Find the next largest key in an array

php find the next largest key in an array
php find the next greatest key in an array

There is undoubtedly a better way, but recursion has melted my brain and search engines aren't saving me.

So this is what I did... actually, I used another approach entirely that didn't need this. But array_keys is how I would have started, then sorted it, and then had a foreach that compared my key to the keys it got as it walked through, and broken out of there with the new key the first one that was larger.

    $terms_on_this_level = array_keys($parents);

I know there would have been a better way, but it's moot to me know anyway... until I search for this answer again and find my own, deeply unfulfilling, page.

Agaric Design: Existentialism meets web design.

UPDATE: Agaric did try using this method, and it foundered on the strangest thing. The PHP sort() function didn't sort or function.

$t = array("apple", "orange", "banana");
agaric_a($t);
    $new = sort($t);
drupal_set_message($new);
agaric_a($new);

And the output:

• Array
  (
  [0] => apple
  [1] => orange
  [2] => banana
  )

• 1

• 1

For the love of Frankenstein, the darned thing only does its work by reference. It doesn't return a blessed thing. That's why sort didn't work.

Writing these, uh, tutorials sure help me. I feel sorry for anyone who reads them though.

Revised code:

$t = array("apple", "orange", "banana");
agaric_a($t);
sort($t);
drupal_set_message($t);
agaric_a($t);

And the result now:

<

blockquote>

• Array
  (
  [0] => apple
  [1] => orange
  [2] => banana
  )
• Array
• Array
  (
  [0] => apple
  [1] => banana
  [2] => orange
  )

So the moral of the story is that PHP's sort function acts on the array passed it by reference, and returns nothing useful.

We do have a function for you out of all this:

/**
* Get the next highest key in an array
*
* An extremely unoptimized function within an extremely unoptimized function.
*/
function _cmt_next_highest_key($array, $key = 0) {
  $array_keys = array_keys($array);
  sort($array_keys);
  foreach ($array AS $array_key) {
    if ($array_key > $key)  return $array_key;
  }
  // there was no larger key
  return FALSE;
}