How can I get the current array index in a foreach

Question

How do I get the current index in a foreach loop?

foreach ($arr as $key => $val)
{
    // How do I get the index?
    // How do I get the first element in an associative array?
}

Answer 1

This is the most exhaustive answer so far and gets rid of the need for a $i variable floating around. It is a combo of Kip and Gnarf's answers.

$array = array( 'cat' => 'meow', 'dog' => 'woof', 'cow' => 'moo', 'computer' => 'beep' );
foreach( array_keys( $array ) as $index=>$key ) {

    // display the current index + key + value
    echo $index . ':' . $key . $array[$key];

    // first index
    if ( $index == 0 ) {
        echo ' -- This is the first element in the associative array';
    }

    // last index
    if ( $index == count( $array ) - 1 ) {
        echo ' -- This is the last element in the associative array';
    }
    echo '<br>';
}

Hope it helps someone.

Answer 2

based on @fabien-snauwaert's answer but simplified if you do not need the original key

$array = array( 'cat' => 'meow', 'dog' => 'woof', 'cow' => 'moo', 'computer' => 'beep' );
foreach( array_values( $array ) as $index=>$value ) {

    // display the current index +  value
    echo $index . ':' . $value;

    // first index
    if ( $index == 0 ) {
        echo ' -- This is the first element in the associative array';
    }

    // last index
    if ( $index == count( $array ) - 1 ) {
        echo ' -- This is the last element in the associative array';
    }
    echo '<br>';
}

Answer 3

The current index is the value of $key. And for the other question, you can also use:

current($arr)

to get the first element of any array, assuming that you aren't using the next(), prev() or other functions to change the internal pointer of the array.

Answer 4

You can get the index value with this

foreach ($arr as $key => $val)
{
    $key = (int) $key;
    //With the variable $key you can get access to the current array index
    //You can use $val[$key] to

}

Answer 5

$key is the index for the current array element, and $val is the value of that array element.

The first element has an index of 0. Therefore, to access it, use $arr[0]

To get the first element of the array, use this

$firstFound = false;
foreach($arr as $key=>$val)
{
    if (!$firstFound)
       $first = $val;
    else
       $firstFound = true;
    // do whatever you want here
}

// now ($first) has the value of the first element in the array

Answer 6

well since this is the first google hit for this problem:

function mb_tell(&$msg) {
    if(count($msg) == 0) {
        return 0;
    }
    //prev($msg);
    $kv = each($msg);
    if(!prev($msg)) {
        end($msg);

        print_r($kv);
        return ($kv[0]+1);
    }
    print_r($kv);
    return ($kv[0]);
}