how to get the index of an array using the value in php

Question

<?php
    $interests[50] = array('fav_beverages' => "beer");
?>

now i need the index (i.e. 50 or whatever the index may be) from the value beer.

I tried array_search(), array_flip(), in_array(), extract(), list() to get the answer.

please do let me know if I have missed out any tricks for the above functions or any other function I`ve not listed. Answers will be greatly appreciated.

thanks for the replies. But for my disappointment it is still not working. btw I have a large pool of data like "beer"); $interests[50] = array('fav_cuisine' => "arabic"); $interests[50] = array('fav_food' => "hummus"); ?> . my approach was to get the other data like "arablic" and "hummus" from the user input "beer". So my only connection is via the index[50].Do let me know if my approach is wrong and I can access the data through other means.My senior just informed me that I`m not supposed to use loop.

var_dump(array_search(array('fav_beverages' => 'beer'), $interests, true)); — PeeHaa
– PeeHaa, Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 15:05
Why doesn't array_search work for you? $index = array_search('beer', $interests); will set the value of $index to the key index. uk3.php.net/array_search array_search — Searches the array for a given value and returns the corresponding key if successful — Scott
– Scott, Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 15:42
thanks for the replies. But for my disappointment it is still not working. btw I have a large pool of data like <?php $interests[50] = array('fav_beverages' => "beer"); ?> — user3500823
– user3500823, Commented Apr 7, 2014 at 5:08

Omer Arshad · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-05 15:20:19Z

2

This should work in your case.

$interests[50] = array('fav_beverages' => "beer");

function multi_array_search($needle, $interests){
    foreach($interests as $interest){
        if (array_search($needle, $interest)){
            return array_search($interest, $interests);
            break;
        }
    }
}

echo multi_array_search("beer", $interests);

answered Apr 5, 2014 at 15:20

Omer Arshad

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1 Comment

Amal Over a year ago

You're calling array_search() twice. This might make it slower for large arrays. It could be improved by doing the assignment inside the if statement.

Amal · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-05 15:13:04Z

1

If your array contains multiple sub-arrays and you don't know which one contains the value beer, then you can simply loop through the arrays, and then through the sub-arrays, to search for the value, and then return the index if it is found:

$needle = 'beer';

foreach ($interests as $index => $arr) {
    foreach ($arr as $value) {
        if ($value == $needle) {
            echo $index;
            break;
        }
    }
}

Demo

edited Apr 5, 2014 at 15:13

answered Apr 5, 2014 at 15:08

Amal

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1 Comment

Poomrokc The 3years Over a year ago

Exactly what I'm going to answer. +1

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