php - Arrays not working with echo -

i have code below in wordpress template generates array $meta:

<?php  global $wpdb; $query = ("select id, post_password, post_name     $wpdb->posts     post_password = 'listing'");  $listings = $wpdb->get_results( $query, object);  foreach($listings $listing) {     $meta = get_post_meta($listing->id,'' ,true);     $meta = array_map(function($n) {return $n[0];}, $meta);     echo "<br /> listing->id = $listing->id";      echo "<pre>";     print_r($meta);     echo "</pre>";      $first_name = $meta['first_name'];     $last_name = $meta['last_name']; ?> <tr>     <td>         <?php echo $meta['first_name']; ?>     </td> 

the print_r($meta) above prints out

array (     [first_name] => john     [last_name] => jones     [business_name] =>      [phone] => 208 324-6916     [email] => johnjones@yahoo.com     [page_name] =>      [barcode_number] =>      [website] =>      [header] =>      [description_1] =>      [description_2] =>      [footer] =>  ) 

i want echo these values table cell. if write

    <td>         <?php echo $meta['first_name']; ?>     </td> 

i error: notice: undefined index: first_name in . . .

but if

$first_name = $meta['first_name']; ?>     <td>         <?php echo $first_name; ?>     </td> 

it works. know what's going on? thanks.

you might accidentally overwriting $meta variable somewhere between assignment , output. print full array

<td>     <?php var_dump($meta); ?> </td> 

and compare 1 defined. may surprised it's not you've set before or not array anymore. can happen implicitly, functions extract() etc.