 <p>You are declaring an array, if you want to add another array inside the first one, try something like this: </p> <pre><code>$obj = array( array("Office", "Orders", array("role" =&gt; "style")), array("Jacksonville", 1254, "magenta"), array("Orlando", 653, "blue"), array("Sarasota", 789, "green"), array("Stuart", 468, "yellow"), array("Tampa", 982, "cyan")); </code></pre>