Array Merging in PHP preserving keys. array_merge reindexing arrays

Say you have two arrays with the following values in them:


$array1 = array(13=>'bad luck', 7=>'billion people');
$array2 = array(1=>'number');

And you want the final result to be


$final = (1=>'number', 13=>'billion people', 13=>'bad luck');

But when you merge arrays and using array_merge, u got the indexes being ripped out from the second or first array whose keys are numeric?

The result using array_merge would be

(0 => 'bad luck', 1 => 'billion people', 2 => 'number')

And you don’t want that

Here is a simple way – just use operator overloading of the plus sign

$array1 = array(13=>'bad luck', 7=>'billon population');
$array2 = array(1=>'number');
$merged = $array1 + array2;

Note: This is provided the keys are not overlapping, otherwise, the first array would take ownership of keeping the value.

Gullele's Corner