Nice URLs, readable URLs, search-engine-friendly URLs. Different names same deal. [...] Turns out this isn't all that hard with PHP - in fact it can turn into something that's very useful from more than just a readability viewpoint.

He shows how to use mod_rewrite and an .htaccess file to automatically grab the request and map it to the right place. Then, the PHP script looks at the incoming data and pushes the correct page back out to the browser. He's also included some modifications to the original idea that allow for numeric grouping and named groups for rewriting content.

In our last exciting adventure (back in early November), we braved crocodiles, ravenous editors, most of the PHP statements, and beginning loops. In this edition we'll cover the final statement, the Switch, and discuss arrays. So sit back, order your R2D2 robot to bring you a cold, frosty Jolt Cola, and let's get cracking.

They start with a simple example of a switch statement (to echo out strings) and follow it with a detailed description of the different sorts of arrays - numeric indexed, associative and multidimensional versions.

Summarizing, the factory pattern can be really useful when it comes to creating multiple objects that belong to the same family. In this three-part series I'm going to take a close look at it, and also demonstrate its remarkable functionality by showing you a decent variety of code samples, so you can start quickly including this pattern into your own PHP applications.

They lay the foundation by creating some basic factory classes for working with numeric and associative arrays. On top of this, they create the processing classes to create things like uppercase numeric arrays and lowercase associative arrays. Finally, they give examples of how to put it to use making several different sorts of arrays, including their output.