Get array value using key, in XDebug for PHP

Question

Having an array $a and a key $key, it's usually as simple as $a[$key] to get the value for that key in the array. However, if the array is returned by a function like this:

function getArray(){
    return array('a' => someObjectValue1, 'b' => someObjectValue2);
}
echo getArray()['a'];

, then you can't simply do getArray()[$key] as in some versions of PHP this would give you

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[', expecting ',' or ';'

Then ofcourse something like this would work:

$a = getArray();
echo $a['a'];

but I'm in the Watch window of XDebug and I can't do that.

Any ideas? Thanks.

I don't understand the problem. The first example you give works since PHP 5.4.0, the second example will work in every version. — Coded Monkey
– Coded Monkey, Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 11:17
@betadevil problem is that in debugger you can only evaluate expressions but not execute any code. So OP wants to get value as an expression, i.e. one-liner — Alma Do
– Alma Do, Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 11:21

Alma Do · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-12 11:18:04Z

2

There are different ways to resolve that. For example, one-liner for display desired value may be:

function foo()
{
   return array('bar'=>1, 'baz'=>2);
}

$value = array_shift(array_intersect_key(foo(), array('baz'=>null))); //you want $value

-but this looks weird and may be it have sense to create debug function, like:

function getValueByKey(array $array, $key)
{
   return $array[$key];
}

$value = getValueByKey(foo(), 'baz');

answered Nov 12, 2013 at 11:18

Alma Do

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