Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the PHP array_shift()
function to remove an element from the beginning of an array.
Introduction to the PHP array_shift function
The array_shift()
function removes the first element from an array and returns it.
The following shows the syntax of the array_shift()
function:
array_shift(array &$array): mixed
Code language: PHP (php)
In this syntax, the $array
is the input array from which you want to remove the first element.
If the $array
is empty or is not an array, the array_shift()
function returns null
.
Note that the array_shift()
function changes the input array by shortening it by one element. It also modifies numerical array keys so that the first element in the modified array has a key starting from zero.
To remove an element from the end of an array and return it, you use the array_pop()
function.
PHP array_shift() function example
The following example uses the array_shift()
function to remove the first element of an array:
<?php
$numbers = [1, 2, 3];
$first_number = array_shift($numbers);
print_r($numbers);
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Output:
Array
(
[0] => 2
[1] => 3
)
Code language: PHP (php)
How it works.
- First, define an array that has three numbers 1, 2, and 3.
- Second, remove the first element of the
$numbers
array and assign it to the$first_number
variable. - Third, show the elements of the
$numbers
array.
As you can see clearly from the output, the $numbers
array is changed from 3 elements to 2 elements. In addition, the indexes of the $numbers array are also changed.
Since the array_shift()
needs to reindex the array after removing the first element, the function will be quite slow if the input array is large.
Summary
- Use the PHP
array_shift()
function to remove an array from the beginning of an array and return it.