Illegal string offset Warning PHP

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The error Illegal string offset 'whatever' in... generally means: you’re trying to use a string as a full array.

That is actually possible since strings are able to be treated as arrays of single characters in php. So you’re thinking the $var is an array with a key, but it’s just a string with standard numeric keys, for example:

$fruit_counts = array('apples'=>2, 'oranges'=>5, 'pears'=>0);
echo $fruit_counts['oranges']; // echoes 5
$fruit_counts = "an unexpected string assignment";
echo $fruit_counts['oranges']; // causes illegal string offset error

You can see this in action here:
http://ideone.com/fMhmkR

For those who come to this question trying to translate the vagueness of the error into something to do about it, as I was.

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