So, array_reverse() is supposed to take an array, and return a copy of it

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Asked: June 1, 20262026-06-01T12:04:51+00:00 2026-06-01T12:04:51+00:00

So, array_reverse() is supposed to take an array, and return a copy of it

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So, array_reverse() is supposed to take an array, and return a copy of it with elements in reverse order, and it’s always been working faithfully for me, up until today. I have an array of arrays, and I need to get them in reverse order, so I’d assumed array_reverse would do exactly what I needed, but it seems to be behaving oddly, and I can’t figure out why.

My initial array (yes, I’m doing some HTML parsing):

Array(
    0 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 232
    ),
    1 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 593
    ),
    2 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 938
    ),
    3 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2627
    ),
    4 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2758
    ),
    5 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2794
    ),
)

running array_reverse($arr) on it, one would expect the returned array to be:

Array (
    0 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2794
    ),
    1 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2758
    ),
    2 => Array(
        0 => '</blockquote',
        1 => int 2627
    ),
    3 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 938
    ),
    4 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 593
    ),
    5 => Array(
        0 => '<blockquote',
        1 => int 232
    ),
)

However, it returns an unaltered array. Now, if I do array_reverse($arr[0]), then it reverses the entire array like I want.

I can think of no reason it would not be reversing the initial array, and why, when passing a specific key, it would reverse the entire array, rather than that one sub-array. Why would it be doing this?

EDIT: I walked away and came back, looked at it, and realized the main array had a single element which was the array I’d posted above. Just a good ol’ ID-10-T error.