PHP Manual: each

Description

array each ( array &array )

Returns the current key and value pair from the array array and advances the array cursor. This pair is returned in a four-element array, with the keys 0, 1, key, and value. Elements 0 and key contain the key name of the array element, and 1 and value contain the data.

If the internal pointer for the array points past the end of the array contents, each() returns FALSE.

Example 1. each() examples

<?php
$foo = array("bob", "fred", "jussi", "jouni", "egon", "marliese");
$bar = each($foo);
print_r($bar);
?>

$bar now contains the following key/value pairs:

Array
(
    [1] => bob
    [value] => bob
    [0] => 0
    [key] => 0
)

<?php
$foo = array("Robert" => "Bob", "Seppo" => "Sepi");
$bar = each($foo);
print_r($bar);
?>

$bar now contains the following key/value pairs:

Array
(
    [1] => Bob
    [value] => Bob
    [0] => Robert
    [key] => Robert
)

each() is typically used in conjunction with list() to traverse an array, here's an example:

Example 2. Traversing an array with each()

<?php
$fruit = array('a' => 'apple', 'b' => 'banana', 'c' => 'cranberry');

reset($fruit);
while (list($key, $val) = each($fruit)) {
    echo "$key => $val\n";
}
?>

The above example will output:

a => apple
b => banana
c => cranberry

After each() has executed, the array cursor will be left on the next element of the array, or past the last element if it hits the end of the array. You have to use reset() if you want to traverse the array again using each.

Caution

Because assigning an array to another variable resets the original arrays pointer, our example above would cause an endless loop had we assigned $fruit to another variable inside the loop.