First element of array by condition

The shortest I could find is using current:

current(array_filter($input, function($e) {...}));

current essentially gets the first element, or returns false if its empty.

If the code is being repeated often, it is probably best to extract it to its own function.

There's no need to use all above mentioned functions like array_filter. Because array_filter filters array. And filtering is not the same as find first value. So, just do this:

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    if (meetsCondition($value)) {
        $result = $value;
        break;
        // or: return $value; if in function
    }
}

array_filter will filter whole array. So if your required value is first, and array has 100 or more elements, array_filter will still check all these elements. So, do you really need 100 iterations instead of 1? The asnwer is clear - no.