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Array Functions
PHP Manual

# count

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

count — Count all elements in an array, or something in an object

### Description

int count ( mixed `$array_or_countable` [, int `$mode` = COUNT_NORMAL ] )

Counts all elements in an array, or something in an object.

For objects, if you have SPL installed, you can hook into count() by implementing interface Countable. The interface has exactly one method, Countable::count(), which returns the return value for the count() function.

Please see the Array section of the manual for a detailed explanation of how arrays are implemented and used in PHP.

### Parameters

`array_or_countable`

  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 `array_or_countable`. If the parameter is not an array or not an object with implemented Countable interface, 1 will be returned. There is one exception, if `array_or_countable` is `NULL`, 0 will be returned.

Caution

count() may return 0 for a variable that isn't set, but it may also return 0 for a variable that has been initialized with an empty array. Use isset() to test if a variable is set.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
4.2.0 | The optional `mode` parameter was added.

### Examples

Example #1 count() example

`<?php
$a[0] = 1;
$a[1] = 3;
$a[2] = 5;
$result = count($a);
// $result == 3
$b[0] = 7;
$b[5] = 9;
$b[10] = 11;
$result = count($b);
// $result == 3
$result = count(null);
// $result == 0
$result = count(false);
// $result == 1
?>`

Example #2 Recursive count() example

`<?php
$food = array('fruits' => array('orange', 'banana', 'apple'),
'veggie' => array('carrot', 'collard', 'pea'));
// recursive count
echo count($food, COUNT_RECURSIVE); // output 8
// normal count
echo count($food); // output 2
?>`

### See Also

- is_array() - Finds whether a variable is an array
- isset() - Determine if a variable is set and is not NULL
- strlen() - Get string length

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Array Functions
PHP Manual