Question

I was wondering what is the best way to search keys in an array and return it’s value. Something like array_search but for keys. Would a loop be the best way?

Array:

Array([20120425] => 409 [20120426] => 610 [20120427] => 277
      [20120428] => 114 [20120429] => 32 [20120430] => 304
      [20120501] => 828 [20120502] => 803 [20120503] => 276 [20120504] => 162)

Value I am searching for : 20120504

Answer 1

The key is already the … ehm … key

echo $array[20120504];

If you are unsure, if the key exists, test for it

$key = 20120504;
$result = isset($array[$key]) ? $array[$key] : null;

Minor addition:

$result = @$array[$key] ?: null;

One may argue, that @ is bad, but keep it serious: This is more readable and straight forward, isn’t?

Update: With PHP7 my previous example is possible without the error-silencer

$result = $array[$key] ?? null;