[php] In PHP, how do you change the key of an array element?

I have an associative array in the form key => value where key is a numerical value, however it is not a sequential numerical value. The key is actually an ID number and the value is a count. This is fine for most instances, however I want a function that gets the human-readable name of the array and uses that for the key, without changing the value.

I didn't see a function that does this, but I'm assuming I need to provide the old key and new key (both of which I have) and transform the array. Is there an efficient way of doing this?

This question is related to php arrays associative-array

The answer is


One which preservers ordering that's simple to understand:

function rename_array_key(array $array, $old_key, $new_key) {
  if (!array_key_exists($old_key, $array)) {
      return $array;
  }
  $new_array = [];
  foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    $new_key = $old_key === $key
      ? $new_key
      : $key;
    $new_array[$new_key] = $value;
  }
  return $new_array;
}

if your array is built from a database query, you can change the key directly from the mysql statement:

instead of

"select ´id´ from ´tablename´..."

use something like:

"select ´id´ **as NEWNAME** from ´tablename´..."

I like KernelM's solution, but I needed something that would handle potential key conflicts (where a new key may match an existing key). Here is what I came up with:

function swapKeys( &$arr, $origKey, $newKey, &$pendingKeys ) {
    if( !isset( $arr[$newKey] ) ) {
        $arr[$newKey] = $arr[$origKey];
        unset( $arr[$origKey] );
        if( isset( $pendingKeys[$origKey] ) ) {
            // recursion to handle conflicting keys with conflicting keys
            swapKeys( $arr, $pendingKeys[$origKey], $origKey, $pendingKeys );
            unset( $pendingKeys[$origKey] );
        }
    } elseif( $newKey != $origKey ) {
        $pendingKeys[$newKey] = $origKey;
    }
}

You can then cycle through an array like this:

$myArray = array( '1970-01-01 00:00:01', '1970-01-01 00:01:00' );
$pendingKeys = array();
foreach( $myArray as $key => $myArrayValue ) {
    // NOTE: strtotime( '1970-01-01 00:00:01' ) = 1 (a conflicting key)
    $timestamp = strtotime( $myArrayValue );
    swapKeys( $myArray, $key, $timestamp, $pendingKeys );
}
// RESULT: $myArray == array( 1=>'1970-01-01 00:00:01', 60=>'1970-01-01 00:01:00' )

$array = [
    'old1' => 1
    'old2' => 2
];

$renameMap = [
    'old1' => 'new1',   
    'old2' => 'new2'
];

$array = array_combine(array_map(function($el) use ($renameMap) {
    return $renameMap[$el];
}, array_keys($array)), array_values($array));

/*
$array = [
    'new1' => 1
    'new2' => 2
];
*/

The answer from KernelM is nice, but in order to avoid the issue raised by Greg in the comment (conflicting keys), using a new array would be safer

$newarr[$newkey] = $oldarr[$oldkey];
$oldarr=$newarr;
unset($newarr);

This function will rename an array key, keeping its position, by combining with index searching.

function renameArrKey($arr, $oldKey, $newKey){
    if(!isset($arr[$oldKey])) return $arr; // Failsafe
    $keys = array_keys($arr);
    $keys[array_search($oldKey, $keys)] = $newKey;
    $newArr = array_combine($keys, $arr);
    return $newArr;
}

Usage:

$arr = renameArrKey($arr, 'old_key', 'new_key');

You could use a second associative array that maps human readable names to the id's. That would also provide a Many to 1 relationship. Then do something like this:

echo 'Widgets: ' . $data[$humanreadbleMapping['Widgets']];

If your array is recursive you can use this function: test this data:

    $datos = array
    (
        '0' => array
            (
                'no' => 1,
                'id_maquina' => 1,
                'id_transaccion' => 1276316093,
                'ultimo_cambio' => 'asdfsaf',
                'fecha_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 1275804000,
                'mecanico_ultimo_mantenimiento' =>'asdfas',
                'fecha_ultima_reparacion' => 1275804000,
                'mecanico_ultima_reparacion' => 'sadfasf',
                'fecha_siguiente_mantenimiento' => 1275804000,
                'fecha_ultima_falla' => 0,
                'total_fallas' => 0,
            ),

        '1' => array
            (
                'no' => 2,
                'id_maquina' => 2,
                'id_transaccion' => 1276494575,
                'ultimo_cambio' => 'xx',
                'fecha_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 1275372000,
                'mecanico_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 'xx',
                'fecha_ultima_reparacion' => 1275458400,
                'mecanico_ultima_reparacion' => 'xx',
                'fecha_siguiente_mantenimiento' => 1275372000,
                'fecha_ultima_falla' => 0,
                'total_fallas' => 0,
            )
    );

here is the function:

function changekeyname($array, $newkey, $oldkey)
{
   foreach ($array as $key => $value) 
   {
      if (is_array($value))
         $array[$key] = changekeyname($value,$newkey,$oldkey);
      else
        {
             $array[$newkey] =  $array[$oldkey];    
        }

   }
   unset($array[$oldkey]);          
   return $array;   
}

There is an alternative way to change the key of an array element when working with a full array - without changing the order of the array. It's simply to copy the array into a new array.

For instance, I was working with a mixed, multi-dimensional array that contained indexed and associative keys - and I wanted to replace the integer keys with their values, without breaking the order.

I did so by switching key/value for all numeric array entries - here: ['0'=>'foo']. Note that the order is intact.

<?php
$arr = [
    'foo',
    'bar'=>'alfa',
    'baz'=>['a'=>'hello', 'b'=>'world'],
];

foreach($arr as $k=>$v) {
    $kk = is_numeric($k) ? $v : $k;
    $vv = is_numeric($k) ? null : $v;
    $arr2[$kk] = $vv;
}

print_r($arr2);

Output:

Array (
    [foo] => 
    [bar] => alfa
    [baz] => Array (
            [a] => hello
            [b] => world
        )
)

If your array is recursive you can use this function: test this data:

    $datos = array
    (
        '0' => array
            (
                'no' => 1,
                'id_maquina' => 1,
                'id_transaccion' => 1276316093,
                'ultimo_cambio' => 'asdfsaf',
                'fecha_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 1275804000,
                'mecanico_ultimo_mantenimiento' =>'asdfas',
                'fecha_ultima_reparacion' => 1275804000,
                'mecanico_ultima_reparacion' => 'sadfasf',
                'fecha_siguiente_mantenimiento' => 1275804000,
                'fecha_ultima_falla' => 0,
                'total_fallas' => 0,
            ),

        '1' => array
            (
                'no' => 2,
                'id_maquina' => 2,
                'id_transaccion' => 1276494575,
                'ultimo_cambio' => 'xx',
                'fecha_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 1275372000,
                'mecanico_ultimo_mantenimiento' => 'xx',
                'fecha_ultima_reparacion' => 1275458400,
                'mecanico_ultima_reparacion' => 'xx',
                'fecha_siguiente_mantenimiento' => 1275372000,
                'fecha_ultima_falla' => 0,
                'total_fallas' => 0,
            )
    );

here is the function:

function changekeyname($array, $newkey, $oldkey)
{
   foreach ($array as $key => $value) 
   {
      if (is_array($value))
         $array[$key] = changekeyname($value,$newkey,$oldkey);
      else
        {
             $array[$newkey] =  $array[$oldkey];    
        }

   }
   unset($array[$oldkey]);          
   return $array;   
}

You could use a second associative array that maps human readable names to the id's. That would also provide a Many to 1 relationship. Then do something like this:

echo 'Widgets: ' . $data[$humanreadbleMapping['Widgets']];

$array = [
    'old1' => 1
    'old2' => 2
];

$renameMap = [
    'old1' => 'new1',   
    'old2' => 'new2'
];

$array = array_combine(array_map(function($el) use ($renameMap) {
    return $renameMap[$el];
}, array_keys($array)), array_values($array));

/*
$array = [
    'new1' => 1
    'new2' => 2
];
*/

Hmm, I'm not test before, but I think this code working

function replace_array_key($data) {
    $mapping = [
        'old_key_1' => 'new_key_1',
        'old_key_2' => 'new_key_2',
    ];

    $data = json_encode($data);
    foreach ($mapping as $needed => $replace) {
        $data = str_replace('"'.$needed.'":', '"'.$replace.'":', $data);
    }

    return json_decode($data, true);
}

this works for renaming the first key:

$a = ['catine' => 'cat', 'canine'  => 'dog'];
$tmpa['feline'] = $a['catine'];
unset($a['catine']);
$a = $tmpa + $a;

then, print_r($a) renders a repaired in-order array:

Array
(
    [feline] => cat
    [canine] => dog
)

this works for renaming an arbitrary key:

$a = ['canine'  => 'dog', 'catine' => 'cat', 'porcine' => 'pig']
$af = array_flip($a)
$af['cat'] = 'feline';
$a = array_flip($af)

print_r($a)

Array
(
    [canine] => dog
    [feline] => cat
    [porcine] => pig
)

a generalized function:

function renameKey($oldkey, $newkey, $array) {
    $val = $array[$oldkey];
    $tmp_A = array_flip($array);
    $tmp_A[$val] = $newkey;

    return array_flip($tmp_A);
}

Easy stuff:

this function will accept the target $hash and $replacements is also a hash containing newkey=>oldkey associations.

This function will preserve original order, but could be problematic for very large (like above 10k records) arrays regarding performance & memory.

function keyRename(array $hash, array $replacements) {
    $new=array();
    foreach($hash as $k=>$v)
    {
        if($ok=array_search($k,$replacements))
            $k=$ok;
        $new[$k]=$v;
    }
    return $new;    
}

this alternative function would do the same, with far better performance & memory usage, at the cost of loosing original order (which should not be a problem since it is hashtable!)

function keyRename(array $hash, array $replacements) {

    foreach($hash as $k=>$v)
        if($ok=array_search($k,$replacements))
        {
          $hash[$ok]=$v;
          unset($hash[$k]);
        }

    return $hash;       
}

If you want to replace several keys at once (preserving order):

/**
 * Rename keys of an array
 * @param array $array (asoc)
 * @param array $replacement_keys (indexed)
 * @return array
 */
function rename_keys($array, $replacement_keys)  {
      return array_combine($replacement_keys, array_values($array));
}

Usage:

$myarr = array("a" => 22, "b" => 144, "c" => 43);
$newkeys = array("x","y","z");
print_r(rename_keys($myarr, $newkeys));
//must return: array("x" => 22, "y" => 144, "z" => 43);

You can use this function based on array_walk:

function mapToIDs($array, $id_field_name = 'id')
{
    $result = [];
    array_walk($array, 
        function(&$value, $key) use (&$result, $id_field_name)
        {
            $result[$value[$id_field_name]] = $value;
        }
    );
    return $result;
}

$arr = [0 => ['id' => 'one', 'fruit' => 'apple'], 1 => ['id' => 'two', 'fruit' => 'banana']];
print_r($arr);
print_r(mapToIDs($arr));

It gives:

Array(
    [0] => Array(
        [id] => one
        [fruit] => apple
    )
    [1] => Array(
        [id] => two
        [fruit] => banana
    )
)

Array(
    [one] => Array(
        [id] => one
        [fruit] => apple
    )
    [two] => Array(
        [id] => two
        [fruit] => banana
    )
)

Here is a helper function to achieve that:

/**
 * Helper function to rename array keys.
 */
function _rename_arr_key($oldkey, $newkey, array &$arr) {
    if (array_key_exists($oldkey, $arr)) {
        $arr[$newkey] = $arr[$oldkey];
        unset($arr[$oldkey]);
        return TRUE;
    } else {
        return FALSE;
    }
}

pretty based on @KernelM answer.

Usage:

_rename_arr_key('oldkey', 'newkey', $my_array);

It will return true on successful rename, otherwise false.


this code will help to change the oldkey to new one

$i = 0;
$keys_array=array("0"=>"one","1"=>"two");

$keys = array_keys($keys_array);

for($i=0;$i<count($keys);$i++) {
    $keys_array[$keys_array[$i]]=$keys_array[$i];
    unset($keys_array[$i]);
}
print_r($keys_array);

display like

$keys_array=array("one"=>"one","two"=>"two");

You can write simple function that applies the callback to the keys of the given array. Similar to array_map

<?php
function array_map_keys(callable $callback, array $array) {
    return array_merge([], ...array_map(
        function ($key, $value) use ($callback) { return [$callback($key) => $value]; },
        array_keys($array),
        $array
    ));
}

$array = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 'test', 'c' => ['x' => 1, 'y' => 2]];
$newArray = array_map_keys(function($key) { return 'new' . ucfirst($key); }, $array);

echo json_encode($array); // {"a":1,"b":"test","c":{"x":1,"y":2}}
echo json_encode($newArray); // {"newA":1,"newB":"test","newC":{"x":1,"y":2}}

Here is a gist https://gist.github.com/vardius/650367e15abfb58bcd72ca47eff096ca#file-array_map_keys-php.


You can use this function based on array_walk:

function mapToIDs($array, $id_field_name = 'id')
{
    $result = [];
    array_walk($array, 
        function(&$value, $key) use (&$result, $id_field_name)
        {
            $result[$value[$id_field_name]] = $value;
        }
    );
    return $result;
}

$arr = [0 => ['id' => 'one', 'fruit' => 'apple'], 1 => ['id' => 'two', 'fruit' => 'banana']];
print_r($arr);
print_r(mapToIDs($arr));

It gives:

Array(
    [0] => Array(
        [id] => one
        [fruit] => apple
    )
    [1] => Array(
        [id] => two
        [fruit] => banana
    )
)

Array(
    [one] => Array(
        [id] => one
        [fruit] => apple
    )
    [two] => Array(
        [id] => two
        [fruit] => banana
    )
)

Simple benchmark comparison of both solution.

Solution 1 Copy and remove (order lost, but way faster) https://stackoverflow.com/a/240676/1617857

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];

$array['test2'] = $array['test'];
unset($array['test']);

Solution 2 Rename the key https://stackoverflow.com/a/21299719/1617857

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];

$keys = array_keys( $array );
$keys[array_search('test', $keys, true)] = 'test2';
array_combine( $keys, $array );

Benchmark:

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];


for ($i =0; $i < 100000000; $i++){
    // Solution 1
}


for ($i =0; $i < 100000000; $i++){
    // Solution 2
}

Results:

php solution1.php  6.33s  user 0.02s system 99% cpu 6.356  total
php solution1.php  6.37s  user 0.01s system 99% cpu 6.390  total
php solution2.php  12.14s user 0.01s system 99% cpu 12.164 total
php solution2.php  12.57s user 0.03s system 99% cpu 12.612 total

One which preservers ordering that's simple to understand:

function rename_array_key(array $array, $old_key, $new_key) {
  if (!array_key_exists($old_key, $array)) {
      return $array;
  }
  $new_array = [];
  foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    $new_key = $old_key === $key
      ? $new_key
      : $key;
    $new_array[$new_key] = $value;
  }
  return $new_array;
}

The answer from KernelM is nice, but in order to avoid the issue raised by Greg in the comment (conflicting keys), using a new array would be safer

$newarr[$newkey] = $oldarr[$oldkey];
$oldarr=$newarr;
unset($newarr);

Here is a helper function to achieve that:

/**
 * Helper function to rename array keys.
 */
function _rename_arr_key($oldkey, $newkey, array &$arr) {
    if (array_key_exists($oldkey, $arr)) {
        $arr[$newkey] = $arr[$oldkey];
        unset($arr[$oldkey]);
        return TRUE;
    } else {
        return FALSE;
    }
}

pretty based on @KernelM answer.

Usage:

_rename_arr_key('oldkey', 'newkey', $my_array);

It will return true on successful rename, otherwise false.


this works for renaming the first key:

$a = ['catine' => 'cat', 'canine'  => 'dog'];
$tmpa['feline'] = $a['catine'];
unset($a['catine']);
$a = $tmpa + $a;

then, print_r($a) renders a repaired in-order array:

Array
(
    [feline] => cat
    [canine] => dog
)

this works for renaming an arbitrary key:

$a = ['canine'  => 'dog', 'catine' => 'cat', 'porcine' => 'pig']
$af = array_flip($a)
$af['cat'] = 'feline';
$a = array_flip($af)

print_r($a)

Array
(
    [canine] => dog
    [feline] => cat
    [porcine] => pig
)

a generalized function:

function renameKey($oldkey, $newkey, $array) {
    $val = $array[$oldkey];
    $tmp_A = array_flip($array);
    $tmp_A[$val] = $newkey;

    return array_flip($tmp_A);
}

Easy stuff:

this function will accept the target $hash and $replacements is also a hash containing newkey=>oldkey associations.

This function will preserve original order, but could be problematic for very large (like above 10k records) arrays regarding performance & memory.

function keyRename(array $hash, array $replacements) {
    $new=array();
    foreach($hash as $k=>$v)
    {
        if($ok=array_search($k,$replacements))
            $k=$ok;
        $new[$k]=$v;
    }
    return $new;    
}

this alternative function would do the same, with far better performance & memory usage, at the cost of loosing original order (which should not be a problem since it is hashtable!)

function keyRename(array $hash, array $replacements) {

    foreach($hash as $k=>$v)
        if($ok=array_search($k,$replacements))
        {
          $hash[$ok]=$v;
          unset($hash[$k]);
        }

    return $hash;       
}

If you want to replace several keys at once (preserving order):

/**
 * Rename keys of an array
 * @param array $array (asoc)
 * @param array $replacement_keys (indexed)
 * @return array
 */
function rename_keys($array, $replacement_keys)  {
      return array_combine($replacement_keys, array_values($array));
}

Usage:

$myarr = array("a" => 22, "b" => 144, "c" => 43);
$newkeys = array("x","y","z");
print_r(rename_keys($myarr, $newkeys));
//must return: array("x" => 22, "y" => 144, "z" => 43);

I like KernelM's solution, but I needed something that would handle potential key conflicts (where a new key may match an existing key). Here is what I came up with:

function swapKeys( &$arr, $origKey, $newKey, &$pendingKeys ) {
    if( !isset( $arr[$newKey] ) ) {
        $arr[$newKey] = $arr[$origKey];
        unset( $arr[$origKey] );
        if( isset( $pendingKeys[$origKey] ) ) {
            // recursion to handle conflicting keys with conflicting keys
            swapKeys( $arr, $pendingKeys[$origKey], $origKey, $pendingKeys );
            unset( $pendingKeys[$origKey] );
        }
    } elseif( $newKey != $origKey ) {
        $pendingKeys[$newKey] = $origKey;
    }
}

You can then cycle through an array like this:

$myArray = array( '1970-01-01 00:00:01', '1970-01-01 00:01:00' );
$pendingKeys = array();
foreach( $myArray as $key => $myArrayValue ) {
    // NOTE: strtotime( '1970-01-01 00:00:01' ) = 1 (a conflicting key)
    $timestamp = strtotime( $myArrayValue );
    swapKeys( $myArray, $key, $timestamp, $pendingKeys );
}
// RESULT: $myArray == array( 1=>'1970-01-01 00:00:01', 60=>'1970-01-01 00:01:00' )

best way is using reference, and not using unset (which make another step to clean memory)

$tab = ['two' => [] ];

solution:

$tab['newname'] = & $tab['two'];

you have one original and one reference with new name.

or if you don't want have two names in one value is good make another tab and foreach on reference

foreach($tab as $key=> & $value) {
    if($key=='two') { 
        $newtab["newname"] = & $tab[$key];
     } else {
        $newtab[$key] = & $tab[$key];
     }
}

Iterration is better on keys than clone all array, and cleaning old array if you have long data like 100 rows +++ etc..


You could use a second associative array that maps human readable names to the id's. That would also provide a Many to 1 relationship. Then do something like this:

echo 'Widgets: ' . $data[$humanreadbleMapping['Widgets']];

This function will rename an array key, keeping its position, by combining with index searching.

function renameArrKey($arr, $oldKey, $newKey){
    if(!isset($arr[$oldKey])) return $arr; // Failsafe
    $keys = array_keys($arr);
    $keys[array_search($oldKey, $keys)] = $newKey;
    $newArr = array_combine($keys, $arr);
    return $newArr;
}

Usage:

$arr = renameArrKey($arr, 'old_key', 'new_key');

If you want also the position of the new array key to be the same as the old one you can do this:

function change_array_key( $array, $old_key, $new_key) {
    if(!is_array($array)){ print 'You must enter a array as a haystack!'; exit; }
    if(!array_key_exists($old_key, $array)){
        return $array;
    }

    $key_pos = array_search($old_key, array_keys($array));
    $arr_before = array_slice($array, 0, $key_pos);
    $arr_after = array_slice($array, $key_pos + 1);
    $arr_renamed = array($new_key => $array[$old_key]);

    return $arr_before + $arr_renamed + $arr_after;
}

Hmm, I'm not test before, but I think this code working

function replace_array_key($data) {
    $mapping = [
        'old_key_1' => 'new_key_1',
        'old_key_2' => 'new_key_2',
    ];

    $data = json_encode($data);
    foreach ($mapping as $needed => $replace) {
        $data = str_replace('"'.$needed.'":', '"'.$replace.'":', $data);
    }

    return json_decode($data, true);
}

You could use a second associative array that maps human readable names to the id's. That would also provide a Many to 1 relationship. Then do something like this:

echo 'Widgets: ' . $data[$humanreadbleMapping['Widgets']];

Simple benchmark comparison of both solution.

Solution 1 Copy and remove (order lost, but way faster) https://stackoverflow.com/a/240676/1617857

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];

$array['test2'] = $array['test'];
unset($array['test']);

Solution 2 Rename the key https://stackoverflow.com/a/21299719/1617857

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];

$keys = array_keys( $array );
$keys[array_search('test', $keys, true)] = 'test2';
array_combine( $keys, $array );

Benchmark:

<?php
$array = ['test' => 'value'];


for ($i =0; $i < 100000000; $i++){
    // Solution 1
}


for ($i =0; $i < 100000000; $i++){
    // Solution 2
}

Results:

php solution1.php  6.33s  user 0.02s system 99% cpu 6.356  total
php solution1.php  6.37s  user 0.01s system 99% cpu 6.390  total
php solution2.php  12.14s user 0.01s system 99% cpu 12.164 total
php solution2.php  12.57s user 0.03s system 99% cpu 12.612 total

best way is using reference, and not using unset (which make another step to clean memory)

$tab = ['two' => [] ];

solution:

$tab['newname'] = & $tab['two'];

you have one original and one reference with new name.

or if you don't want have two names in one value is good make another tab and foreach on reference

foreach($tab as $key=> & $value) {
    if($key=='two') { 
        $newtab["newname"] = & $tab[$key];
     } else {
        $newtab[$key] = & $tab[$key];
     }
}

Iterration is better on keys than clone all array, and cleaning old array if you have long data like 100 rows +++ etc..


The way you would do this and preserve the ordering of the array is by putting the array keys into a separate array, find and replace the key in that array and then combine it back with the values.

Here is a function that does just that:

function change_key( $array, $old_key, $new_key ) {

    if( ! array_key_exists( $old_key, $array ) )
        return $array;

    $keys = array_keys( $array );
    $keys[ array_search( $old_key, $keys ) ] = $new_key;

    return array_combine( $keys, $array );
}

You can write simple function that applies the callback to the keys of the given array. Similar to array_map

<?php
function array_map_keys(callable $callback, array $array) {
    return array_merge([], ...array_map(
        function ($key, $value) use ($callback) { return [$callback($key) => $value]; },
        array_keys($array),
        $array
    ));
}

$array = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 'test', 'c' => ['x' => 1, 'y' => 2]];
$newArray = array_map_keys(function($key) { return 'new' . ucfirst($key); }, $array);

echo json_encode($array); // {"a":1,"b":"test","c":{"x":1,"y":2}}
echo json_encode($newArray); // {"newA":1,"newB":"test","newC":{"x":1,"y":2}}

Here is a gist https://gist.github.com/vardius/650367e15abfb58bcd72ca47eff096ca#file-array_map_keys-php.


This basic function handles swapping array keys and keeping the array in the original order...

public function keySwap(array $resource, array $keys)
{
    $newResource = [];

    foreach($resource as $k => $r){
        if(array_key_exists($k,$keys)){
            $newResource[$keys[$k]] = $r;
        }else{
            $newResource[$k] = $r;
        }
    }

    return $newResource;
}

You could then loop through and swap all 'a' keys with 'z' for example...

$inputs = [
  0 => ['a'=>'1','b'=>'2'],
  1 => ['a'=>'3','b'=>'4']
]

$keySwap = ['a'=>'z'];

foreach($inputs as $k=>$i){
    $inputs[$k] = $this->keySwap($i,$keySwap);
}

this code will help to change the oldkey to new one

$i = 0;
$keys_array=array("0"=>"one","1"=>"two");

$keys = array_keys($keys_array);

for($i=0;$i<count($keys);$i++) {
    $keys_array[$keys_array[$i]]=$keys_array[$i];
    unset($keys_array[$i]);
}
print_r($keys_array);

display like

$keys_array=array("one"=>"one","two"=>"two");

There is an alternative way to change the key of an array element when working with a full array - without changing the order of the array. It's simply to copy the array into a new array.

For instance, I was working with a mixed, multi-dimensional array that contained indexed and associative keys - and I wanted to replace the integer keys with their values, without breaking the order.

I did so by switching key/value for all numeric array entries - here: ['0'=>'foo']. Note that the order is intact.

<?php
$arr = [
    'foo',
    'bar'=>'alfa',
    'baz'=>['a'=>'hello', 'b'=>'world'],
];

foreach($arr as $k=>$v) {
    $kk = is_numeric($k) ? $v : $k;
    $vv = is_numeric($k) ? null : $v;
    $arr2[$kk] = $vv;
}

print_r($arr2);

Output:

Array (
    [foo] => 
    [bar] => alfa
    [baz] => Array (
            [a] => hello
            [b] => world
        )
)

if your array is built from a database query, you can change the key directly from the mysql statement:

instead of

"select ´id´ from ´tablename´..."

use something like:

"select ´id´ **as NEWNAME** from ´tablename´..."

If you want also the position of the new array key to be the same as the old one you can do this:

function change_array_key( $array, $old_key, $new_key) {
    if(!is_array($array)){ print 'You must enter a array as a haystack!'; exit; }
    if(!array_key_exists($old_key, $array)){
        return $array;
    }

    $key_pos = array_search($old_key, array_keys($array));
    $arr_before = array_slice($array, 0, $key_pos);
    $arr_after = array_slice($array, $key_pos + 1);
    $arr_renamed = array($new_key => $array[$old_key]);

    return $arr_before + $arr_renamed + $arr_after;
}

The way you would do this and preserve the ordering of the array is by putting the array keys into a separate array, find and replace the key in that array and then combine it back with the values.

Here is a function that does just that:

function change_key( $array, $old_key, $new_key ) {

    if( ! array_key_exists( $old_key, $array ) )
        return $array;

    $keys = array_keys( $array );
    $keys[ array_search( $old_key, $keys ) ] = $new_key;

    return array_combine( $keys, $array );
}

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