Zend Certified PHP Engineer (ZCPE) Practice Test 2025 – All-in-One Guide to Achieve Certification Success!

The outcome of using the array NOT EQUAL operator ( != ) in PHP is that it checks if two arrays are not the same in terms of values only. This means that when performing this comparison, PHP evaluates the content of the arrays without considering their structure, such as the order of the elements or the keys associated with those values.

When using the NOT EQUAL operator, if any value within one array differs from the corresponding value in the other array, the result will be true. For example, if you have two arrays with the same values but in a different order or in different keys, the comparison will return true because PHP does not consider the order of elements while performing this check.

This understanding clarifies why the other options do not accurately describe the behavior of the NOT EQUAL operator. For instance, the equality checks with type enforcement pertain to the strict equal ( === ) or equal ( == ) operators, which are focused more on the values and their types. In contrast, the assertion about completely different arrays would imply a stricter comparison than what the NOT EQUAL operator entails, especially in terms of not considering the equality of keys or item order in this context.