Retrieve first key in multi-dimensional array using PHP
There are other ways of doing it but nothing as quick and as short as using key()
. Every other usage is for getting all keys. For example, all of these will return the first key in an array:
$keys=array_keys($this->data);
echo $keys[0]; //prints first key
foreach ($this->data as $key => $value)
{
echo $key;
break;
}
As you can see both are sloppy.
If you want a oneliner, but you want to protect yourself from accidentally getting the wrong key if the iterator is not on the first element, try this:
reset($this->data);
reset():
reset() rewinds array 's internal pointer to the first element and returns the value of the first array element.
But what you're doing looks fine to me. There is a function that does exactly what you want in one line; what else could you want?