Unable to understand value of PHP associate array

Question

I am unable to understand last value 'changes' => [ ], of associate array.

$table_report = array(
        'table_name' => $table,
        'rows'       => 0,
        'change'     => 0,
        'changes'    => [ ],
    );

Answer 1

[] is an alternative syntax to array() introduced in PHP 5.4

[] is just an empty array.

---

This

$table_report = array(
  'table_name' => $table,
  'rows'       => 0,
  'change'     => 0,
  'changes'    => array()
);

is equivalent to

$table_report = [
  'table_name' => $table,
  'rows'       => 0,
  'change'     => 0,
  'changes'    => []
];