Another poossible solution is based on the array_search() function. You need to use PHP 5.5.0 or higher.
Example
$userdb=Array
(
0 => Array
(
"uid" => '100',
"name" => 'Sandra Shush',
"url" => 'urlof100'
),
1 => Array
(
"uid" => '5465',
"name" => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',
"pic_square" => 'urlof100'
),
2 => Array
(
"uid" => '40489',
"name" => 'Michael',
"pic_square" => 'urlof40489'
)
);
$key = array_search(40489, array_column($userdb, 'uid'));
echo ("The key is: ".$key);
//This will output- The key is: 2
Explanation
The function `array_search()` has two arguments. The first one is the value that you want to search. The second is where the function should search. The function `array_column()` gets the values of the elements which key is `'uid'`.Summary
So you could use it as:array_search('breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL', array_column($products, 'slug'));
or, if you prefer:
// define function
function array_search_multidim($array, $column, $key){
return (array_search($key, array_column($array, $column)));
}
// use it
array_search_multidim($products, 'slug', 'breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL');
The original example(by xfoxawy) can be found on the DOCS.
The array_column() page.
Update
Due to Vael comment I was curious, so I made a simple test to meassure the performance of the method that uses array_search and the method proposed on the accepted answer.
I created an array which contained 1000 arrays, the structure was like this (all data was randomized):
[
{
"_id": "57fe684fb22a07039b3f196c",
"index": 0,
"guid": "98dd3515-3f1e-4b89-8bb9-103b0d67e613",
"isActive": true,
"balance": "$2,372.04",
"picture": "http://placehold.it/32x32",
"age": 21,
"eyeColor": "blue",
"name": "Green",
"company": "MIXERS"
},...
]
I ran the search test 100 times searching for different values for the name field, and then I calculated the mean time in milliseconds. Here you can see an example.
Results were that the method proposed on this answer needed about 2E-7 to find the value, while the accepted answer method needed about 8E-7.
Like I said before both times are pretty aceptable for an application using an array with this size. If the size grows a lot, let's say 1M elements, then this little difference will be increased too.
Update II
I've added a test for the method based in array_walk_recursive which was mentionend on some of the answers here. The result got is the correct one. And if we focus on the performance, its a bit worse than the others examined on the test. In the test, you can see that is about 10 times slower than the method based on array_search. Again, this isn't a very relevant difference for the most of the applications.
Update III
Thanks to @mickmackusa for spotting several limitations on this method:
- This method will fail on associative keys.
- This method will only work on indexed subarrays (starting from 0 and have consecutively ascending keys).
Note on Update III
- not taking performance into account: you can use array_combine with array_keys & array_column to overcome this limitation in a one-liner like:
$product_search_index =
array_search( 'breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL', array_filter( array_combine( array_keys($products), array_column( $products, 'slug' ) ) ) );
Answer from Iván Rodríguez Torres on Stack Overflowsearch - PHP Multidimensional Array Searching (Find key by specific value) - Stack Overflow
Using php's array_search on an array of objects - Stack Overflow
Best way to do array_search on multi-dimensional array? - PHP - SitePoint Forums | Web Development & Design Community
Given a key, what's the most elegant way to get the previous and next elements in an array?
Videos
Another poossible solution is based on the array_search() function. You need to use PHP 5.5.0 or higher.
Example
$userdb=Array
(
0 => Array
(
"uid" => '100',
"name" => 'Sandra Shush',
"url" => 'urlof100'
),
1 => Array
(
"uid" => '5465',
"name" => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',
"pic_square" => 'urlof100'
),
2 => Array
(
"uid" => '40489',
"name" => 'Michael',
"pic_square" => 'urlof40489'
)
);
$key = array_search(40489, array_column($userdb, 'uid'));
echo ("The key is: ".$key);
//This will output- The key is: 2
Explanation
The function `array_search()` has two arguments. The first one is the value that you want to search. The second is where the function should search. The function `array_column()` gets the values of the elements which key is `'uid'`.Summary
So you could use it as:array_search('breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL', array_column($products, 'slug'));
or, if you prefer:
// define function
function array_search_multidim($array, $column, $key){
return (array_search($key, array_column($array, $column)));
}
// use it
array_search_multidim($products, 'slug', 'breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL');
The original example(by xfoxawy) can be found on the DOCS.
The array_column() page.
Update
Due to Vael comment I was curious, so I made a simple test to meassure the performance of the method that uses array_search and the method proposed on the accepted answer.
I created an array which contained 1000 arrays, the structure was like this (all data was randomized):
[
{
"_id": "57fe684fb22a07039b3f196c",
"index": 0,
"guid": "98dd3515-3f1e-4b89-8bb9-103b0d67e613",
"isActive": true,
"balance": "$2,372.04",
"picture": "http://placehold.it/32x32",
"age": 21,
"eyeColor": "blue",
"name": "Green",
"company": "MIXERS"
},...
]
I ran the search test 100 times searching for different values for the name field, and then I calculated the mean time in milliseconds. Here you can see an example.
Results were that the method proposed on this answer needed about 2E-7 to find the value, while the accepted answer method needed about 8E-7.
Like I said before both times are pretty aceptable for an application using an array with this size. If the size grows a lot, let's say 1M elements, then this little difference will be increased too.
Update II
I've added a test for the method based in array_walk_recursive which was mentionend on some of the answers here. The result got is the correct one. And if we focus on the performance, its a bit worse than the others examined on the test. In the test, you can see that is about 10 times slower than the method based on array_search. Again, this isn't a very relevant difference for the most of the applications.
Update III
Thanks to @mickmackusa for spotting several limitations on this method:
- This method will fail on associative keys.
- This method will only work on indexed subarrays (starting from 0 and have consecutively ascending keys).
Note on Update III
- not taking performance into account: you can use array_combine with array_keys & array_column to overcome this limitation in a one-liner like:
$product_search_index =
array_search( 'breville-one-touch-tea-maker-BTM800XL', array_filter( array_combine( array_keys($products), array_column( $products, 'slug' ) ) ) );
Very simple:
function myfunction($products, $field, $value)
{
foreach($products as
product)
{
if ( $product[$field] === $value )
return $key;
}
return false;
}
Just for fun, if the array is 0 based and sequential keys:
echo array_search('zero', array_column(json_decode($json, true), 'name'));
- Extract all the
namekey values into a single array - Search for the name value to return the key
This decodes the JSON into an array. You can decode it to an object after if you need that. As of PHP 7 you can use an array of objects:
echo array_search('zero', array_column(json_decode($json), 'name'));
There's no single built-in function that provides for arbitrary comparison. You can, however, roll your own generic array search:
function array_usearch(array $array, callable $comparitor) {
return array_filter(
$array,
function ($element) use ($comparitor) {
if ($comparitor($element)) {
return $element;
}
}
);
}
This has the benefit of returning an array of matches to the comparison function, rather than a single key which you later have to lookup. It also has performance O(n), which is ok.
Example:
array_usearch($arr, function ($o) { return $o->name != 'zero'; });