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A Slice dictionary maps to a native PHP associative array. The PHP mapping does not currently support all Slice dictionary types, however, because native PHP associative arrays support only integers and strings as keys.

A Slice dictionary whose key type is an enumeration or one of the primitive types boolean, byte, short, int, or long is mapped as an associative array with an integer key.

A Slice dictionary with a string key type is mapped as an associative array with a string key. All other key types cause a warning to be generated.

Here is the definition of our EmployeeMap:

{zcode:slice}
dictionary<long, Employee> EmployeeMap;
{zcode}

You can create an instance of this dictionary as shown below:

{zcode:php}
$e1 = new Employee;
$e1->number = 42;
$e1->firstName = "Stan";
$e1->lastName = "Lipmann";

$e2 = new Employee;
$e2->number = 77;
$e2->firstName = "Herb";
$e2->lastName = "Sutter";

$em = array($e1->number => $e1, $e2->number => $e2);
{zcode}

The Ice run time validates the elements of a dictionary to ensure that they are compatible with the declared type; InvalidArgumentException exception is raised if an incompatible type is encountered.

See Also

• Dictionaries
• PHP Mapping for Identifiers
• PHP Mapping for Modules
• PHP Mapping for Built-In Types
• PHP Mapping for Enumerations
• PHP Mapping for Structures
• PHP Mapping for Sequences
• PHP Mapping for Constants
• PHP Mapping for Exceptions