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Is there any function which can return, for example, the 3rd element of an associative array without any loop? (and without copying the array)

I know that I can do a for/foreach loop together with a counter, but I'm just curious.

PS: I already found this example, but I was expecting something from php which would do something like getAssociativeDataByIndex($array, $index) for example.

EDIT: content of this post:

function getAtPos($tmpArray,$pos) {
 return array_splice($tmpArray,$pos-1,1);
}

$array = array('Alpha' => 1.1,'Bravo' => 2.2,'Charlie' => 3.3,'Delta' => 4.4,'Echo' =>5.5, 'Golf' => 6.6);    
$pos = 3;

$return = getAtPos($array,$pos);    
var_dump($return); // 3.3

PS2: I also found this answer, but the ArrayIterator class and the seek method is not (well) documented, so I'm not if this create a copy of the array or not (if it does, I do not think it's interesting)

EDIT: content of this post:

$keys = array_keys($array);
echo $array[$keys[$position]];

OR 

The ArrayIterator class can also do this for you:

$iterator = new ArrayIterator($array);
$iterator->seek($position);

example of array:

$a = array('jean' => 3, 'simon' => 2, 'alex' => 5, 'derek' => 4);

Example of use case: you have an external library which takes an array in parameter, process it and return you an array like index=>boolean (or index=>data)

e.g.: array(1=>false, 2=>false, 3=>true)...

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Bast
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1 Answers1

1

array_values() will basically convert your associative array to a numeric array while maintaining the order:

<?php
$a = array('jean' => 3, 'simon' => 2, 'alex' => 5, 'derek' => 4);
$values = array_values($a);
print_r($values);
?>

result:

Array
(
    [0] => 3
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 5
    [3] => 4
)
Tanuel Mategi
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  • Thanks! yes I saw this option from the first link...but array_values seems to be "relatively expensive" – Bast Oct 21 '15 at 08:29