hey everyone. I've come up with a bit of code below but i'm having problems with the end result. Specifically, the line $masterarray[$key] = $finalsum; I can't figure out how to add elements to an array using a key that comes from a variable. i would really appreciate any help on this.. [code] //test section with functions //going to be passed each element of the secondarray function wordsum ($variable) { $letterarray = str_split($variable); foreach($letterarray as $letter) { switch ($letter) { case "a": $wordsize[]= "1"; break; case "b": $wordsize[]= "2"; break; default : $wordsize[]= "0"; } //end switch $totalofword = array_sum($wordsize); } //end foreach letter return $totalofword; //print_r($wordsize); //$masterarray[$counter] = $totalofword; } //end function wordsum foreach($secondarray as $word) {//for each word $finalsum = wordsum($word); print(wordsum($word) . "<bR>"); $key = array_search($word, $secondarray); print("<b>" . "$key" . "</b>"); $masterarray[$key] = $finalsum; }//end foreach word print("<br>" . "this is the final output" . "<br>"); print_r(array_values($masterarray)); // //end test section with functions [/code]