array_keys

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

array_keysReturn all the keys or a subset of the keys of an array

Description

array_keys(array $array): array
array_keys(array $array, mixed $filter_value, bool $strict = false): array

array_keys() returns the keys, numeric and string, from the array.

If a filter_value is specified, then only the keys for that value are returned. Otherwise, all the keys from the array are returned.

Parameters

array

An array containing keys to return.

filter_value

If specified, then only keys containing this value are returned.

strict

Determines if strict comparison (===) should be used during the search.

Return Values

Returns an array of all the keys in array.

Examples

Example #1 array_keys() example

<?php
$array
= array(0 => 100, "color" => "red");
print_r(array_keys($array));

$array = array("blue", "red", "green", "blue", "blue");
print_r(array_keys($array, "blue"));

$array = array("color" => array("blue", "red", "green"),
"size" => array("small", "medium", "large"));
print_r(array_keys($array));
?>

The above example will output:

Array
(
    [0] => 0
    [1] => color
)
Array
(
    [0] => 0
    [1] => 3
    [2] => 4
)
Array
(
    [0] => color
    [1] => size
)

See Also

  • array_values() - Return all the values of an array
  • array_combine() - Creates an array by using one array for keys and another for its values
  • array_key_exists() - Checks if the given key or index exists in the array
  • array_search() - Searches the array for a given value and returns the first corresponding key if successful

add a note

User Contributed Notes 29 notes

up
141
pat dot leblanc at gmail dot com
12 years ago
It's worth noting that if you have keys that are long integer, such as '329462291595', they will be considered as such on a 64bits system, but will be of type string on a 32 bits system.

for example:
<?php

$importantKeys
= array('329462291595' =>null, 'ZZ291595' => null);

foreach(
array_keys($importantKeys) as $key){
echo
gettype($key)."\n";
}

?>

will return on a 64 bits system:
<?php
integer
string
?>

but on a 32 bits system:
<?php
string
string
?>

I hope it will save someone the huge headache I had :)
up
59
Sven (bitcetera.com)
18 years ago
Here's how to get the first key, the last key, the first value or the last value of a (hash) array without explicitly copying nor altering the original array:

<?php
$array
= array('first'=>'111', 'second'=>'222', 'third'=>'333');

// get the first key: returns 'first'
print array_shift(array_keys($array));

// get the last key: returns 'third'
print array_pop(array_keys($array));

// get the first value: returns '111'
print array_shift(array_values($array));

// get the last value: returns '333'
print array_pop(array_values($array));
?>
up
28
Ian (maxianos at hotmail dot com)
10 years ago
There's a lot of multidimensional array_keys function out there, but each of them only merges all the keys in one flat array.

Here's a way to find all the keys from a multidimensional array while keeping the array structure. An optional MAXIMUM DEPTH parameter can be set for testing purpose in case of very large arrays.

NOTE: If the sub element isn't an array, it will be ignore.

<?php
function array_keys_recursive($myArray, $MAXDEPTH = INF, $depth = 0, $arrayKeys = array()){
if(
$depth < $MAXDEPTH){
$depth++;
$keys = array_keys($myArray);
foreach(
$keys as $key){
if(
is_array($myArray[$key])){
$arrayKeys[$key] = array_keys_recursive($myArray[$key], $MAXDEPTH, $depth);
}
}
}

return
$arrayKeys;
}
?>

EXAMPLE:
input:
array(
'Player' => array(
'id' => '4',
'state' => 'active',
),
'LevelSimulation' => array(
'id' => '1',
'simulation_id' => '1',
'level_id' => '1',
'Level' => array(
'id' => '1',
'city_id' => '8',
'City' => array(
'id' => '8',
'class' => 'home',
)
)
),
'User' => array(
'id' => '48',
'gender' => 'M',
'group' => 'user',
'username' => 'Hello'
)
)

output:
array(
'Player' => array(),
'LevelSimulation' => array(
'Level' => array(
'City' => array()
)
),
'User' => array()
)
up
16
Paul Hirsch
9 years ago
It is worth noting that array_keys does not maintain the data-type of the keys when mapping them to a new array. This created an issue with in_array and doing a lookup on characters from a string. NOTE: my lookup $array has a full map of numbers and characters - upper and lower - to do an simple faux encryption with.

<?php
$array
= array(
'e' => 'ieio'
,'1' => 'one'
,'2' => 'two'
,'0' => 'zero'
);
var_dump($array);
$keys = array_keys($array);
var_dump($keys);

$string = '1e0';
for (
$i = 0; $i < strlen($string); $i++) {
if (
in_array($string[$i],$keys,'strict')) echo 'dude ';
else echo
'sweet ';
}
?>

Outputs:
array (size=4)
'e' => string 'ieio' (length=4)
1 => string 'one' (length=3)
2 => string 'two' (length=3)
0 => string 'zero' (length=4)

array (size=4)
0 => string 'e' (length=1)
1 => int 1
2 => int 2
3 => int 0

sweet dude sweet

----
expected to see:
dude dude dude
up
17
phpnet at holodyn dot com
10 years ago
Since 5.4 STRICT standards dictate that you cannot wrap array_keys in a function like array_shift that attempts to reference the array.

Invalid:
echo array_shift( array_keys( array('a' => 'apple') ) );

Valid:
$keys = array_keys( array('a' => 'apple') );
echo array_shift( $keys );

But Wait! Since PHP (currently) allows you to break a reference by wrapping a variable in parentheses, you can currently use:

echo array_shift( ( array_keys( array('a' => 'apple') ) ) );

However I would expect in time the PHP team will modify the rules of parentheses.
up
16
zammit dot andrew at gmail dot com
10 years ago
If an array is empty (but defined), or the $search_value is not found in the array, an empty array is returned (not false, null, or -1). This may seem intuitive, especially given the documentation says an array is returned, but I needed to sanity test to be sure:

<?php

$emptyArray
= array();
var_dump(array_keys($emptyArray,99)); // array (size=0) \ empty

$filledArray = array(11,22,33,42);
var_dump(array_keys($filledArray,99)); // array (size=0) \ empty

?>
up
6
Robert C.
8 years ago
Keys from multi dimensional array to simple array

Want to traverse an multi dimensional array and get the keys back in a single dimensional array? This will do the trick:

<?php

public function array_walk_keys($array, $parentKey = null, &$flattened_array = null)
{
if(!
is_array($array))
return
$array;

foreach(
$array as $key => $val ) {
$flattenedKeysArray[] = $key;

if(
is_array($val))
array_walk_keys($val, $key, $flattenedKeysArray);
}

return
$flattenedKeysArray;
}
up
6
jochem
18 years ago
might be worth noting in the docs that not all associative (string) keys are a like, output of the follow bit of code demonstrates - might be a handy introduction to automatic typecasting in php for some people (and save a few headaches):

<?php
$r
= array("0"=>"0","1"=>"1","" =>"2"," "=>"3");
echo
'how php sees this array: array("0"=>"0","1"=>"1","" =>"2"," "=>"3")',"\n-----------\n";
var_dump($r); print_r($r); var_export($r);
echo
"\n-----------\n",'var_dump("0","1",""," ") = ',"\n-----------\n";
var_dump("0","1",""," ");
?>

OUTPUTS:

how php sees this array: array("0"=>"0","1"=>"1","" =>"2"," "=>"3")
-----------
array(4) {
[0]=>
string(1) "0"
[1]=>
string(1) "1"
[""]=>
string(1) "2"
[" "]=>
string(1) "3"
}
Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 1
[] => 2
[ ] => 3
)
array (
0 => '0',
1 => '1',
'' => '2',
' ' => '3',
)
-----------
var_dump("0","1",""," ") =
-----------
string(1) "0"
string(1) "1"
string(0) ""
string(1) " "
up
1
vittorh at outlook dot com
10 months ago
Hello friends

Guys in the array_keys function manual - https://www.php.net/manual/pt_BR/function.array-keys.php

it is described that in the second search parameter " $filter_value " is defined in mixed type, however in php 7.4 to version 8.1 when passing a $filter_value of type array, the function without returning false ( empty array )

Exemple :

$array = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 2];

var_dump(array_keys($array,array('a','b'))); // return array(0) { }
var_dump(array_keys($array,array('a','b'))); // return array(0) { }
var_dump(array_keys($array,'a')); // return array(0) { }

Debugging the code, I believe that the description of the $filter_value parameter is confusing, as it is understood that the value of the key in the array has to be the specified value and not the content of the key
up
12
el dot quick at gmail dot com
12 years ago
Sorry for my english...

I wrote a function to get keys of arrays recursivelly...

<?php
function recursive_keys($input, $search_value = null){

$output = ($search_value !== null ? array_keys($input, $search_value) : array_keys($input)) ;
foreach(
$input as $sub){
if(
is_array($sub)){
$output = ($search_value !== null ? array_merge($output, recursive_keys($sub, $search_value)) : array_merge($output, recursive_keys($sub))) ;
}
}
return
$output ;
}
?>

I hope it will be usefull

Regards
up
4
enrique dot balleste at gmail dot com
7 years ago
A nice little trick to get all of the keys who have some type of value:

$keys = array_keys($array, !null);
up
3
ayyappan dot ashok at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Post By Sven (59892) has to be changed

$array = array('first'=>'111', 'second'=>'222', 'third'=>'333');

$rarray = array_keys($array);

print array_shift($rarray); // first

print array_pop($rarray); //thrid

print array_shift($rarray); //second

print array_pop($rarray); // no result

Code below is not valid from 5.4.0

print array_shift(array_keys($array)); Throws Strict Standards Error

Sven code works fine till 5.3.29. From 5.4.0 the standards have been changed and results too differ.

Note :
Strict Standards : Only variables should be passed by reference

Please have look of the code in different versions

http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/24b5fddf14b635f1e37db69a7edffc2cbbed55e1

http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/f695e8f81e906b4f062b66cf9b3b83b6b620464c
up
7
ferrerna at gmail dot com
15 years ago
Here's a function I needed to collapse an array, in my case from a database query. It takes an array that contains key-value pairs and returns an array where they are actually the key and value.

<?php

function array_collapse($arr, $x, $y) {
$carr = array();
while (
$el = current($arr)) {
$carr[ $el[$x] ] = $el[$y];
next($arr);
}
return
$carr;
}

?>

Example usage (pseudo-database code):

<?php

$query
= db_query('SELECT name, value FROM properties');

$result = db_returnAll($query);

/* This will return an array like so:

[
['name' -> 'color', 'value' -> 'blue'],
['name' -> 'style', 'value' -> 'wide-format'],
['name' -> 'weight', 'value' -> 3.6],
['name' -> 'name', 'value' -> 'Waerdthing']
]

*/

$propArr = array_collapse($result, 'name', 'value');

/* Now this array looks like:

[
['color' -> 'blue'],
['style' -> 'wide-format'],
['weight' -> 3.6],
['name' -> 'Waerdthing'],

*/

?>

I found this handy for using with json_encode and am using it for my project http://squidby.com
up
4
rodrigo at NOSPAM dot dhweb dot com dot br
21 years ago
[Editor's note: For a complete solution to the printing of complex structures or hashes, see the PEAR::Var_Dump package: http://pear.php.net/package-info.php?pacid=103 , use "pear install Var_Dump" to get it]

This function will print all the keys of a multidimensional array in html tables.
It will help to debug when you don?t have control of depths.

<?php
function show_keys($ar){

echo
"<table width='100%' border='1' bordercolor='#6699CC' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5'><tr valign='top'>";

foreach (
$ar as $k => $v ) {

echo
"<td align='center' bgcolor='#EEEEEE'>
<table border='2' cellpadding='3'><tr><td bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><font face='verdana' size='1'>
"
. $k . "
</font></td></tr></table>"
;

if (
is_array($ar[$k])) {
show_keys ($ar[$k]);
}

echo
"</td>";

}

echo
"</tr></table>";

}

// Multidimensional array ->
$arvore = array();
$arvore['1'] = array();
$arvore['1']['1.1'] = array('1.1.1', '1.1.2', '1.1.3');
$arvore['1']['1.2'] = array('1.2.1', '1.2.2', '1.2.3');
$arvore['1']['1.3'] = array('1.3.1', '1.3.2', '1.3.3');
$arvore['2'] = array();
$arvore['2']['2.1'] = array('2.1.1', '2.1.2', '2.1.3');
$arvore['2']['2.2'] = array('2.2.1', '2.2.2', '2.2.3');
$arvore['2']['2.3'] = array('2.3.1', '2.3.2', '2.3.3');
$arvore['3'] = array();
$arvore['3']['3.1'] = array('3.1.1', '3.1.2', '3.1.3');
$arvore['3']['3.2'] = array('3.2.1', '3.2.2', '3.2.3');
$arvore['3']['3.3'] = array('3.3.1', '3.3.2'=>array('3.3.2.1', '3.3.2.2'), '3.3.3');
// <-

show_keys($arvore);
?>
up
6
sip at email dot ee
20 years ago
Note, that using array_key_exists() is rather inefficient. The overhead associated with calling a function makes it slower, than using isset($array[$key]), instead of array_key_exists($key, $array)
using isset() is usually about 1.3 times faster, according to my tests.
up
7
ru dot dy at gmx dot net
18 years ago
I was looking for a function that simply unset a variable amout of values from a one-dimensional array by key. I ended up with this (returns the array itself if no further parameter than the array is given, false with no params - does not change the source array)

usage: array_remove(array $input [, mixed key ...])

<?php

function array_remove() {
if (
$stack = func_get_args()) {
$input = array_shift($stack);
foreach (
$stack as $key) {
unset(
$input[$key]);
}
return
$input;
}
return
false;
}

?>

Test:

<?php
$a
= array('a'=>'fun', 'b'=>3.14, 'sub'=> array('1', '2', '3'), 'd'=>'what', 'e' => 'xample', 5 => 'x');
print_r($a);
print_r(array_remove($a, 'd', 'b', 5, 'sub'));
?>

Output:

Array
(
[a] => fun
[b] => 3.14
[sub] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)

[d] => what
[e] => xample
[5] => x
)
Array
(
[a] => fun
[e] => xample
)

Hope this helps someone.
up
3
Md. Abutaleb
4 years ago
<?php
# array_keys() also return the key if it's boolean but the boolean will return as 1 or 0. It will return empty if get NULL value as key. Consider the following array:

$a = array(
"first_index" => "This is the first element",
true => 3,
false => 2,
4.5 => 'Something',
"08" => 5,
"8" => 6,
NULL => 'Null key'
);

print_r(array_keys($a));

Array
(
[
0] => first_index
[1] => 1
[2] => 0
[3] => 4
[4] => 08
[5] => 8
[6] =>
)

?>
up
4
izzecold at live dot de
12 years ago
<?php

/* A Function created by myself for checking multiple array keys
For Example u got an Array like $_SESSION and u wanna know if the keys 'user','pass','email' and 'type' exists.

*/

function mKeyChecker($arr,$keys=array()) {
if(
count($keys) > 1) {
$valid_keys = 0;
foreach(
$keys as $key) {
if(
array_key_exists($key,$arr)) $valid_keys++;
}
if(
$valid_keys == count($keys)) {
return
true;
} else {
return
false;
}
} else if(
count($keys) == 1) {
if(
array_key_exists($key[0],$arr)) {
return
true;
} else {
return
false;
}
} else {
return
false;
}
}

// Execution Example

if(mKeyChecker($_SESSION,array('id','user','email','type'))) {
echo
"is!";
} else {
echo
"not!";
}

?>
up
4
Hayley Watson
16 years ago
An alternative to RQuadling at GMail dot com's array_remove() function:

<?php
function array_remove(array $array, $value, $strict=false)
{
return
array_diff_key($array, array_flip(array_keys($array, $value, $strict)));
}
?>
up
7
vesely at tana dot it
18 years ago
The position of an element.

One can apply array_keys twice to get the position of an element from its key. (This is the reverse of the function by cristianDOTzuddas.) E.g., the following may output "yes, we have bananas at position 0".

<?php
$a
= array("banana" => "yellow", "apple" = "red");
$k = get_some_fruit();
if (isset(
$a[$k]))
{
list(
$pos) = array_keys(array_keys($a), $k);
print
"yes, we have {$k}s at position $pos\n";
}
?>

Not amazingly efficient, but I see no better alternative.
up
4
creator at mindcreations dot com
17 years ago
This function will extract keys from a multidimensional array

<?php
function multiarray_keys($ar) {

foreach(
$ar as $k => $v) {
$keys[] = $k;
if (
is_array($ar[$k]))
$keys = array_merge($keys, multiarray_keys($ar[$k]));
}
return
$keys;
}
?>

Example code:

<?php
$array
= array("color" => array("1stcolor" => "blue", "2ndcolor" => "red", "3rdcolor" => "green"),
"size" => array("small", "medium", "large"));

echo
"<pre>";
print_r($array);
echo
"</pre>";

echo
"<pre>";
print_r(multiarray_keys($array));
echo
"</pre>";
?>

Example output:

Array
(
[color] => Array
(
[1stcolor] => blue
[2ndcolor] => red
[3rdcolor] => green
)

[size] => Array
(
[0] => small
[1] => medium
[2] => large
)

)

Array
(
[0] => color
[1] => 1stcolor
[2] => 2ndcolor
[3] => 3rdcolor
[4] => size
[5] => 0
[6] => 1
[7] => 2
)
up
1
qeremy [atta] gmail [dotta] com
12 years ago
Simple ways to prefixing arrays;

<?php
function array_keys_prefix($arr, $pref = "") {
$rarr = array();
foreach (
$arr as $key => $val) {
$rarr[$pref.$key] = $val;
}
return
$rarr;
}

function
array_keys_prefix_multi($arr, $pref = "") {
$rarr = array();
foreach (
$arr as $key => $val) {
$rarr[] = array_keys_prefix($val, $pref);
}
return
$rarr;
}

// $a = array("foo" => "FOO", "bar" => "BAR", "baz" => "BAZ"); // or
$a = array("foo" => "FOO", "bar" => "BAR", "baz" => array(1,2,3));
print_r(array_keys_prefix($a, "my_"));

// db fetch...
$products = array(
array(
"id" => 1, "name" => "Foo"),
array(
"id" => 2, "name" => "Bar")
);
print_r(array_keys_prefix_multi($products, "product_"));
?>

Array
(
[my_foo] => FOO
[my_bar] => BAR
[my_baz] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)

)
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[product_id] => 1
[product_name] => Foo
)

[1] => Array
(
[product_id] => 2
[product_name] => Bar
)

)
up
1
craig1231 at hotmail dot com
12 years ago
A needed a function to find the keys which contain part of a string, not equalling a string...

<?php
function array_keys_contain($input, $search_value, $strict = false)
{
$tmpkeys = array();

$keys = array_keys($input);

foreach (
$keys as $k)
{
if (
$strict && strpos($k, $search_value) !== FALSE)
$tmpkeys[] = $k;
elseif (!
$strict && stripos($k, $search_value) !== FALSE)
$tmpkeys[] = $k;
}

return
$tmpkeys;
}
?>
up
0
webmaster [at] baz-x [dot] at
18 years ago
I was looking for a function that deletes either integer keys or string keys (needed for my caching).
As I didn't find a function I came up with my own solution.
I didn't find the propiest function to post to so I will post it here, hope you find it useful.

<?php

function array_extract($array, $extract_type = 1)
{
foreach (
$array as $key => $value )
{
if (
$extract_type == 1 && is_string($key) )
{
// delete string keys
unset($array[$key]);
}
elseif (
$extract_type == 2 && is_int($key) )
{
// delete integer keys
unset($array[$key]);
}
}

return
$array;
}

?>

You can of course define constants to have a nicer look, I have chosen these: EXTR_INT = 1; EXTR_STRING = 2
EXTR_INT will return an array where keys are only integer while
EXTR_STRING will return an array where keys are only string

Have fun with it.
up
0
glennh at webadept dot net
21 years ago
All the cool notes are gone from the site.

Here's an example of how to get all the variables passed to your program using the method on this page. This prints them out so you can see what you are doing.

<?php
while (list($key, $value) = each
(${"HTTP_".$REQUEST_METHOD."_VARS"}))
{
echo
$key." = ".$value." ";
}
?>
up
-2
neil at 11 out of 10
15 years ago
<?php

/*
* This function will return the keys of elements in the
* haystack where the value is found in array needle
*/

function array_value_intersect_keys( $array_haystack, $array_needle ){
$intersected = array_intersect( $array_haystack, $array_needle );
return
array_keys( $intersected );
}

// usage

$array_haystack = array( 1 => 2, 2 => 5, 'red' => 8, 9 => 14 );

$array_needle = array( 2, 8 );

$array_keys_of_intersecting_values = array_value_intersect_keys( $array_haystack, $array_needle );

print_r( $array_keys_of_intersecting_values );
?>

returns
Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => red
)
up
-7
anthony at berglas dot org
12 years ago
It should be noted that the inverse function to keys (which converts keys to values) is array_count_values (which converts values to keys). This is needed to use things like array_intersect_key. Could go in several places. Took me a while to figure it out.
up
-14
nodarinodo at mail dot ru
15 years ago
<?php
//It's a way to get keys from values )
$es = array("is My FullName"=>"nodar chkuaselidze (nodarinodo)", "You Are" => "I don't know", "Is My Friend" => "ruxadze");
foreach(
array_values($es) as $ess){
echo
$ess." =>";

for(
$i =0; $i < count(array_keys($es, $ess)); $i++){
echo
reset(array_keys($es, $ess))."<BR>";
} }
?>
up
-11
Na&#39;ven Enigma
12 years ago
I was trying to figure out how to normalize an array with numerical keys. Since I was doing for() for a lot of things, but only replacing it if the conditions were right, I wound up with off ball arrays I couldn't access. That being said, I looked for a method of normalizing the array and couldn't find one, so I built my own. I'm not sure how to go about making it recursive, but I didn't need that feature for my own, so I just went without recursion.

//This will take array([5] => "test1", [4] => "test2", [9] => "test3") into array([0] => "test1", [1] => "test2", [2] => "test3") so you can access it easier.
function normalize_array($array){
$newarray = array();
$array_keys = array_keys($array);
$i=0;
foreach($array_keys as $key){
$newarray[$i] = $array[$key];

$i++;
}
return $newarray;
}
To Top