How to get column name in array? - php

Question

I have a script where I want to get name of a column in array().
From API, I can get an array() with multiple values and I would like to get the name of a specific column.
I don't have columns' names, how do I get a list of them and fetch one by one?
Here, I want to get "573" only.
Array ( [success] => 1 [errors] => Array ( ) [data] => Array ( [Messages] => Array ( [573] => PHP is fun ) ) )
Thanks.

Answer 1

You just have to do a recursive iterator that will use itself to recurse or return a value based on the key match:
<?php
$arr = array(
'success' => 1,
'errors' => array(),
'data' => array(
'Messages' => array(
573 => 'PHP is fun'
)
)
);
function recurseIt($array,$find = false)
{
# Loop through array
foreach($array as $key => $value) {
# If the key is the same as the value
if($key == $find)
# Send back the value
return $value;
# If the value is an array
if(is_array($value)) {
# Use same array to recurse the array
$val = recurseIt($value,$find);
# If there is a value to return
if(!empty($val))
# Send it back
return $val;
}
}
}
# Note, if the key matches, could also be an array
echo recurseIt($arr,573);
Gives you:
PHP is fun
EDIT:
Presumably you have the value if you don't know the key, so this will return the key based on the search value:
function recurseIt($array,$find = false)
{
foreach($array as $key => $value) {
# If the key is the same as the value
if(!is_array($value) && ($value == $find))
# Send back the key name
return $key;
if(is_array($value)) {
$val = recurseIt($value,$find);
if(!empty($val))
return $val;
}
}
}
echo recurseIt($arr,'PHP is fun');
Gives you:
573
Now, if you don't know what the key name is and don't know the associated value would be, then the function doesn't know how to search. read_my_mind() is not yet in the PHP library so at that point you are pretty much out of luck.