[FX.php List] foreach vs. first item in array

[Charles Ross]

Thanks to both of you for pointing out a better way to get the member  
of a single value array.

Chuck

On Dec 14, 2005, at 7:16 AM, Dale Bengston wrote:

> Dan,
>
> No apologies necessary! I use the current() function for other  
> purposes, but didn't honestly remember that its the first rec if I  
> haven't been through the array.
>
> Any time I can reduce something to the point of not needing a  
> function, I'm happy. Especially if I didn't have to figure it out  
> myself! I should post my code samples more often!
>
> Thanks for the great tip,
> Dale
>
> On Dec 13, 2005, at 9:56 PM, DC wrote:
>
>> Sorry, Dale, if this bothers you, but I love optimizing!
>>
>> PHP is like any deep scripting language in that you can do things  
>> in a multitude of ways.
>>
>> This replaces the key manipulations is the original function with  
>> the single current() function.
>>
>> function getFirstRec($data)
>> 	{
>> 	return current($data);
>> 	}
>>
>> The current function always has the value of the first array  
>> element unless the array has been iterated over. Usually, current 
>> () is seen in the midst of array iterations that are programmed by  
>> hand for some reason or another, but in this case, current() is  
>> the fastest way to get to the first record of an array where the  
>> keys are unknown.
>>
>> Even slimmer - lose the function:
>>
>> $myFirstRec =current($returnedResult['data']);
>>
>> HTH,
>> dan
>>
>> On Dec 13, 2005, at 9:47 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Chuck,
>>>
>>> The array keys of $returnedResult['data'] are recid.modid for  
>>> each record, not self-assigned array keys (0, 1, 2 ...). That  
>>> makes it harder to pull the nth record without already knowing  
>>> what its key is.
>>>
>>> I wrote a simple function to return the field data of the first  
>>> record in the found set, and I just use that. It could easily be  
>>> adapted to pull the last record or whatever record you need by  
>>> sequential index...
>>>
>>>
>>> $myFirstRec = getFirstRec($returnedResult['data']);
>>>
>>>
>>> function getFirstRec($data)
>>> 	{
>>> 	$resultKeys = array_keys($data);
>>> 	$firstKey = $resultKeys[0];
>>> 	$firstRec = $data[$firstKey];
>>> 	
>>> 	return $firstRec;
>>> 	}
>>>
>>>
>>> Hope this helps,
>>> Dale
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dale Bengston | Streamline Studio, LLC | dbengston at streamline- 
>>> studio.com
>>> Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Dec 13, 2005, at 4:36 PM, Charles Ross wrote:
>>>
>>>> Both in the FX.php in 8 Hours book and here on this mailing  
>>>> list, I've seen this line of code to extract a single item from  
>>>> the object returned with an FMFind():
>>>>
>>>> foreach($returnedResult['data'] as $key => $value);
>>>>
>>>> From what I understand, this is useful when there should be a  
>>>> single record returned in $returnedResult. If that's the case,  
>>>> why not use:
>>>>
>>>> $value = $returnedResult['data'][0];
>>>>
>>>> Is there an advantage to using the foreach rather than the array  
>>>> index version? I did some testing, and it seemed to work the  
>>>> same, and the latter one seems easier to read and more  
>>>> straightforward, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Chuck Ross
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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Chuck Ross
Author - The Book of AppleScript Studio
Contributor/Technical Editor - The Book of FileMaker
Contributing Editor - About This Particular Macintosh
Contributing Writer - ISO FileMaker Magazine
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