What are the potential performance differences between accessing elements in associative vs. numerical arrays in PHP?

When accessing elements in associative arrays in PHP, the performance may be slower compared to accessing elements in numerical arrays. This is because associative arrays use keys to access values, which involves an additional lookup step. To improve performance, consider using numerical arrays when possible for better efficiency.

// Example of using numerical array for better performance
$numericalArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

// Accessing element in numerical array
$value = $numericalArray[2];