Pairing Up Two Arrays (the zip operation)

In this lesson you will learn to pair up two arrays with array_map so related data can be handled together. This is for anyone searching for "PHP array zip".

Combining two corresponding arrays - a list of names and a list of scores, say - into pairs one by one is called a zip operation. Picture matching socks into left-and-right pairs. In PHP you achieve it with array_map(null, ...).

The sample code builds an array of name-and-score pairs with array_map(null, $names, $scores). The key detail is that passing null as the first argument means "do not transform anything, just combine them" - a slightly unusual form.

A common stumbling block for beginners is the idea of passing null as array_map's first argument at all. Normally you pass a transforming function, so without knowing this special behaviour it is easy to be confused.

It is also a frequent choice when you want to loop over several arrays at once. For three or more arrays, just add them to the array_map call.

📖 Reference code

<?php
$names = ["Alice", "Bob", "Charlie"];
$scores = [88, 95, 72];

foreach (array_map(null, $names, $scores) as $pair) {
    echo "[" . $pair[0] . ", " . $pair[1] . "]\n";
}

✍️ Your code

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