Array keys aren't quoted

[Allright]

The keys in an associative array are strings, but in its default error reporting state the engine won't complain if array keys aren't quoted.

[Amb]

Omitting quotation marks for array keys is poor practice, however. If you use unquoted strings as keys and your error reporting is set to a higher-than-standard level, the engine will complain every time such an element is met. Even worse, if an unquoted array key coincides with a constant, the value of the constant will be substituted for the key as typed.

[attagirl]

If the key is stored in a variable, you do not need to use quotation marks:

$agekey = "age";
print $character[$agekey];