Question

It appears the first 2 ([1] and ['value'])and last 2 ([0] and ['key']) elements are always the same, so what is the point?

<?php
$foo = array("bob", "fred", "jussi", "jouni", "egon", "marliese");
$bar = each($foo);
print_r($bar);
?>

Array
(
    [1] => bob
    [value] => bob
    [0] => 0
    [key] => 0
)

Answer 1

Only numeric indicies can be used with list. That way one can use constructs like:

list($key, $val) = each($array);

and something like:

$item = each($array);
echo $item['key']; // key is easier to understand here.