How can I get the lowest price include the others values from the array

Question

I have an array like this:

$flight = array (
    array (
        "home" => "AMS",
        "away" => "LHR",    
        "price" => "270"
    ),
    array (
        "home" => "AMS",
        "away" => "LGW",    
        "price" => "216"
    ),   
    array (
        "home" => "EIN",
        "away" => "LHR",    
        "price" => "427"
    ) 
);

I want the values from the cheapest flight. The result should be: AMS LGW 216.

When I loop trough the array I can get the lowest price result but not the other values from the array home and away.

foreach ($flight as $value) { 
    echo $value["home"].' '.$value["away"].' '.$value["price"].'<br>';
    
    $lowest = array_column($flight, "price");
    $min = min($lowest);
}

echo $min;

The result now is only 216 But the result I want AMS LGW 216

How can I create this?

Related: https://stackoverflow.com/q/44660139/2943403 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/57013532/2943403 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/44098099/2943403 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/44713151/2943403 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/50986556/2943403 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/37662494/2943403 — mickmackusa, Jul 31 '22 at 22:56
What is the desired result when two rows in the array have the exact same price? You are not the first developer in the world to require this functionality. — mickmackusa, Jul 31 '22 at 23:02
If your data comes from a database, use SQL, not PHP. https://stackoverflow.com/q/54328379/2943403 — mickmackusa, Jul 31 '22 at 23:07

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:19

Store the entire item not just the price.

$min = ["price" => 1e10];
foreach ($flight as $value) {
    echo $value["home"] . ' ' . $value["away"] . ' ' . $value["price"] . '<br>';

    if ($value['price'] < $min['price']) {
        $min = $value;
    }
}
print_r($min);

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:22

0

One option is to remember what the values were at the lowest price and just iterate over all of them:

$min = null;

foreach ($flight as $value) { 
    
    if ($min === null || $value['price'] < $min) {
        $minValue = $value;
        $min = $value['price'];
    }
}

echo $minValue["home"].' '.$minValue["away"].' '.$minValue["price"];

answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:22

ArSeN

5,133
3
19
26

A good IDE will complain that `$minValue` might not be declared. – mickmackusa Jul 31 '22 at 23:03
Similar task: https://stackoverflow.com/a/66163948/2943403 – mickmackusa Aug 01 '22 at 00:40

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:45

0

Sort the array by field (ASC order) and you'll find the lowest element in the head of your array:

usort($flights, fn($a, $b) => $a['price'] <=> $b['price'])

print_r($flights[0]);

answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:45

user1597430

1,138
1
7
14

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 31 '22 at 21:53

You can use array_keys and with your code.

Here is the code:

    $flight = array(
        array(
            "home" => "AMS",
            "away" => "LHR",
            "price" => "270"
        ),
        array(
            "home" => "AMS",
            "away" => "LGW",
            "price" => "216"
        ),
        array(
            "home" => "EIN",
            "away" => "LHR",
            "price" => "427"
        )
    );

    $lowest = array_column($flight, "price");
    $lowset_array = array_keys($lowest, min($lowest));
    print_r($flight[reset($lowset_array)]);

    //OR
    //print_r($flight[$lowset_array[0]]);

And here is the output:

Array
(
    [home] => AMS
    [away] => LGW
    [price] => 216
)

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 31 '22 at 22:56

Before providing solutions: your implementation it's finding the lowest price several times (the number of flights). You can get the cheapest price with:

$lowest = array_column($flight, 'price');
echo min($lowest);

You may use two variables to save the lowest price and the associated flight:

function getCheapestFlight(array $flights): array
{
    $cheapestFlight = null;
    $lowest = PHP_INT_MAX;
    foreach ($flights as $flight) {
        $price = $flight['price'];
        if ($price < $lowest) {
            $lowest = $price;
            $cheapestFlight = $flight;
        }
    }
    return $cheapestFlight;
}

Or use only one variable for the cheapest flight:

function getCheapestFlight(array $flights): array
{
    $cheapestFlight = reset($flights);
    foreach ($flights as $flight) {
        $price = $flight['price'];
        if ($price < $cheapestFlight['price']) {
            $cheapestFlight = $flight;
        }
    }
    return $cheapestFlight;
}

If you prefer functional programming:

function getCheapestFlight(array $flights): array
{
    return array_reduce(
        $flights,
        function ($cheapestFlight, $flight) {
            return $flight['price'] < $cheapestFlight['price']
                ? $flight
                : $cheapestFlight;
        },
        reset($flights)
    );
}

To avoid wasting your precious time and to ensure that your carefully crafted answer isn't lost, please look for duplicates before answering. If you can find an earlier page asking for the same resolution, post your wisdom there and close the new question. Thank you. — mickmackusa, Aug 01 '22 at 01:08

How can I get the lowest price include the others values from the array

5 Answers5