Returning an array is a little bit more complex. Here we take a string and a count and return an array with the specified number of elements containing the given string.

So, to return an array you first call array_init() on the return_value zval and then populate the array by calling the various add_* functions. The functions available to populate an array are:

Recall that PHP supports the non-indexed array syntax. eg.

This same concept is available in the extension API using these functions:

You can also create an array with non-numeric indices. Otherwise known as an associative array using these functions:

To return a 2-dimensional array, you simply make new arrays and add them as elements of the top array. Like this:

Note the use of add_assoc_long_ex() in the above example. If we know the length of the key, then this is slightly faster than calling add_assoc_long(). The macro definition shows why: