On 8 Aug 2011, at 21:41, Andre Polykanine wrote: > DPB> does it return the number of characters within a string --- instead, > DPB> as you likely know, you'd use strlen(). > > For sure. But I'm asking: why it doesn't return 0 if it is not an array? Logically: no array - no items! The manual explains what the function does - you may want to check it out cos it does the same for all the other functions too. "Returns the number of elements in var. If var is not an array or an object with implemented Countable interface, 1 will be returned. There is one exception, if var is NULL, 0 will be returned." IOW, if you pass it a variable, that has one element, so it returns 1. An array may have 0 to many elements, and null, logically, has none. Rocket science this ain't! -Stuart -- Stuart Dallas 3ft9 Ltd http://3ft9.com/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php