Hi Larry,
I recently came across an issue whereby array_merge would not accept the second argument, an array with a generated PHP variable name, without typecasting it.
The array in question tested as an array with var_dump so I did not understand why the array_merge was failing saying that the second argument was not an array.
But typecasting it as an array solved the issue.
$destination_array = array_merge($destination_array, array(${"generated_array_name" . $suffix})); // works
Posted in case it is of interest.
PHP version 5.5.3
Cheers from Oz.