What best practices should be followed when creating associative arrays in PHP to ensure proper functionality?

When creating associative arrays in PHP, it is important to ensure that keys are unique to avoid overwriting values. One way to achieve this is by checking if a key already exists before adding a new key-value pair. This can be done using the `array_key_exists()` function or by simply checking if the key is set using the isset() function. By following this practice, you can ensure proper functionality and avoid unexpected behavior in your PHP code. 

// Creating an associative array with proper key check
$myArray = [];

// Check if key 'name' already exists before adding
if (!array_key_exists('name', $myArray)) {
    $myArray['name'] = 'John';
}

// Check if key 'age' is set before adding
if (!isset($myArray['age'])) {
    $myArray['age'] = 30;
}

// Output the associative array
print_r($myArray);

Keywords

associative arrays PHP functionality proper creation

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