Finding the minimum value's key in an associat

Question

In PHP, say that you have an associative array like this:

$pets = array(
    "cats" => 1,
    "dogs" => 2,
    "fish" => 3
);

How would I find the key with the lowest value? Here, I'd be looking for cats.

Is there some built in PHP function that I've missed which does this? It would also be great if there was a solution that accounted for several values being identical, as below:

$pets = array(
    "cats" => 1,
    "dogs" => 1,
    "fish" => 2
);

Above, I wouldn't mind if it just output either; cats or dogs.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Thats how i did it.

$pets = array(
    "cats" => 1,
    "dogs" => 2,
    "fish" => 3
);

array_search(min($pets), $pets); 

I hope that helps

Answer 2

find the highest value

print max(120, 7, 8, 50);

returns --> 120

$array = array(100, 7, 8, 50, 155, 78);
print max($array);

returns --> 155

find the lowest value

print min(120, 7, 8, 50);

returns --> 7

$array = array(50, 7, 8, 101, 5, 78);
print min($array);

returns --> 5

Answer 3

Might try looking into these:

• natcasesort(array)
• natsort(array)

Answer 4

array_keys is your friend:

$pets = array(
    "cats" => 1,
    "dogs" => 2,
    "fish" => 3
);
array_keys($pets, min($pets));  # array('cats')

P.S.: there is a dup here somewhere on SO (it had max instead of min, but I can distinctly remember it).

Answer 5

$min_val = null;
$min_key = null;
foreach($pets as $pet => $val) {
  if ($val < $min_val) {
    $min_val = $min;
    $min_key = $key;
  }
}

You can also flip the array and sort it by key:

$flipped = array_flip($pets);
ksort($flipped);

Then the first key is the minimum, and its value is the key in the original array.