<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >array_shift</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Array Functions" HREF="ref.array.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="array_search" HREF="function.array-search.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="array_slice" HREF="function.array-slice.html"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="refentry" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >PHP Manual</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.array-search.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.array-slice.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="function.array-shift" ></A >array_shift</H1 ><DIV CLASS="refnamediv" ><A NAME="AEN8058" ></A ><P > (PHP 4 )</P >array_shift -- Shift an element off the beginning of array </DIV ><DIV CLASS="refsect1" ><A NAME="AEN8061" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 >mixed <B CLASS="methodname" >array_shift</B > ( array array)<BR ></BR ><P > <B CLASS="function" >array_shift()</B > shifts the first value of the <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >array</I ></TT > off and returns it, shortening the <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >array</I ></TT > by one element and moving everything down. All numerical array keys will be modified to start counting from zero while literal keys won't be touched. If <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >array</I ></TT > is empty (or is not an array), <TT CLASS="constant" ><B >NULL</B ></TT > will be returned. </P ><P > <TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" CLASS="EXAMPLE" ><TR ><TD ><DIV CLASS="example" ><A NAME="AEN8076" ></A ><P ><B >Example 1. <B CLASS="function" >array_shift()</B > example</B ></P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >$stack = array ("orange", "banana", "apple", "raspberry"); $fruit = array_shift ($stack);</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P > This would result in <TT CLASS="varname" >$stack</TT > having 3 elements left: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="php" >Array ( [0] => banana [1] => apple [2] => raspberry )</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > and <TT CLASS="literal" >orange</TT > will be assigned to <TT CLASS="varname" >$fruit</TT >. </P ></DIV ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ><P > See also <A HREF="function.array-unshift.html" ><B CLASS="function" >array_unshift()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.array-push.html" ><B CLASS="function" >array_push()</B ></A >, and <A HREF="function.array-pop.html" ><B CLASS="function" >array_pop()</B ></A >. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.array-search.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.array-slice.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >array_search</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ref.array.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >array_slice</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >