PHP array_column()

Last Updated: February 9, 2022

If you have an array of records you can get any specified column from the record set. The return data is also in array format.

Syntax

 array_column(array $array, int|string|null $column_key, int|string|null $index_key = null): array

If you want to define the index value of the returned array you can use the index_key parameter.

Supports (PHP 5 >= 5.5.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Parameters

Parameter Description
array Required. Specify the array to be used
column_key Required. Column of the value to returned. You can specify the inter key value or string value (in case associative array). If this is null it will return all the elements of the array
index_key

Optional:

Define the index values of the returned array.This value may be the integer key of the column, or it may be the string key name

Return Value

array_column() function returns array with single column values

Examples


<?php
// Array representing a possible record set returned from a database
$records = array(
    array(
        'id' => 2135,
        'first_name' => 'John',
        'last_name' => 'Doe',
    ),
    array(
        'id' => 3245,
        'first_name' => 'Sally',
        'last_name' => 'Smith',
    ),
    array(
        'id' => 5342,
        'first_name' => 'Jane',
        'last_name' => 'Jones',
    ),
    array(
        'id' => 5623,
        'first_name' => 'Peter',
        'last_name' => 'Doe',
    )
);
 
$first_names = array_column($records, 'first_name');
print_r($first_names);
?>

You will get the following values

Array
(
    [0] => John
    [1] => Sally
    [2] => Jane
    [3] => Peter
)


Get the column of last_name and index is based on the id column

<?php
$first_names = array_column($records, 'last_name','id);
print_r($first_names);
?>

Output:

Array ( 
    [2135] => John 
    [3245] => Sally 
    [5342] => Jane 
    [5623] => Peter 
)
Test