count

Description

Counts all elements in an array when used with an array. When used with an object that implements the Countable interface, it returns the return value of the method Countable::count.

Parameters

value

An array or Countable object.

mode

If the optional mode parameter is set to COUNT_RECURSIVE (or 1), count() will recursively count the array. This is particularly useful for counting all the elements of a multidimensional array.

Caution

count() can detect recursion to avoid an infinite loop, but will emit an E_WARNING every time it does (in case the array contains itself more than once) and return a count higher than may be expected.

Return Values

Returns the number of elements in value. Prior to PHP 8.0.0, if the parameter was neither an Array nor an Object that implements the Countable interface, 1 would be returned, unless value was null, in which case 0 would be returned.

Changelog

Examples

count() example

<?php
$a[0] = 1;
$a[1] = 3;
$a[2] = 5;
var_dump(count($a));

$b[0]  = 7;
$b[5]  = 9;
$b[10] = 11;
var_dump(count($b));
?>

The above example will output:

int(3)
int(3)

count() non Countable|array example (bad example - don't do this)

<?php
$b[0]  = 7;
$b[5]  = 9;
$b[10] = 11;
var_dump(count($b));

var_dump(count(null));

var_dump(count(false));
?>

The above example will output:

int(3)

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: count(): Argument #1 ($var) must be of type Countable .. on line 12

Recursive count() example

<?php
$food = array('fruits' => array('orange', 'banana', 'apple'),
              'veggie' => array('carrot', 'collard', 'pea'));

// recursive count
var_dump(count($food, COUNT_RECURSIVE));

// normal count
var_dump(count($food));

?>

The above example will output:

int(8)
int(2)

Countable object

<?php
class CountOfMethods implements Countable
{
    private function someMethod()
    {
    }

    public function count(): int
    {
        return count(get_class_methods($this));
    }
}

$obj = new CountOfMethods();
var_dump(count($obj));
?>

The above example will output:

int(2)

See Also

• is_array()
• isset()
• empty()
• strlen()
• is_countable()
• Arrays