@jonpday : I don't think we need to check if the variable is set in this case. The reason is the unset is going to treat the variable with a value or NULL the same way. Ideally we can do a array_key_exists() on the array before we access the variable by $info[$key]. Attempting to access an array key which has not been defined is the same as accessing any other undefined variable: an E_NOTICE-level error message will be issued, and the result will be NULL.