As of PHP 5.4.x you can now use 'short syntax arrays' which eliminates the need of this function.
Example #1 'short syntax array'
<?php
    $a = [1, 2, 3, 4];
    print_r($a);
?>
The above example will output:
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 3
    [3] => 4
)
Example #2 'short syntax associative array'
<?php
    $a = ['one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3, 'four' => 4];
    print_r($a);
?>
The above example will output:
Array
(
    [one] => 1
    [two] => 2
    [three] => 3
    [four] => 4
)