International PHP Conference Berlin 2025

Iterator::key

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Iterator::keyReturn the key of the current element

Description

public Iterator::key(): mixed

Returns the key of the current element.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns scalar on success, or null on failure.

Errors/Exceptions

Issues E_NOTICE on failure.

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User Contributed Notes 3 notes

up
9
michaelgranados at gmail dot com
11 years ago
Since PHP 5.5.X foreach can accept non scalar items. So the return can be anything ;)
up
-2
sofe2038 at gmail dot com
4 years ago
This function may return any type, not just scalar, for some Iterator types. In particular, it is very trivial to write a generator function that yields arbitrary keys:

<?php
function foo() {
yield
null => 1;
yield new
stdclass => 2;
}
?>
up
-3
Lszl Lajos Jnszky
12 years ago
And converts everything to integer except string, so in php the post process could be:

public function key() {
$yourKey = $this->createYourKey();
if (is_object($yourKey) || is_array($yourKey))
throw new Exception('Array and Object not allowed.');
elseif (is_string($yourKey))
return $yourKey;
else
return (int) $yourKey;
}
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