Does a native php (5+) function exist that does the following in 1 line?

Question

function array_value_from_key($array,$key)
{
     return !empty($array[$key]) ? $array[$key] : null;
}

The reason I ask is because I have a class function that returns an array.

Instead of having to do

$myArray = myClass::giveMeArray();
$myValue = $myArray[$myKey];

I'd like to do something along the lines of

$myValue = array_value_from_key(myClass::giveMeArray(),$myKey);

When an object is returned, you can chain the object such as

$myValue = myClass::giveMeObject()->aValue;

Voila, nice and clean.. not being able to find what seems to be a simple and trivial function is driving me crazy...

PS.. one more example of how I'd like to use such a function

if(arrayKeyVal(aClass::giveMeArray(),$myKey)) {
    do_something();
}

Answer 1

I haven't tried it, but:

$myValue = @$myArray[$myKey];

might work, though i honestly think you would be better off using

$myValue = (array_key_exists($myKey, $myArray)) ? $myArray[$myKey] : null;

Answer 2

EDIT: turns out I need to brush up on my PHP5. My answer below is incorrect and only applies to PHP4, since PHP5 has method chaining.

---

PHP doesn't allow you to chain together the return statements from functions like in many other languages. eg, in Javascript:

document.getElementById('abc').style.color = "#fff";

It's a bit of a pain, but that's just how it is. The equivalent which you have to do in PHP is by storing temporary variables. Here's the above as you'd have to write it, if it were PHP: (obviously these aren't real PHP functions)

$myElement = $document->getElementById('abc');
$myElement->style->color = "#fff";

One little positive of this is that it makes debugging a wee bit easier.

Note that this only applies to functions: you can "chain" properties of objects:

$myObject->myArray[5]->anotherProperty->anotherArray[3]->anotherObject->aFunction();

so, in short, if you want to use the result of a function, you have to store it temporarily first

Answer 3

You could return an ArrayObject, like so.

<?
class MyClass
{
    public static function getArray()
    {
        $arr = array('dave' => 1, 'bob' => 2, 'james' => 3);
        return new ArrayObject($arr, ArrayObject::ARRAY_AS_PROPS);
    }
}

$var = MyClass::getArray()->bob;

?>

Answer 4

Why don't you change the giveMeArray() function like so:

function giveMeArray($key = false) {
    $array = $whatever;
    $toret = null;
    if ($key) {
        if (array_key_exists($key, $array)) {
            $toret = $array[$key];
        }
    } else {
        $toret = $array()
    }
    return $toret;
}

Then you can call it as

$arr = myClass::giveMeArray(); //To get the whole array
$value = myClass::giveMeArray($myKey); //To get the specific element

Answer 5

$myValue = ($tmp = myClass::giveMeArray() && $tmp[$myKey]) ? $tmp[$myKey] : null;

It's not pretty, but it'll do it all in one line. ;-)

Answer 6

This questions is similar (but is more specific to the lack of subscript support on expressions): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13109/php-access-array-value-on-the-fly