#48010 [Opn]: Returning element value from array_rand()

ID: 48010 Updated by: rasmus@php.net Reported By: me at 46bit dot com Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: All PHP Version: 5.3.0RC1 New Comment: A very common thing to do is to unset the random element from the array so you never pick the same one twice. In order to do that you have to return the index of the element. Returning the value is useless. And since it is trivial to go from index to value, that seemed like the logical way to implement this. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-04-18 03:09:02] me at 46bit dot com Description: ------------ With array_rand() as it is now, it only returns the key of the element(s) it picks randomly from the array. The problem with this is that much/most of the time all the programmer wants is to get a random value from that array - not the key. At present you then have to do code such as $arrayName[array_rand($arrayName)] or a foreach loop when getting multiple random elements. Whilst of limited importance, this could quite be implemented via the addition of a boolean parameter on the end of array_rand without too much trouble. Reproduce code: --------------- <?php $array = array('a', 'b', 'c'); $values = array_rand($array, 2, TRUE); // return the value if TRUE, the key if FALSE (FALSE the default in order to mirror current functionality) ?> Would be desired to get 2 random values from $array, as opposed having to do: <?php $array = array('a', 'b', 'c'); $values = array_rand($array, 2); foreach($values as &$value) { $value = $array[$value]; } ?> Expected result: ---------------- 2 Random values from $array. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=48010&edit=1