PHP search key in array and return its value?

Question

I would like to search key in multidimensional array and i would like to get corrosponding value associated with that key. For eg I would like to extract following texts from below array:

SENT AT 12.08ms

And the text

sample id 41962

following is an array print_r() output:

 Array
 (
      [0] => Array
                 (
                     [VERSION] => Array
                         (
                             [0] => Array
                                 (
                                     [group] => 
                                     [param] => Array
                                         (
                                         )

                                     [value] => Array
                                         (
                                             [0] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => 3.0
                                                 )

                                         )

                                 )

                         )

                     [SAMPLE] => Array
                         (
                             [0] => Array
                                 (
                                     [group] => 
                                     [param] => Array
                                         (
                                         )

                                     [value] => Array
                                         (
                                             [0] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => sample id 41962
                                                 )

                                         )

                                 )

                         )

                     [TSAM] => Array
                         (
                             [0] => Array
                                 (
                                     [group] => 
                                     [param] => Array
                                         (
                                         )

                                     [value] => Array
                                         (
                                             [0] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => sample group 141
                                                 )

                                             [1] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => ¯
                                                 )

                                             [2] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => sample batch 81
                                                 )

                                             [3] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => 
                                                 )

                                             [4] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => 
                                                 )

                                         )

                                 )

                         )

                     [STATUS] => Array
                         (
                             [0] => Array
                                 (
                                     [group] => 
                                     [param] => Array
                                         (
                                             [TYPE] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => CART
                                                 )

                                         )

                                     [value] => Array
                                         (
                                             [0] => Array
                                                 (
                                                     [0] => SENT AT 12.08ms
                                                 )

                                         )

                                 )

                         )

                 )
 )           

Can somebody provide me optimized code for above problem. The multidimensional array contains more than 5000 to 10000 arrays.

Answer 1

Please, see if my function works for you:

function get_value_by_key($array,$key)
{
 foreach($array as $k=>$each)
 {
  if($k==$key)
  {
   return $each;
  }

  if(is_array($each))
  {
   if($return = get_value_by_key($each,$key))
   {
    return $return;
   }
  }

 }

}

Use:

$array = array('array1'=>array('array2'=>array('find_some_key'=>'some_value')));
echo get_value_by_key($array,'find_some_key'); // outputs: some_value

Answer 2

If all the array keys have the same structure the following code should work:

foreach($array as $item){
    $sentat = $item['STATUS'][0]['value'][0][0];
    $sample = $item['SAMPLE'][0]['value'][0][0];
}

More detailed information would help us to provide you more tips :)

Answer 3

I had the same problem, so I developed this function to solve

private function array_key_search($value, $key) {
        $result = false;
        if (is_array($value)) {
            foreach ($value as $k => $v) {
                $result = $k === $key ? $v : $this->array_key_search($v, $key);
                if ($result) {
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        return $result;
}

This function loops through all the keys of an array and retrieves the first occurrence with the name you assign the variable $key