Problem Statement: How to access the first element of an array in PHP?
Solution: There are mainly three types of arrays in PHP:
- Indexed Array
- Associative Array
- Multidimensional Array
There are several methods to get the first element of an array in PHP. Some of the methods are using foreach loop, reset function, array_slice function, array_values, array_reverse and many more.
- By direct accessing the 0th index:
<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
'geeks'
,
'for'
,
'computer'
);
echo
$array
[0]
?>
Output:geeks
- Using foreach loop:
<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
33 =>
'geeks'
,
36 =>
'for'
,
42 =>
'computer'
);
foreach
(
$array
as
$name
) {
echo
$name
;
// break loop after first iteration
break
;
}
?>
Output:geeks
- Using reset() function: The reset() function used to move the array’s internal pointer to the first element.
<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
33 =>
'geeks'
,
36 =>
'for'
,
42 =>
'computer'
);
echo
reset(
$array
);
?>
Output:geeks
- Using array_slice() function: array_slice() returns the sequence of elements from the array as specified by the offset and length parameters.
Syntax:
array array_slice ( array $array, int $offset [, int $length = NULL [, bool $preserve_keys = FALSE ]] )
<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
33 =>
'geeks'
,
36 =>
'for'
,
42 =>
'computer'
);
echo
array_slice
(
$array
, 0, 1)[0];
?>
Output:geeks
- Using array_values() function: This function return all the values of an array.
Syntax:array array_values ( array $array )
<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
33 =>
'geeks'
,
36 =>
'for'
,
42 =>
'computer'
);
echo
array_values
(
$array
)[0];
?>
Output:geeks
- Using array_pop() function: This function pop the element off the end of array.
Syntax:mixed array_pop ( array &$array )
By default array_reverse() will reset all numerical array keys to start counting from zero while literal keys will remain unchanged unless a second parameter preserve_keys is specified as TRUE.
This method is not recommended as it may do unwanted longer processing on larger arrays to reverse them prior to getting the first value.<?php
// PHP program to access the first
// element of the array
$array
=
array
(
33 =>
'geeks'
,
36 =>
'for'
,
42 =>
'computer'
);
echo
array_pop
(
array_reverse
(
$array
));
?>
Output:geeks
Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important DSA concepts with the DSA Self Paced Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready.