SELECT some_value FROM php_array WHERE other_values (not mysql !) - php

Question

In MySQL I can SELECT a value from one column of a row WHERE one or more columns have a specified value:
SELECT name FROM table WHERE birthyear = '1965' AND birthplace = 'Vancouver'
Now I have a multidimensional PHP_array (not a mySQL database), and I would like to extract the name from the row for a given birthyear and birthplace in a similar manner. This is the array:
$example = Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 1965
[1] => Bob
[2] => Vancouver
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 1973
[1] => John
[2] => Vancouver
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 1965
[1] => Paul
[2] => Houston
)
)
It seems to me that for each WHERE-condition I would need one loop in PHP. If you assume that I need to match several columns (birthday, birthplace, sex, occupation etc.), you'll understand how this slows down the execution over an array with thousands of entries.
How can I do this with the least number of loops?

Answer 1

array_filter($example,function($v) { return $v[0] == 1982; });

Answer 2

This function will do what you are looking for:
function getNameByYear($year, array $array) {
$name = false;
foreach ($array as $a) {
if ($a[0] == $year) {
$name = $a[1];
break;
}
}
return $name;
}
Usage:
$example; // your array
$n = getNameByYear(1965, $array); // Bob
$n = getNameByYear(1973, $array); // John
$n = getNameByYear(1982, $array); // Paul
$n = getNameByYear('1965', $array); // Bob
$n = getNameByYear('1973', $array); // John
$n = getNameByYear('1982', $array); // Paul
$n = getNameByYear('wrong', $array); // false
$n = getNameByYear(2035, $array); // false