Associative arrays in PHP can be utilized to improve data organization and manipulation by allowing you to store key-value pairs. This means you can access values in the array using a specific key, making it easier to retrieve and manipulate data based on identifiers rather than numerical indexes. 

// Example of utilizing an associative array in PHP
$student = array(
    'name' => 'John Doe',
    'age' => 20,
    'grade' => 'A'
);

// Accessing values using keys
echo $student['name']; // Output: John Doe
echo $student['age']; // Output: 20
echo $student['grade']; // Output: A

// Modifying values
$student['age'] = 21;
echo $student['age']; // Output: 21

// Adding new key-value pairs
$student['school'] = 'Example High School';
echo $student['school']; // Output: Example High School

Keywords

Associative arrays PHP data organization manipulation key-value pairs

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