Of the scripting languages I've used (Perl, Awk, Python), as well as some programming langs, usually what you call 'nested array' is referred to a 'multi-dimensional array' (sometimes interchangeably).

What you are call 'multi-dimensional array' I would think more of a 'multi-dimensional matrix', which is a totally different concept, and no language I know supports such a structure like that natively. SciPython has support for matrices, and so do some Java libs, etc.

If you know of a language that supports the behavior you point of in their *native* array support, I would like to learn. It will be even more usefule if you got some example C code which can implement such constructs, a patch to php4/ext/standard/array.[ch] will be the ultimate "good thing".

Waiting for feedback

Assigning to myself, while waiting for feedback

You are right, "multi-dimensional matrix" is propably a more precise term of what I meant. 

I don't know of a language that supports this behavior in their *native* array support and I don't have any example C code which can implement such constructs.

Well, I think I'd agree with "nested array" and "multi-dimensional array".

As for supporting the behaviour, this may (or may not!) be what you're looking for:

In FORTRAN 9x if you declare a 2-dimensional array as:

   INTEGER, DIMENSION(2:5, 3:10) :: values

then you can refer to (for example):

   values(2,:)   ! retrieve first row
   values(:,3)   ! retrieve first column

Similarly, in Algol68 you can declare:

    [2:5, 3:10] INT values;

and refer to:

   values[2,]   # retrieve first row #
   values[,3]   # retrieve first column #

I'm not sure, however, if any of this is relevant, since both these examples of column-slicing apply to multi-dimensional arrays; personally, I wouldn't *expect* this kind of functionality with nested arrays, simply because they are arrays *of* arrays, and not monolithic multi-dimensioned ones.  (In Algol68, it is also possible to declare an "array of arrays", but, from my dim, distant and exceedingly imperfect memory, I don't think you can "column"-slice those in the same way!)

Cheers!

Mike

If you really consider this array behaviour would be a "good thing" then do not submit it as a documentation bug, but as a feature request.

Personally I do not think this type of data structure slicing is difficult to implement with a simple loop in PHP, or with a Matrix extension in C (see GSL for example).

I will reclassify this as a feature request, and see if someone from php-dev decides to do something about this in the code, or just close this report.

PHP is PHP..let's keep it like that and not make it more cryptic than it is.

I totally agree with sniper's view on the topic. That is why I initially wrote: "I very much like the way PHP organizes Arrays, don't change it."

The reason why I submitted a documentation bug is just the terminology. I got confused by the word 'multidimensional' because the array does not behave multidimensionally like a multidimensional matrix would. I still think "nested array" would be more precise. But if nobody else has a problem with the current terminology, is perfectly fine with me to close the report.

Oh, yes, I like it the way it is too -- my contribution was in no way advocating a change, but was merely a response to jmcastagnetto@php.net asking:

> If you know of a language that supports the behavior you point of in
> their *native* array support, I would like to learn.

However, at the same time I was agreeing that "multi-dimensional array" is a misleading term for PHP's arrays -- they are, indeed, more accurately "nested arrays" or "arrays of arrays".  But that's a fairly fussy distinction, and if no-one feels inclined to change the documentation, I can live with it.