[php] Return index of highest value in an array

From an array that looks something like the following, how can I get the index of the highest value in the array. For the array below, the desired result would be '11'.

Array (
    [11] => 14
    [10] => 9
    [12] => 7
    [13] => 7
    [14] => 4
    [15] => 6
)

This question is related to php arrays

The answer is


My solution is:

$maxs = array_keys($array, max($array))

Note:
this way you can retrieve every key related to a given max value.

If you are interested only in one key among all simply use $maxs[0]


Function taken from http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.max.php

function max_key($array) {
    foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
        if ($val == max($array)) return $key; 
    }
}

$arr = array (
    '11' => 14,
    '10' => 9,
    '12' => 7,
    '13' => 7,
    '14' => 4,
    '15' => 6
);

die(var_dump(max_key($arr)));

Works like a charm


<?php

$array = array(11 => 14,
               10 => 9,
               12 => 7,
               13 => 7,
               14 => 4,
               15 => 6);

echo array_search(max($array), $array);

?>

array_search() return values:

Returns the key for needle if it is found in the array, FALSE otherwise.

If needle is found in haystack more than once, the first matching key is returned. To return the keys for all matching values, use array_keys() with the optional search_value parameter instead.


$newarr=arsort($arr);
$max_key=array_shift(array_keys($new_arr));

Something like this should do the trick

function array_max_key($array) {
  $max_key = -1;
  $max_val = -1;

  foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    if ($value > $max_val) {
      $max_key = $key;
      $max_val = $value;
    }
  }

  return $max_key;
}

My solution to get the higher key is as follows:

max(array_keys($values['Users']));

I know it's already answered but here is a solution I find more elegant:

arsort($array);
reset($array);
echo key($array);

and voila!


Other answers may have shorter code but this one should be the most efficient and is easy to understand.

/**
 * Get key of the max value
 *
 * @var array $array
 * @return mixed
*/
function array_key_max_value($array)
{
    $max = null;
    $result = null;
    foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
        if ($max === null || $value > $max) {
            $result = $key;
            $max = $value;
        }
    }

    return $result;
}