php - array type of question -

i'm trying figure out way make small "table" style system in php 10 data rows. because requires constant editing, want replace mysql system in php directly.

the data 10 rows of:

id first name last name 

i give php file id , want pull out first name , last name.

i tried using associative array, turned coding mess syntax on place.

how can set 1 can edit data in single place , first , last name of row $id?

edit - example:

id fname lname 1  john  ter 2  mark  laken 3  peter lars 4  vlad  morch 

basically, how set info above in php such can add new rows without trouble , code still work, , such possible output fname , lname $_get of id value...

hope makes sense!

i'm not understanding why wouldn't want store changing data in database, here how hardcode it:

$data = array(   'id01' => array(     'firstname' => 'eric',     'lastname' => 'smith',   ),   'id02' => array(     'firstname' => 'john',     'lastname' => 'turner',   ),   ... ); 

if returning data in ajax call i'd along these line

echo json_encode($data[$id]); 

of course should test if value in $id in data array.