title: PHP Array Operator
body: <p>I’m now learning PHP array but I have a question about the array operator. I saw an example when creating an array like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  $array = array();
  $array["a"] = "apple";
  $array["b"] = "banana";
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Do I really need to declare the variable as <code>array</code> first?<br>
  Or can I just ignore the first line: <code>$array = array();</code>?</p>