How is Array stored in Memory in PHP?

  • PHP arrays are implemented as hash tables, allowing for flexibility with keys and values.
  • The memory representation is not a contiguous block of memory like in C or C++.

PHP




$arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
 
// Memory representation: Hash table-like structure for keys and values.


The memory representation of arrays of varies in programming languages. Some languages use contiguous memory blocks, while others use more complex data structures to allow for dynamic sizing and different data types within the array. Understanding how arrays are stored in memory is important for optimizing code and managing memory efficiently in low-level languages like ( C and C++) , but it is complex in higher-level languages like Python, JavaScript, and PHP, where the languages handle memory management at runtime.



How Array is stored in different programming languages?

The memory representation of an array mainly depends on various programming languages like C, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, and PHP. So we look at how an array is stored in several popular programming languages :

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