How to count a multidimensional array

Question

$fruits = array("banana", "pineapple", array("apple", "mango"), "guava");
echo count($fruits,1);

The above code outputs 6, but I don't understand why. Can someone please explain it?

• ScaisEdge: 4 for the first level and 2 for second .. also the array is an elem ..
• MonkeyZeus: Upvote simply because this is the first time I've realized that count() can take a second parameter.
• Don't Panic: @MonkeyZeus same here! Although I think it would be more useful if the recursive count didn't include the inner arrays. Maybe I'm missing some value of that.
• MonkeyZeus: @Don'tPanic I was juggling that thought as well but I think stackoverflow.com/a/50027183/2191572 explains it nicely.

Answer 1

$fruits = array("banana", "pineapple", array("apple", "mango"), "guava");

Because is counting the array("apple","mango") as 1 element

count($fruits,1)// the second parameter will recursively count the array
+ 1 -> banana
+ 1 -> pineapple
+ 1 -> array("apple","mango")
+ 1 --------> apple
+ 1 --------> mango
+ 1 -> guava
____
 6 elements

Answer 2

Hope This will help

$fruits = array("banana", "pineapple", array("apple", "mango"), "guava");
foreach ($fruits as $key => $value)
{
 echo count($value) . "<br />";
}
// Output : 1 1 2 1

Answer 3

If you expected it to return 5, it's because the array on the 3rd position is counted as an element. If you expected it to return 4, count's second argument specifies whether it should count recursively or not.

Answer 4

If you only want to count the leaf nodes, you can take advantage of the fact that array_walk_recursive only touches those.

array_walk_recursive($fruits, function() use (&$count) { $count++; });
echo $count; // 5

Answer 5

array("apple","mango") counts as 3, since you're deep counting.

It first counts "banana", "pineapple", array(), "guava" Then "apple" and "mango"