How to find the first, second, third etc numbers of an array - php

Question

I've started learning about arrays and they've very confusing. I want to generate 4 numbers using this:
$numbers = range(1,4);
Then I shuffle with this:
shuffle($numbers);
Now I want to get each number as a variable, I've been told the best way is arrays. I have this code:
foreach($numbers as $number){
$test = array("first"=>"$number");
echo $test['first'];
}
What this does is echo all 4 numbers together, like "3142" or "3241" etc. Which is close to what I want, but I need all 4 numbers to have their own variable each. So I made this:
foreach($numbers as $number){
$test = array("first"=>"$number","second"=>"$number","third"=>"$number","fourth"=>"$number");
echo $test['first']," ",$test['second']," ",$test['third']," ",$test['fourth']," <br>";
}
This just echoes the 4 numbers 4 times. I need "first" to be the first number, "second" to be the second number of the 4 and the same for the third and fourth. I've been searching the web but don't know specifically what to search for to find the answer.
If someone answers could they please put as much detail into what certain functions do as possible, I want to learn not just get working code :)

Answer 1

You can use sizeof() it is return size of array size, and pass the key value manually. Like-
echo $numbers[0];
echo $numbers[1];
echo $numbers[2];

Answer 2

Here is a full code, try it
$numbers = range(1,4); //generate four numbers
shuffle($numbers); //shuffle them
$test = array(); //create array for the results
$words = array("1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th","5th"); //create your array keys
$i=0;
foreach($numbers as $number){
$test[] = array($words[$i]=>$number); //add your array keys & values
$i++;
}
print_r($test); //show your results

Answer 3

If my understanding is correct you have an array and you want certain values from within it?
Then why not just use the array keys:
$array = array('peach','pear','apple','orange','banana');
echo $array[0]; // peach
echo $array[1]; // pear
echo $array[2]; // apple
Or you could loop through the array like so:
foreach ($array as $arrayKey => $arrayValue) {
// First value in the array is now below
echo $arrayKey; // 0
echo $arrayValue; // peach
}
You can also check if a value is in an array like so:
if (in_array('orange', $array)) {
echo 'yes';
}
Edit:
// Our array values
$array = array('peach','pear','apple','orange','banana');
// We won't shuffle for the example, we need expected results
#$array = shuffle($array);
// We want the first 3 values of the array
$keysRequired = array(0,1,2);
// This will hold our results
$storageArray = array();
// So for the first iteration of the loop $arrayKey is going to be 0
foreach ($array as $arrayKey => $arrayValue) {
// If the array key matches one of the values in the required array
if (in_array($arrayKey, $keysRequired)) {
// Store it within the storage array so we know what value it is
$storageArray[] = $arrayValue;
}
}
// Let's see what values have been stored
echo "<pre>";
print_r($storageArray);
echo "</pre>";
Would give you the following:
Array
(
[0] => 'peach'
[1] => 'pear'
[2] => 'apple'
)

Answer 4

Try this:
<?php
$numbers = range(1,4);
shuffle($numbers);
$test = array();
foreach($numbers as $k=>$v){
$test[$k] = $v;
}
echo "<pre>";
print_r($test);
?>
This will give you the output as:
Array
(
[0] => 3
[1] => 4
[2] => 2
[3] => 1
)
After that you can do:
$myvar["first"] = $test[0];
$myvar["second"] = $test[1];
$myvar["third"] = $test[2];
$myvar["fourth"] = $test[3];
Every array has a key, value pair, if you have an array say:
$myarr = array("a", "b", "c");
then you can access the value "a" as $myarr[0], "b" as $myarr[1] and so on.
In the for loop I am looping through the array with their key and value, this will not only give you the key of the array but also the value associated with that key.
More on Array
Edit:
Improving what Luthando Loot answered:
<?php
$numbers = range(1,4);//generate four numbers
shuffle($numbers);//shuffle them
$test = array();//create array for the results
$words = array("first", "second", "third", "fourth"); //create your array keys
$i = 0;
foreach($numbers as $number){
$test[$words[$i]] = $number;//add your array keys & values
$i++;
}
echo "<pre>";
print_r($test); //show your results
?>
Output:
Array
(
[first] => 4
[second] => 3
[third] => 2
[fourth] => 1
)

Answer 5

use this way
$numbers[0];
$numbers[1];
$numbers[2];
$numbers[3];

Answer 6

Firstly make an array of keys as
$key = ['first','second','third','fourth'];
And then you can simply use array_combine as
$numbers = range(1,4);
shuffle($numbers);
$key = ['first','second','third','fourth'];
$result = array_combine($key,$numbers);
Demo