International PHP Conference Berlin 2025

reset

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

resetSetzt den internen Zeiger eines Arrays auf sein erstes Element

Beschreibung

reset(array|object &$array): mixed

reset() setzt den internen Zeiger von array auf das erste Element zurück und gibt den Wert des ersten Arrayelements zurück.

Parameter-Liste

array

Das Eingabe-Array.

Rückgabewerte

Gibt das erste Element des Arrays zurück oder false wenn das Array leer ist.

Warnung

Diese Funktion kann sowohl das boolsche false zurückliefern, als auch einen nicht-boolschen Wert, welcher zu false ausgewertet wird. Weitere Informationen entnehmen Sie bitte dem Abschnitt über die boolschen Typen. Benutzen Sie deshalb den === Operator, um den Rückgabewert dieser Funktion zu überprüfen.

Changelog

Version Beschreibung
8.1.0 Bei Objekten ist die Verwendung dieser Funktion veraltet. Stattdessen sollte entweder das Objekt vorher mit get_mangled_object_vars() in ein Array umgewandelt werden oder es sollten die Methoden einer Klasse verwendet werden, die Iterator implementiert, z. B. ArrayIterator.
7.4.0 Instanzen von SPL-Klassen werden nun wie leere Objekte behandelt, die keine Eigenschaften haben, anstatt die Iterator-Methode aufzurufen, die den gleichen Namen wie diese Funktion hat.

Beispiele

Beispiel #1 reset()-Beispiel

<?php

$array
= array('step one', 'step two', 'step three', 'step four');

// normalerweise steht der interne Zeiger auf dem ersten Element
echo current($array) . "<br />\n"; // "step one"

// Zwei Elemente überspringen
next($array);
next($array);
echo
current($array) . "<br />\n"; // "step three"

// Zeiger zurücksetzen auf das erste Element und wieder bei step one beginnen
reset($array);
echo
current($array) . "<br />\n"; // "step one"

?>

Anmerkungen

Hinweis: Der Rückgabewert für ein leeres Array ist nicht zu unterscheiden vom Rückgabewert eines Arrays, das ein bool false als erstes Element hat. Um den Wert des ersten Elements eines Arrays ordnungsgemäß zu prüfen, das false-Elemente enthalten kann, ist zunächst der count() des Arrays zu prüfen oder sicherzustellen, dass key() nicht null ist, nachdem reset() aufgerufen wurde.

Siehe auch

  • current() - Liefert das aktuelle Element eines Arrays
  • each() - Liefert das aktuelle Schlüssel-Wert-Paar eines Arrays und rückt den Arrayzeiger vor
  • end() - Positioniert den internen Zeiger eines Arrays auf dessen letztes Element
  • next() - Rückt den internen Arrayzeiger vor
  • prev() - Setzt den internen Arrayzeiger um ein Element zurück
  • array_key_first() - Ermittelt den ersten Schlüssel eines Arrays

add a note

User Contributed Notes 11 notes

up
55
milo at mdlwebsolutions dot com
12 years ago
GOTCHA: If your first element is false, you don't know whether it was empty or not.

<?php

$a
= array();
$b = array(false, true, true);
var_dump(reset($a) === reset($b)); //bool(true)

?>

So don't count on a false return being an empty array.
up
4
turabgarip at gmail dot com
3 years ago
Since reset() returns the first "value" of the array beside resetting its internal pointer; it will return different results when it is combined with key() or used separately. Like;

<?php

$products
= array(
'biscuits' => array('biscuit1' => 'cobis', 'biscuit2' => 'probis'),
'chocolates' => array('coco1' => 'cococ', 'coco2' => 'prococ'),
);

echo
key(reset($products['biscuits'])); // Fatal error

reset($products['biscuits']);
echo
key($products['biscuits']); // Will print 'biscuit1'

?>

This is perfectly normal because in the first method, reset() returned the first "value" of the 'biscuits' element which is to be "cbosi". So key(string) will cause a fatal error. While in the second method you just reset the array and didn't use a returning value; instead you reset the pointer and than extracted the first key of an array.

If your array has more dimensions, it won't probably cause a fatal error but you will get different results when you combine reset() and key() or use them consecutively.
up
9
Bartek Ferek
8 years ago
As for taking first key of an array, it's much more efficient to RESET and then KEY, rather then RESET result of ARRAY_KEYS (as sugested by gardnerjohng at gmail dot com).

<?php
reset
($someArray);
echo
key($someArray);
?>

This will give the same result but is much much faster. Larger arrays, better performance. Tested on 100-elements long array with 16 times faster results.
up
3
arne dot ludwig at posteo dot de
9 years ago
In response to gardnerjohng's note to retrieve the first _key_ of an array:

To retrieve the first _key_ of an array you can use the combination of reset() and key().

<?php
$properties
= array(
'colour' => 'grey',
'flavour' => 'rubber',
'name' => 'Mouse Ball',
'texture' => 'rubbery'
);

reset($properties);
echo
key($properties); // => 'colour'
?>

I prefer this solution as you don't have to create the keys array. This should (not measured) improve performance on large arrays.
up
6
Mladen Janjetovic
11 years ago
Note that you can't use pointer here. It will reset the iteration counter in this case.
foreach($array as $key=>&$value) {...}


Use standard foreach instead
foreach($array as $key=>$value) {...}
up
6
Alexandre Koriakine
19 years ago
Also it's good to reset this way the multidimentional arrays:

reset($voo2['moder']);
while (list($key, $value) = each ($voo2['moder'])) {

reset($voo2['moder'][$key]);
while (list($key1, $value1) = each ($voo2['moder'][$key])) {
#do what u want
}

}
up
5
leaetherstrip at inbox dot NOSPAMru
20 years ago
Note that reset() will not affect sub-arrays of multidimensional array.

For example,

<?php
$arr
= array(
1 => array(2,3,4,5,6),
2 => array(6,7,8,9,10)
);

while(list(
$i,) = each($arr))
{
echo
"IN \$arr[$i]<br>";

while(list(
$sub_i,$entry) = each($arr[$i]))
{
echo
"\$arr[$i][$sub_i] = $entry<br>";
}
}

reset($arr);

// Do the same again
while(list($i,) = each($arr))
{
echo
"IN \$arr[$i]<br>";

while(list(
$sub_i,$entry) = each($arr[$i]))
{
echo
"\$arr[$i][$sub_i] = $entry<br>";
}
}
?>

will print

IN $arr[1]
$arr[1][0] = 2
$arr[1][1] = 3
$arr[1][2] = 4
$arr[1][3] = 5
$arr[1][4] = 6
IN $arr[2]
$arr[2][0] = 6
$arr[2][1] = 7
$arr[2][2] = 8
$arr[2][3] = 9
$arr[2][4] = 10
IN $arr[1]
IN $arr[2]
up
2
arne dot slabbinck at duo dot be
9 years ago
Info:

Following code gives a strict warning in 5.4.45

return reset(array_keys($result['node']));

"Strict warning: Only variables should be passed by reference"

So should be:

$keys = array_keys($result['node']);
return reset($keys);
up
2
kendsnyder at gmail dot com
14 years ago
Don't use `reset()` to get the first value of an associative array. It works great for true arrays but works unexpectedly on Iterator objects. http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38478
up
1
m dot lebkowski+php at gmail dot com
18 years ago
Colin, there`s a better (IMO) way to solve your problem.
<?
// ...
foreach($a as $k => &$d){} // notice the "&"
// ...
?>
It`s a new feature in PHP5 to use references in foreach loop. This way PHP isn`t making a copy of the array, so the internal pointer won`t be reset.
up
-1
Colin
18 years ago
I had a problem with PHP 5.0.5 somehow resetting a sub-array of an array with no apparent reason. The problem was in doing a foreach() on the parent array PHP was making a copy of the subarrays and in doing so it was resetting the internal pointers of the original array.

The following code demonstrates the resetting of a subarray:

<?
$a = array(
'a' => array(
'A', 'B', 'C', 'D',
),
'b' => array(
'AA', 'BB', 'CC', 'DD',
),
);

// Set the pointer of $a to 'b' and the pointer of 'b' to 'CC'
reset($a);
next($a);
next($a['b']);
next($a['b']);
next($a['b']);

var_dump(key($a['b']));
foreach($a as $k => $d)
{
}
var_dump(key($a['b']));
?>

The result of the two var dumps are 3 and 0, respectively. Clearly the internal pointer of $a['b'] was reset by doing the foreach loop over $a.

Each time the foreach loop iterated over the 'a' and 'b' keys of $a it made a copy of $a['a'] and $a['b'] into $d which resetted the internal pointers of $a['a'] and $a['b'] despite making no obvious changes.

The solution is instead to iterate over the keys of $a.

<?
foreach(array_keys($a) as $k)
{
}
?>

and using $a[$k] (or creating an alias of $a[$k] as $d and dealing with the consequences of using aliases).

For the curious, I was implementing the Iterator interface on a dummy object and calling a global object to do the actual iteration (also to cope with PHP's lack of C-style pointers which when doing a $a = $b on objects would cause the data in $a to be inconsistent with the data in $b when modified). Being that I had many dummy objects representing different data sets I chose to store each data set as a subarray contained within the global object. To make this work each dummy object has to store a key (which can freely be duplicated without problems) that it passes to the global object when rewind, key, current, next, and valid were called on the dummy object.

Unfortunately for me, my key required to be more than just a simple string or number (if it was then it could be used to directly index the subarray of data for that object and problem avoided) but was an array of strings. Instead, I had to iterate over (with a foreach loop) each subarray and compare the key to a variable stored within the subarray.

So by using a foreach loop in this manner and with PHP resetting the pointer of subarrays it ended up causing an infinite loop.

Really, this could be solved by PHP maintaining internal pointers on arrays even after copying.
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