Get the first element of an array

Question

I have an array     array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     I would like to get the first element of this array  Expected result  string apple    One requirement  it cannot be done with passing by reference  so array shift is not a good solution   How can I do this

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Nice one with a combination of array slice and implode    arr   array 1  2  3   echo implode array slice  arr  0  1       Outputs 1    ---------------------------------     arr   array       key 1    gt   One        key 2    gt   Two        key 3    gt   Three      echo implode array slice  arr  0  1       Outputs One

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I would do echo current  array

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Simply do   array shift array slice  array 0 1

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There are too many answers here  and the selected answer will work for most of the cases   In my case  I had a 2D array  and array values for some odd reason was removing the keys on the inner arrays  So I end up with this    keys   array keys  myArray      Fetches all the keys  firstElement    myArray  keys 0       Get the first element using first key

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This is a little late to the game  but I was presented with a problem where my array contained array elements as children inside it  and thus I couldn t just get a string representation of the first array element  By using PHP s current   function  I managed this    lt  php      original   array 4   gt  array  one    two    7   gt  array  three    four         reset  original       to reset the internal array pointer         first element   current  original       get the current element      gt    Thanks to all the current solutions helped me get to this answer  I hope this helps someone sometime

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arr    array   array  9   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     echo reset  arr      echoes  apple   If you don t want to lose the current pointer position  just create an alias for the array

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This is not so simple response in the real world  Suppose that we have these examples of possible responses that you can find in some libraries    array1   array     array2   array 1 2 3 4    array3   array  hello   gt  world    foo   gt  bar     array4   null   var dump  reset1   reset  array1    var dump  reset2   reset  array2    var dump  reset3   reset  array3    var dump  reset4   reset  array4       Warning  var dump  array shift1   array shift  array1    var dump  array shift2   array shift  array2    var dump  array shift3   array shift  array3    var dump  array shift4   array shift  array4       Warning  var dump  each1   each  array1    var dump  each2   each  array2    var dump  each3   each  array3    var dump  each4   each  array4       Warning  var dump  array values1   array values  array1  0       Notice var dump  array values2   array values  array2  0    var dump  array values3   array values  array3  0    var dump  array values4   array values  array4  0       Warning  var dump  array slice1   array slice  array1  0  1    var dump  array slice2   array slice  array2  0  1    var dump  array slice3   array slice  array3  0  1    var dump  array slice4   array slice  array4  0  1       Warning  list  elm     array1     Notice var dump  elm   list  elm     array2  var dump  elm   list  elm     array3     Notice var dump  elm   list  elm     array4  var dump  elm     Like you can see  we have several  one line  solutions that work well in some cases  but not in all   In my opinion  you have should that handler only with arrays   Now talking about performance  assuming that we have always array  like this    elm   empty  array    null        array       you would use without errors   array count  array -1   array shift reset array values array slice   array shift is faster than reset  that is more fast than  count  -1   and these three are faster than array values and array slice

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PHP 5 4    array values  array  0

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I don t like fiddling with the array s internal pointer  but it s also inefficient to build a second array with array keys   or array values    so I usually define this   function array first array  f        foreach   f as  v            return  v            throw new Exception  array was empty

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A kludgy way is    foo   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum      function get first   foo        foreach   foo as  k  gt  v           return  v           print get first  foo

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I imagine the author just was looking for a way to get the first element of an array after getting it from some function  mysql fetch row  for example  without generating a STRICT  Only variables should be passed by reference    If it so  almost all the ways described here will get this message    and some of them uses a lot of additional memory duplicating an array  or some part of it   An easy way to avoid it is just assigning the value inline before calling any of those functions    first item of array   current  tmp arr   mysql fetch row           or  first item of array   reset  tmp arr   func get my huge array       This way you don t get the STRICT message on screen  nor in logs  and you don t create any additional arrays  It works with both indexed AND associative arrays

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A small change to what Sarfraz posted is    array   array 1  2  3  4  5    output   array slice  array  0  1   print r   output

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myArray   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     arrayKeys   array keys  myArray       The first element of your array is  echo  myArray  arrayKeys 0

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Use    first   array slice  array  0  1      val   first 0     By default  array slice does not preserve keys  so we can safely use zero as the index

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arr   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     foreach  arr as  first  break  echo  first    Output   apple

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From Laravel s helpers   function head  array        return reset  array       The array being passed by value to the function  the reset   affects the internal pointer of a copy of the array  and it doesn t touch the original array  note it returns false if the array is empty    Usage example    data     foo    bar    baz     current  data      foo next  data      bar head  data      foo next  data      baz   Also  here is an alternative  It s very marginally faster  but more interesting  It lets easily change the default value if the array is empty   function head  array   default   null        foreach   array as  item            return  item            return  default        For the record  here is another answer of mine  for the array s last element

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I think using array values would be your best bet here  You could return the value at index zero from the result of that function to get  apple

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lt  php      arr   array 3   gt   quot Apple quot   5   gt   quot Ball quot   11   gt   quot Cat quot        echo array values  arr  0      Outputs  Apple   gt   Other Example   lt  php      arr   array 3   gt   quot Apple quot   5   gt   quot Ball quot   11   gt   quot Cat quot        echo current  arr      Outputs  Apple     echo reset  arr      Outputs  Apple     echo next  arr      Outputs  Ball     echo current  arr      Outputs  Ball     echo reset  arr      Outputs  Apple   gt

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Get first element   array values  arr  0    Get last element  array reverse  arr  0

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Keep this simple  There are lots of correct answers here  but to minimize all the confusion  these two work and reduce a lot of overhead   key  array  gets the first key of an array  current  array  gets the first value of an array   EDIT  Regarding the comments below  The following example will output  string 13   PHP code test    array   array       1              gt   PHP code test         foo            gt   bar   5   5   gt  89009       case           gt   Random Stuff    rand 100 999       PHP Version    gt  phpversion       0               gt   ending text here      var dump current  array

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Use array keys   to access the keys of your associative array as a numerical indexed array  which is then again can be used as key for the array   When the solution is arr 0        Note  that since the array with the keys is 0-based index  the 1st   element is index 0    You can use a variable and then subtract one  to get your logic  that 1   gt   apple     i   1   arr   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     echo  arr array keys  arr   i-1      Output   apple   Well  for simplicity- just use    arr   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     echo  arr array keys  arr  0      Output   apple   By the first method not just the first element  but can treat an associative array like an indexed array

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array array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum       firstValue   each  array  1     This is much more efficient than array values   because the each   function does not copy the entire array   For more info see http   www php net manual en function each php

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One line closure  copy  reset    lt  php   fruits   array 4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     echo  function   use   fruits    return reset  fruits           Output   apple   Alternatively the shorter short arrow function   echo  fn     gt  reset  fruits        This uses by-value variable binding as above   Both will not mutate the original pointer

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I like the  list  example  but  list  only works on the left-hand-side of an assignment  If we don t want to assign a variable  we would be forced to make up a temporary name  which at best pollutes our scope and at worst overwrites an existing value   list  x    some array    var dump  x     The above will overwrite any existing value of  x  and the  x variable will hang around as long as this scope is active  the end of this function method  or forever if we re in the top-level   This can be worked around using call user func and an anonymous function  but it s clunky   var dump call user func function  arr    list  x     arr  return  x                             some array        If we use anonymous functions like this  we can actually get away with reset and array shift  even though they use pass-by-reference  This is because calling a function will bind its arguments  and these arguments can be passed by reference    var dump call user func function  arr    return reset  arr                              array values some array         However  this is actually overkill  since call user func will perform this temporary assignment internally  This lets us treat pass-by-reference functions as if they were pass-by-value  without any warnings or errors   var dump call user func  reset   array values some array

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PHP 7 3 added two functions for getting the first and the last key of an array directly without modification of the original array and without creating any temporary objects    array key first  array key last     There are several ways to provide this functionality for versions prior to PHP 7 3 0  It is possible to use array keys    but that may be rather inefficient  It is also possible to use reset   and key    but that may change the internal array pointer  An efficient solution  which does not change the internal array pointer  written as polyfill     lt  php if   function exists  array key first          function array key first  arr            foreach  arr as  key   gt   unused                return  key                    return NULL           if   function exists  array key last          function array key last  arr            return array key first array reverse  arr  true              gt

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PHP 7 3 added two functions for getting the first and the last key of an array directly without modification of the original array and without creating any temporary objects    array key first  array key last    Apart from being semantically meaningful  these functions don t even move the array pointer  as foreach would do     Having the keys  one can get the values by the keys directly     Examples  all of them require PHP 7 3    Getting the first last key and value    my array     IT    rules    the    world      first key   array key first  my array    first value    my array  first key     last key   array key last  my array    last value    my array  last key     Getting the first last value as one-liners  assuming the array cannot be empty    first value    my array  array key first  my array       last value    my array  array key last  my array       Getting the first last value as one-liners  with defaults for empty arrays    first value   empty  my array     default     my array  array key first  my array       last value   empty  my array     default     my array  array key last  my array

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Try this    x000D   x000D   fruits   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     x000D  echo reset  fruits    n   x000D   x000D   x000D

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Also worth bearing in mind is the context in which you re doing this  as an exhaustive check can be expensive and not always necessary   For example  this solution works fine for the situation in which I m using it  but obviously it can t be relied on in all cases              A quick and dirty way to determine whether the passed in array is associative or not  assuming that either  lt br  gt      lt br  gt     1  All the keys are strings - i e  associative lt br  gt     or lt br  gt     2  All the keys are numeric - i e  not associative lt br  gt         param array  objects     return boolean     private function isAssociativeArray array  objects           This isn t true in the general case  but it s a close enough  and quick  approximation for the context in        which we re using it       reset  objects       return count  objects   gt  0  amp  amp  is string key  objects

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current  array  can get you the first element of an array  according to the PHP manual   Every array has an internal pointer to its  quot current quot  element  which is initialized to the first element inserted into the array   So it works until you have re-positioned the array pointer  and otherwise you ll have to reset the array using reset

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No one has suggested using the ArrayIterator class    array   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum      first element    new ArrayIterator  array  - gt current    echo  first element     apple    gets around the by reference stipulation of the OP

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Two solutions for you   Solution 1 - Just use the key  You have not said that you can not use it       lt  php        Get the first element of this array       array   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum             Gets the first element by key      result    array 4           Expected result  string apple     assert   result      apple     Expected result  string apple          gt    Solution 2 - array flip     key     lt  php        Get first element of this array  Expected result  string apple      array   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum             Turn values to keys      array   array flip  array           You might thrown a reset in just to make sure        that the array pointer is at the first element         Also  reset returns the first element         reset  myArray           Return the first key      firstKey   key  array        assert   firstKey      apple     Expected result  string apple          gt    Solution 3 - array keys    echo  array array keys  array  0

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Suppose    array   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum       Just use    array key  array     to get first element or  key  array    to get first key   Or you can unlink the first if you want to remove it

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Most of these work  BUT for a quick single line  low resource  call    array   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum     echo  array key  array        key  array  - gt  will return the first key  which is 4 in this example    Although this works  and decently well  please also see my additional answer  https   stackoverflow com a 48410351 1804013

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first value   reset  array      First element s value  first key   key  array      First element s key

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As Mike pointed out  the easiest possible way     arr   array  4   gt   apple   7   gt   orange   13   gt   plum    echo reset  arr      Echoes  apple    If you want to get the key   execute it after reset   echo key  arr      Echoes  4    From PHP s documentation      mixed reset   array  amp  array      Description      reset   rewinds array s internal pointer to the first element and returns the value of the first array element  or FALSE if the array is   empty

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Some arrays don t work with functions like list  reset or current  Maybe they re  faux  arrays - partially implementing ArrayIterator  for example   If you want to pull the first value regardless of the array  you can short-circuit an iterator   foreach  array with unknown keys as  value  break    Your value will then be available in  value and the loop will break after the first iteration  This is more efficient than copying a potentially large array to a function like array unshift array values  arr     You can grab the key this way too   foreach  array with unknown keys as  key  gt  value  break    If you re calling this from a function  simply return early   function grab first  arr        foreach  arr as  value  return  value

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Finding the first and last items in an array      Get the first item in the array print  array 0      Prints 1     Get the last item in the array print end  array

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You can get the Nth element with a language construct   list       First item list  firstItem     yourArray      First item from an array that is returned from a function list  firstItem    functionThatReturnsArray        Second item list     secondItem     yourArray    With the array keys function you can do the same for keys   list  firstKey    array keys  yourArray   list    secondKey    array keys  yourArray

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You can get the first element by using this coding    array key set   array keys  array    first element    array  array key set 0      Or use    i 0  foreach  array as  arr      if  i  0           first element  arr      break        i      echo  first element

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Original answer  but costly  O n     array shift array values  array      In O 1    array pop array reverse  array      Other use cases  etc     If modifying  in the sense of resetting array pointers  of  array is not a problem  you might use   reset  array     This should be theoretically more efficient  if a array  copy  is needed   array shift array slice  array  0  1      With PHP 5 4   but might cause an index error if empty    array values  array  0

[php] Get the first element of an array

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