php man page for count

COUNT(3)								 1								  COUNT(3)

count - Count all elements in an array, or something in an object

SYNOPSIS
       int count (mixed  $array_or_countable, [int  $mode = COUNT_NORMAL])

DESCRIPTION
	Counts all elements in an array, or something in an object.

	For  objects,  if  you	have  SPL installed, you can hook into count(3) by implementing interface Countable. The interface has exactly one
       method, Countable::count, which returns the return value for the count(3) function.

	Please see the Array section of the manual for a detailed explanation of how arrays are implemented and used in PHP.

PARAMETERS
	      o $array_or_countable
		- An array or Countable object.

	      o $mode
		- If the optional $mode parameter is set to COUNT_RECURSIVE (or 1), count(3) will recursively count the array.	This  is  particu-
		larly useful for counting all the elements of a multidimensional array.

	      Caution

		     count(3)  can  detect  recursion  to avoid an infinite loop, but will emit an E_WARNING every time it does (in case the array
		     contains itself more than once) and return a count higher than may be expected.

RETURN VALUES
	Returns the number of elements in $array_or_countable. If the parameter is not an array or not an object with implemented Countable inter-
       face, 1 will be returned. There is one exception, if $array_or_countable is NULL, 0 will be returned.

       Caution

	      count(3) may return 0 for a variable that isn't set, but it may also return 0 for a variable that has been initialized with an empty
	      array. Use isset(3) to test if a variable is set.

EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      count(3) example

	      <?php
	      $a[0] = 1;
	      $a[1] = 3;
	      $a[2] = 5;
	      $result = count($a);
	      // $result == 3

	      $b[0]  = 7;
	      $b[5]  = 9;
	      $b[10] = 11;
	      $result = count($b);
	      // $result == 3

	      $result = count(null);
	      // $result == 0

	      $result = count(false);
	      // $result == 1
	      ?>

       Example #2

	      Recursive count(3) example

	      <?php
	      $food = array('fruits' => array('orange', 'banana', 'apple'),
			    'veggie' => array('carrot', 'collard', 'pea'));

	      // recursive count
	      echo count($food, COUNT_RECURSIVE); // output 8

	      // normal count
	      echo count($food); // output 2

	      ?>

SEE ALSO
       is_array(3), isset(3), strlen(3).

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