How to define a specific key and get the value in associative array foreach loop

Hi, the $x variable will be the key and $x_value will be the value.

In your foreach loop "Ben" will show up in the $x variable.

If you only want to echo "Ben" , you need to either check if ($x_value==37) or if ($x=="Ben")

Like this:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

foreach($age as $x => $x_value) {
      if($x_value==37) echo $x;
}
?>

or like this:

<?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

foreach($age as $x => $x_value) {
      if($x=="Ben") echo $x;
}
?>

EDIT: this will not work

I think you want the key() function, although it has been a long time since I have seen or used this. I would try the code below first, then try your code with the this inside the foreach loop: echo key($x_value);

<?php
foreach ($age as $x) {
    echo key($x);
}

Let me know how this works because I have a project this would work sell for.

The key function works a bit fuzzy with foreach. If you want to use the key function, use while loop like this:

<?php
while ($x_value = current($age)) {

    $x=key($age);

    if ($x_value== '37') {
         echo $x;
    }
    next($age);
}
?>

this will print out Ben

source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.key.php

If I understand the question, he wants all of the keys, not just one. I admit I have spent a bit of time on this and cannot get it to work. My solution above does not. I will try to get it and post a snapshot to the workspace I am using when It does work.

The course on PHP functions has a link to the built in PHP function array_keys(). That is what you want to use.

<?php
$age = array(
    "Peter"=>35, 
    "Ben"=>37, 
    "Joe"=>43,
);

$keys = array_keys($age);
print_r($keys);

// prints (not in this format) [0] => Peter, [1] => Ben, [2] => Joe

I just reread the question asked and it was specifically how to get the value for ben using a foreach loop. If you only want one value from an array, the foreach loop is not the right tool. That specifically goes through every element of the array and does the code inside the loop.

I may not understand what you are trying to accomplish. Can you give us a little more as to what you are trying to accomplish?

Hi Guys

Thanks alot all of your reply, Let me put an scenario. Let said i have doing sql query select from database. Let said User 1 have below key and values in associative array

$results= array("id"=>"35", "name"=>"Jen", "country"=>"CA");

foreach($results as $x => $x_value) {

}
?>

Since i have sql query select all the database field. Then i know there is a field call "country". So i want to echo out the country value therefore i know which country of user1 is living.

I'm not sure is this the right way to use foreach loop or while loop. Please advice. Appreciate all yours reply

This is what I understand. You have a database with a bunch of users. In your example above, the row with the id of 35 is Jen from CA. You query your database for all the info on id 35 and get an array back. Since you know the structure and the column you want, you just need to echo $results['country'];.

If you have a list of many users and you want to know how many of each country you have, you would actually use a query for that result. I don't know how to do that off the top of my head, but I know there are SQL elements that do that for you. You can avoid multidimensional arrays that way.

If you want the result for multiple users at the same time, I would probably have a class for the database call and send it the users for individual database queries. Then process the results one at a time. Again, this would avoid a multidimensional array.

If you want something to happen to everything in the array, use a foreach loop. Use a while loop if you want to do something a set number of times or if there is some condition that halts the loop.

I hope this helps.

Hi Guys

$results[]= array("id"=>"35", "name"=>"Jen", "country"=>"CA");

foreach($results as $x ) {
    echo $x['name'];
}

Above php code, i able to output the value of specific key. But i did not understand why i need to put

$results[]= array("id"=>"35", "name"=>"Jen", "country"=>"CA");

instead of

$results= array("id"=>"35", "name"=>"Jen", "country"=>"CA");

Please Help

First option will make $results to be like a container which can hold information about all people from database.

Second option will make $results basically a single result. A single person.