What s the best way to get the last element of an array without deleting it

Question

Ok   I know all about array pop    but that deletes the last element   What s the best way to get the last element of an array without deleting it   EDIT  Here s a bonus    array   array  a    gt   a    b    gt   b    c    gt   c      or even   array   array  a    b    c    d    unset  array 2    echo  array sizeof  array  - 1      Output  PHP Notice   Undefined offset   2 in - on line 4

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One more possible solution      last element   array reverse   array   0

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Note  For  PHP 7    7 3 0  we can use  array key last     Gets the last key of an array  array key last   array  array     mixed   Ref  http   php net manual en function array-key-last php

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array values array reverse  array   0  works in all those situations

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untested  wouldn t this work    lt  php  last element end array values  array      gt    Since the array returned by array values is fleeting  no-one cares if it s pointer is reset   and if you need the key to go with it I guess you d do    lt  php  last key end array keys  array      gt

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If you don t care about modifying the internal pointer  the following lines support both indexed and associative arrays      false if empty array  last   end  array       null if empty array  last    empty  array    end  array    null   If you want an utility function that doesn t modify the internal pointer  because the array is passed by value to the function  so the function operates on a copy of it   function array last  array        if  empty  array             return null            return end  array      Though  PHP produces copies  quot on-the-fly quot   i e  only when actually needed  As the end   function modifies the array  internally a copy of the whole array  minus one item  is generated  Therefore  I would recommend the following alternative that is actually faster  as internally it doesn t copy the array  it just makes a slice  function array last  array        if  empty  array             return null            foreach  array slice  array  -1  as  value            return  value           Additionally  the  quot foreach   return quot  is a tweak for efficiently getting the first  and here single  item  Finally  the fastest alternative but for indexed arrays  and without gaps  only   last    empty  array     array count  array -1    null     For the record  here is another answer of mine  for the array s first element

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As of PHP version 7 3 the functions array key first and array key last has been introduced   Since arrays in PHP are not strict array types  i e  fixed sized collections of fixed sized fields starting at index 0  but dynamically extended associative array  the handling of positions with unknown keys is hard and workarounds do not perform very well  In contrast real arrays would be internally addressed via pointer arithmethics very rapidly and the last index is already known at compile-time by declaration   At least the problem with the first and last position is solved by builtin functions now since version 7 3  This even works without any warnings on array literals out of the box    first   array key first   1  2   A   gt 65   B   gt 66  3  4       last    array key last    1  2   A   gt 65   B   gt 66  3  4        Obviously the last value is    array array key last  array

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What if you want to get the last element of array inside of the loop of it s array   The code below will result into an infinite loop   foreach   array as  item      last element   end  array    reset  array    if   last element     item          something useful here        The solution is obviously simple for non associative arrays    last element    array sizeof   array  - 1   foreach   array as  key   gt   item     if   last element     item          something useful here

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file name dm      FILES  video    name                                     ext thumb   extension  file name dm                                echo extension  file name dm    function extension  str        str implode    explode       str         str explode      str        str strtolower end  str         return  str

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You will get last element from an array easily by using below logic   array   array  a    b    c    d    echo   array count  array -1      Not only last element but you can also get second last  third last and so on by using below logic   for second last element you have to pass just number 2 in the above statement for example   echo   array count  array -2

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Short and sweet   I came up with solution to remove error message and preserve one-liner form and efficient performance    lastEl   array values array slice  array  -1   0     -- previous solution   lastEl   array pop  array slice  array  -1       Note  The extra parentheses are needed to avoid a PHP Strict standards   Only variables should be passed by reference

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Simply   last element   end  array values  array     Doesn t reset the array and doesn t gives STRICT warnings    PS  Since the most voted answer still hasn t the double parenthesis  I submitted this answer

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Another solution    array   array  a    gt   a    b    gt   b    c    gt   c     lastItem    array  array keys  array   count  array -1      echo  lastItem

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For getting the last value from Array    array slice  arr -1 1      For Removing last value form array    array slice  arr 0 count  arr -1

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Try    myLastElement   end  yourArray     To reset it  thanks  hopeseekr     reset  yourArray     Link to manual   David Murdoch added    myLastElement   end array values  yourArray      and now you don t need to call reset    On E STRICT this produces the warning   Strict Standards  Only variables should be passed by reference   Thanks o O Tync and everyone

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I think this is a slight improvement on all the existing answers    lastElement   count  array   gt  0   array values array slice  array  -1   0    null     Performs better than end   or solutions using array keys    especially with large arrays Won t modify the array s internal pointer Won t try to access an undefined offset for empty arrays Will work as expected for empty arrays  indexed arrays  mixed arrays  and associative arrays

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I need this quite often to deal with stacks  and i always find myself baffled that there s no native function that does it without manipulating the array or its internal pointer in some form   So i usually carry around a util function that s also safe to use on associative arrays   function array last  array        if  count  array   lt  1          return null        keys   array keys  array       return  array  keys sizeof  keys  - 1

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Nowadays  I d prefer always having this helper  as suggested at an php net end answer    lt  php function endc  array        return end  array       items   array  one   two   three     lastItem   endc  items      three  current   current  items      one   gt    This will always keeps the pointer as it is and we will never have to worry about parenthesis  strict standards or whatever

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One way to avoid pass-by-reference errors  eg   end array values  foo     is to use call user func or call user func array      PHP Fatal error  Only variables can be passed by reference    No output  500 server error  var dump end array 1  2  3         No errors  but modifies the array s internal pointer    Outputs  int 3   var dump call user func  end   array 1  2  3         PHP Strict standards   Only variables should be passed by reference    Outputs  int 3   var dump end array values array 1  2  3          No errors  doesn t change the array    Outputs  int 3   var dump call user func  end   array values array 1  2  3

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What s wrong with array slice  array  -1    See Manual  http   us1 php net array slice   array slice   returns an array  Probably not what you are looking for  You want the element

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To get the last element of an array  use    lastElement   array slice  array  -1  0     Benchmark  I iterated 1 000 times  grabbing the last element of small and large arrays that contained 100 and 50 000 elements  respectively   Method   array count  array -1   Small array  s   0 000319957733154 Large array  s   0 000526905059814 Note  Fastest   count   must access an internal length property  Note  This method only works if the array is naturally-keyed  0  1  2         Method  array slice  array  -1  0   Small array  s   0 00145292282104 Large array  s   0 499367952347  Method  array pop  array slice  array  -1  1     Small array  s   0 00162816047668 Large array  s   0 513121843338  Method  end  array   Small array  s   0 0028350353241 Large array  s   4 81077480316 Note  Slowest      I used PHP Version 5 5 32

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To do this and avoid the E STRICT and not mess with the array s internal pointer you can use   function lelement  array   return end  array      last element   lelement  array     lelement only works with a copy so it doesn t affect the array s pointer

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lastValue   end array values  array     No modification is made to  array pointers  This avoids the   reset  array    which might not be desired in certain conditions

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As of PHP 7 3  array key last is available   lastEl    myArray array key last  myArray

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my simple solution  pretty and easy to understand   array reverse  array  0

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In almost every language with arrays you can t really go wrong with A A size-1    I can t think of an example of a language with 1 based arrays  as opposed to zero based

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end   will provide the last element of an array   array   array  a    gt   a    b    gt   b    c    gt   c    echo end  array     output  c   array1   array  a    b    c    d    echo end  array1     output  d

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How about   current array slice  array  -1      works for associative arrays works when  array        returns false  doesn t affect the original array

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Use the end   function    array    1 2 3 4 5    last   end  array      5

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For me    last    array count  array  - 1     With associatives    last  array values  array  count  array - 1

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The many answers in this thread present us with many different options  To be able to choose from them I needed to understand their behavior and performance  In this answer I will share my findings with you  benchmarked against PHP versions 5 6 38  7 2 10 and 7 3 0RC1  expected Dec 13 2018    The options   lt  lt option code gt  gt s  I will test are    option  1   x   array values array slice  array  -1   0    as suggested by rolacja  option  2   x   array slice  array  -1  0    as suggested by Stoutie  option  3   x   array pop  array slice  array  -1      as suggested by rolacja  option  4   x   array pop  array slice  array  -1  1      as suggested by Westy92  option  5   x   end  array   reset  array    as suggested by Iznogood  option  6   x   end  array values  array      as suggested by TecBrat  option  7   x    array count  array -1    as suggested by Mirko Pagliai  option  8   keys   array keys  array    x    array  keys count  keys -1     as suggested by thrau  option  9   x    array     array pop  array    as suggested by user2782001  option 10   x    array array key last  array     as suggested by Quasimodo s clone   available per PHP 7 3     functions mentioned  array key last   array keys   array pop   array slice   array values   count   end   reset   The test inputs   lt  lt input code gt  gt s  to combine with    null     array   null  empty    array       last null    array     a   b   c  null   auto idx    array     a   b   c   d    shuffle    array        array 1     a    array 2     b    array 0     c   100    array       for  i 0  i lt 100  i       array      i    100000    array       for  i 0  i lt 100000  i       array      i      For testing I will use the 5 6 38  7 2 10 and 7 3 0RC1 PHP docker containers like   sudo docker run -it --rm php 5 6 38-cli-stretch php -r   lt  lt  lt CODE HERE gt  gt  gt     Each combination of the above listed  lt  lt option code gt  gt s and  lt  lt input code gt  gt s will be run on all versions of PHP  For each test run the following code snippet is used    lt  lt input code gt  gt   error reporting E ALL     lt  lt option code gt  gt   error reporting 0    before microtime TRUE   for  i 0  i lt 100  i    echo     for  j 0  j lt 100  j       lt  lt option code gt  gt        after microtime TRUE   echo   n   var dump  x   echo round   after- before   100 100  1000 1000 1000     For each run this will var dump the last retrieved last value of the test input and print the average duration of one iteration in femtoseconds  0 000000000000001th of a second    The results are as follows                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      T  E  S  T     I  N  P  U  T     -     5     6     3  8                                                           T  E  S  T     I  N  P  U  T     -     7     2     1  0                                                          T  E  S  T     I  N  P  U  T     -     7     3     0  R  C  1                                                                                                            null           empty       last null        auto idx         shuffle             100          100000             null           empty       last null        auto idx         shuffle             100          100000             null           empty       last null        auto idx         shuffle             100          100000                                  OPTIONS - ERRORS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              lt       1    x   array values array slice  array  -1   0                             W1   W2              N1               -               -               -               -               -          W1   W2              N1               -               -               -               -               -          W1   W2              N1               -               -               -               -               -        2    x   array slice  array  -1  0                                                W1              N1               -               -               -               -               -               W1              N1               -               -               -               -               -               W1              N1               -               -               -               -               -        3    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1                                   W1   W3               -               -               -               -               -               -     W1   N2   W3              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2     W1   N2   W3              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2        4    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1  1                                W1   W3               -               -               -               -               -               -     W1   N2   W3              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2     W1   N2   W3              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2        5    x   end  array   reset  array                                           W4   W5               -               -               -               -               -               -          W4   W5              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2          W4   W5               -               -               -               -               -               -        6    x   end  array values  array                                            W2   W4               -               -               -               -               -               -     W2   N2   W4               -               -               -               -               -               -     W2   N2   W4              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2              N2        7    x    array count  array -1                                                    -              N3               -               -               -               -               -               W7              N3               -               -               -               -               -               W7              N3               -               -               -               -               -        8    keys   array keys  array    x    array  keys count  keys -1                  W6         N3   N4               -               -               -               -               -          W6   W7         N3   N4               -               -               -               -               -          W6   W7         N3   N4               -               -               -               -               -        9    x    array     array pop  array                                              W3               -               -               -               -               -               -               W3               -               -               -               -               -               -               W3               -               -               -               -               -               -       10    x    array array key last  array                                             F1              F1              F1              F1              F1              F1              F1               F2              F2              F2              F2              F2              F2              F2               W8              N4              F2              F2              F2              F2              F2                              OPTIONS - VALUE RETRIEVED                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         lt       1    x   array values array slice  array  -1   0                                NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         2    x   array slice  array  -1  0                                              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         3    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1                                      NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         4    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1  1                                   NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         5    x   end  array   reset  array                                              NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         6    x   end  array values  array                                               NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL     bool false             NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         7    x    array count  array -1                                                 NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   b          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   b          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   b          int 99       int 99999         8    keys   array keys  array    x    array  keys count  keys -1                NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999         9    x    array     array pop  array                                            NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999              NULL            NULL            NULL   string 1   d    string 1   c          int 99       int 99999        10    x    array array key last  array                                            N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A              N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A              N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A                       OPTIONS - FEMTOSECONDS PER ITERATION                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     lt       1    x   array values array slice  array  -1   0                                 803             466             390             384             373             764       1 046 642              691             252             101             128              93             170          89 028              695             235              90              97              95             188          87 991        2    x   array slice  array  -1  0                                               414             349             252             248             246             604       1 038 074              373             249              85              91              90             164          90 750              367             224              78              85              80             155          86 141        3    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1                                       724             228             323             318             350             673       1 042 263              988             285             309             317             331             401          88 363              877             266             298             300             326             403          87 279        4    x   array pop  array slice  array  -1  1                                    734             266             358             356             349             699       1 050 101              887             288             316             322             314             408          88 402              935             268             335             315             313             403          86 445        5    x   end  array   reset  array                                               715             186             185             180             176             185             172              674              73              69              70              66              65              70              693              65              85              74              68              70              69        6    x   end  array values  array                                                877             205             320             337             304           2 901       7 921 860              948             300             336             308             309             509      29 696 951              946             262             301             309             302             499      29 234 928        7    x    array count  array -1                                                  123             300             137             139             143             140             144              312             218              48              53              45              47              51              296             217              46              44              53              53              55        8    keys   array keys  array    x    array  keys count  keys -1                 494             593             418             435             399           3 873      12 199 450              665             407             103             109             114             431      30 053 730              647             445              91              95              96             419      30 718 586        9    x    array     array pop  array                                             186             178             175             188             180             181             186               83              78              75              71              74              69              83               71              64              70              64              68              69              81       10    x    array array key last  array                                            N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A              N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A             N A              370             223              49              52              61              57              52                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The above mentioned Fatal  Warning and Notice codes translate as   F1   Fatal error  Call to undefined function array key last   in Command line code on line 1 F2   Fatal error  Uncaught Error  Call to undefined function array key last   in Command line code 1 W1   Warning  array slice   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W2   Warning  array values   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W3   Warning  array pop   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W4   Warning  end   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W5   Warning  reset   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W6   Warning  array keys   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 W7   Warning  count    Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in Command line code on line 1 W8   Warning  array key last   expects parameter 1 to be array  null given in Command line code on line 1 N1   Notice  Undefined offset  0 in Command line code on line 1 N2   Notice  Only variables should be passed by reference in Command line code on line 1 N3   Notice  Undefined offset  -1 in Command line code on line 1 N4   Notice  Undefined index   in Command line code on line 1   Based on this output I draw the following conclusions    newer versions of PHP perform better with the exception of these options that became significantly slower    option  6   x   end  array values  array     option  8   keys   array keys  array    x    array  keys count  keys -1     these options scale best for very large arrays    option  5   x   end  array   reset  array   option  7   x    array count  array -1   option  9   x    array     array pop  array   option 10   x    array array key last  array     since PHP 7 3   these options should only be used for auto-indexed arrays    option  7   x    array count  array -1    due to use of count  option  9   x    array     array pop  array    due to assigning value losing original key   this option does not preserve the array s internal pointer   option  5   x   end  array   reset  array    this option is an attempt to modify option  5  to preserve the array s internal pointer  but sadly it does not scale well for very large arrays    option  6   x   end  array values  array      the new array key last function seems to have none of the above mentioned limitations with the exception of still being an RC at the time of this writing  so use the RC or await it s release Dec 2018     option 10   x    array array key last  array     since PHP 7 3     A bit depending on whether using the array as stack or as queue you can make variations on option 9

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The top answers are great  but as mentioned by  paul-van-leeuwen and  quasimodos-clone  PHP 7 3 will introduce two new functions to solve this problem directly - array key first   and array key last     You can start using this syntax today with the following polyfill  or shim  functions           Polyfill for array key last   available from PHP 7 3 if   function exists  array key last        function array key last  array        return array slice array keys  array  -1  0             Polyfill for array key first   available from PHP 7 3 if   function exists  array key first        function array key first  array        return array slice array keys  array  0  0             Usage examples   first element key     array key first  array    first element value    array array key first  array      last element key      array key last  array    last element value     array array key last  array      Caveat  This requires PHP 5 4 or greater

[php] What's the best way to get the last element of an array without deleting it?

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