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Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2025 20:24:24 +0200
Message-ID: <CAB-Bujb89M-s=JKFP3Oy+gAcY8L2cmQkDydGK0efNUSJL7cU8g@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] [Discussion] array_first() and array_last()
To: Ayesh Karunaratne <ayesh@php.watch>
Cc: Bilge <bilge@scriptfusion.com>, internals@lists.php.net
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From: andreas@dqxtech.net (Andreas Hennings)

On Mon, 7 Apr 2025 at 02:48, Ayesh Karunaratne <ayesh@php.watch> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Apr 7, 2025 at 2:05=E2=80=AFAM Bilge <bilge@scriptfusion.com> w=
rote:
> > ... [snip] I suggest first proving there is a
> > legitimate need.
>
> I did a quick GitHub search for a common pattern of accessing an array
> value by using the `array_key_first` and `array_key_last` functions:
>
> ```php
> $value =3D $arr[array_key_first($results)];
> ```
>
>  - `[array_key_first(`: over 3,700 results[^1]
>  - `[array_key_last(`: over 4,300 results[^2]
>
> All of these hits can benefit from the proposed `array_first` and `array_=
last`.

(I used the wrong reply button earlier..)

I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg. You should look for
reset() and end().
I get 336K when I look for "/(=3D |return |\(|\[)(reset|end)\(\$/ language:=
PHP".
I get 8.3K when I look for "/\[array_key_(first|last)\(/ language:PHP".

There are more matches for "/reset\(" and "/end\(", but we only want
matches where the return value is used.

And indeed I want to never have to use reset() and end() again!
I don't recall when I ever intentionally used the internal array
pointer. Only as a workaround to get a first or last element.

-- Andreas