声明多维数组最明显的是什么？

I have started to understand the 2D array and multi-dimensional array, some reference books mentioned it has different ways to declare them. Which methods will be declare the array more easier and easy to understand?

method 1:

      $pgmCode = array
            (
             "Item1"=>array("...","..."=>array("..."=>1)),
             ......
            )

Or method2:

      $A['ABC']['...'] = '3';
      $A['...']['...']['...'] = '2';

Furthermore, if I will build a database and calling the data as array store, which method will be preferred to use?

Thanks.

$pgmCode = array(
    "item1" = array(
        "subItem1" => true,
        "subItem2" => array("subSubItem1", "subSubItem2"),
    ),
    "item2" = array(
        "subItem1" => true,
        "subItem2" => array("subSubItem1", "subSubItem2"),
    ),
);

Watchout with mixed use of array and string item in an array, if you will do a in_array() on a mixed variable array it will always return true if you don't use the strict mode of the function.

in your method 1

in_array("something", $pgmCode['Item1']); //return true
in_array("something", $pgmCode['Item1'], true); //return false

$pgmCode = array
            (
             "Item1"=>array("...","..."=>array("..."=>1)),
             "Item1"=>array("...","..."=>array("..."=>1)),
             ......
            );

makes it more understandable.