Wordpress: get & store category info - php

Question

I'm wondering: is there any way I can load all the categories and store each one in a different array?
So i've got this code:
<?php
$cat_args = array('orderby' => 'name','order' => 'ASC');
$categories = get_categories($cat_args);
foreach($categories as $category) {
$args = array(
'showposts' => -1,
'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
'caller_get_posts' => 1
);
$posts = get_posts($args);
if ($posts) {
echo '<p>Category: <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.'</a> </p> ';
foreach($posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post);
?> <p><?php the_title(); ?></p> <?php
} // foreach($posts
} // if ($posts
} // foreach($categories
?>
I want to make it so that I can use it later like that (outside the loop):
<?php echo $category[0] -> name . $category[1] -> name . $category[2] -> name; ?>

Answer 1

If you just need an array of category names, you can alter your code as follows; (PLEASE NOTE:caller_get_posts and showposts has been depreciated a couple of years ago. They where replaced by ignore_sticky_posts and posts_per_page respectively)
<?php
$cat_args = array('orderby' => 'name','order' => 'ASC');
$categories = get_categories($cat_args);
$category_names = array();
foreach($categories as $category) {
$category_names[] = $category->name;
$args = array(
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
);
$posts = get_posts($args);
if ($posts) {
echo '<p>Category: <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.'</a> </p> ';
foreach($posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post);
?> <p><?php the_title(); ?></p> <?php
} // foreach($posts
} // if ($posts
} // foreach($categories
?>
$category_names will now hold an array of category names.
If you need to display a list of categories with posts below them, you should check out my post here on WPSE. Your method is very resource intensive and slow. My method is superfast, use transients, and at optimum does only 2 db queries in under 0.002 seconds

Answer 2

Note: You already have the data in this format in $categories variable.
So you can use anywhere like this
<?php echo $categories[0] -> name . $categories[1] -> name . $categories[2] -> name; ?>