How to delete a key and return the value from a PHP array?
arrays, php
Solution
I don't see a built-in function for this, but you can easily create your own.
/**
* Removes an item from the array and returns its value.
*
* @param array $arr The input array
* @param $key The key pointing to the desired value
* @return The value mapped to $key or null if none
*/
function array_remove(array &$arr, $key) {
if (array_key_exists($key, $arr)) {
$val = $arr[$key];
unset($arr[$key]);
return $val;
}
return null;
}
You can use it with any array, e.g. `$_SESSION`:
return array_remove($_SESSION, 'AFTER_LOGIN_TARGET');
Short and Sweet
With PHP 7+ you can use the null coalescing operator to shorten this function greatly. You don't even need `isset()`!
function array_remove(array &$arr, $key) {
$val = $arr[$key] ?? null;
unset($arr[$key]);
return $val;
}
Problem
When using PHP, I find myself writing code like this a lot: ``` $target = $_SESSION[AFTER_LOGIN_TARGET]; unset($_SESSION[AFTER_LOGIN_TARGET]); return $target; ``` In Python, there is a `dict.pop` method that would let me do something similar in one statement, without a temporary variable: ``` return session.pop(AFTER_LOGIN_TARGET) ``` Is there a similar function or trick in PHP?