find max value of a key in array - php

Question

I have an array
[DoctorEducation] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 24
[user_id] => 91
[degree_type_id] => 1
[college_hospital] => sms
[diploma_name] =>
[specialization_id] => 0
[start_date] => 02/2009
[end_date] => 03/2012
[year_passing] => 0000
[created] => 2015-10-09 13:14:23
[updated] => 2015-10-09 13:16:18
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 26
[user_id] => 91
[degree_type_id] => 5
[college_hospital] => sms
[diploma_name] =>
[specialization_id] => 48
[start_date] => 03/2012
[end_date] => 05/2014
[year_passing] => 0000
[created] => 2015-10-09 13:16:18
[updated] => 2015-10-09 13:16:18
)
)
Now I want to find out which index i.e 0 or 1 or so on have the biggest value of degree_type_id. for example in current array index 1 has the biggest value of degree_type_id i.e 5.
I am getting this from DB. Here is the query
$fields = array(
'User.id',
'User.first_name',
'User.last_name',
'User.gender',
'User.dob',
'User.image',
'Specialization.name',
'User.age'
);
$getSpecialist = $this->User->find('all', array('fields' => $fields), array('conditions' => array('User.role_id' => 3, 'User.status' => 1)));

Answer 1

Try something like this:
$max_index = null;
$max_value = 0;
foreach($DoctorEducation as $key => $array){
if($array['degree_type_id'] > $max_value){
$max_value = $array['degree_type_id'];
$max_index = $key;
}
}
print_r($DoctorEducation[$max_index]);
This gives you the index and the value of the key with the highest degree_type_id

Answer 2

There may be a faster way to do this, but here's my solution:
$to_compare = array();
foreach($DoctorEducation as $idx => $arr){
$to_compare[$idx] = $arr['degree_type_id'];
}
$max = $to_compare[array_search(max($to_compare), $to_compare)];

Answer 3

Pretty simple with several functions:
$key = array_search(max(array_column($array['DoctorEducation'], 'degree_type_id')),
$array['DoctorEducation']);
Extract the appropriate column to an array
Find the maximum value in that column array
Search that column array for the maximum value, which returns the key
If there is more than one occurrence of the maximum value then you will get the first one.