PHP count() Function

This inbuilt function of PHP is used to count the current elements in the array. The function might return 0 for the variable that has been set to an empty array. Also for the variable which is not set the function returns 0.
Syntax:
count($array, mode)
Parameters: The function generally takes one parameter that is the array for which the elements is needed to be counted. But in addition, the function can take a parameter mode which tells the function to count element in which normal or recursive mode.
- $array (mandatory) : Refers to the array, whose elements are needed to be counted.
- mode (optional) : This is used to set the mode of the function. The parameter can take two possible values, either 0 or 1. 1 generally indicates to count the values of the array recursively. This helps in counting the multidimensional array. The default value is 0 or False.
Return Values: The function returns the number of elements in an array. Below programs will help in understanding the working of count() function.
Program 1: Counting normally, that is passing mode as 0 or not passing the parameter mode.
PHP
<?php // PHP program to illustrate working of count() $array = array("Aakash", "Ravi", "Prashant", "49", "50"); print_r(count($array)); ?> |
Output:
5
Program 2: Counting recursively or passing mode as 1.
PHP
<?php // PHP program to illustrate working of count() $array = array('names' => array('Aakash', 'Ravi', 'Prashant'), 'rollno' => array('5', '10', '15')); // recursive count - mode as 1 echo("Recursive count: ".count($array,1)."\n"); // normal count - mode as 0 echo("Normal count: ".count($array,0)."\n"); ?> |
Output:
Recursive count: 8 Normal count: 2
Reference: http://php.net/manual/en/function.count.php



