How can I add a condition inside a php array?

Question

Here is the array

$anArray = array(
   \"theFirstItem\" => \"a first item\",
   if(True){
     \"conditionalItem\" => \"it may appear base on the condi         


        

Answer 1

If you are making a purely associative array, and order of keys does not matter, you can always conditionally name the key using the ternary operator syntax.

$anArray = array(
    "theFirstItem" => "a first item",
    (true ? "conditionalItem" : "") => (true ? "it may appear base on the condition" : ""),
    "theLastItem" => "the last item"
);

This way, if the condition is met, the key exists with the data. If not, it's just a blank key with an empty string value. However, given the great list of other answers already, there may be a better option to fit your needs. This isn't exactly clean, but if you're working on a project that has large arrays it may be easier than breaking out of the array and then adding afterwards; especially if the array is multidimensional.