PHP - explode supposed to return array but string given on array_shift

Question

I have the following code:

$path = ltrim($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/');
$elements = explode('/', $path);
var_dump($elements);
echo is_array($elements) ? 'true' : 'false';
$elements=array_shift($elements);

explode(delimeter, string) should return array. And it is returning as is_array(bool) returns true, but array_shift(array) gives following error:

Warning
: array_shift() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given in

Why is this happening even when $elements is an array?

PHP 7.2.19

Jan · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-05 22:19:18Z

2

The array_shift()-method shifts the first value of the array off and returns it. So if you run

$elements = array_shift($elements);

the contents of $elements will be the first element of the array (in your case a string).

You can use it like this:

$path = ltrim('/path/to/resource', '/');
$elements = explode('/', $path);
$first_element = array_shift($elements);
var_dump($first_element, $elements);

And the first element of the array will be in the variable $first_element. The $elements-array will no longer contain that element.

Demo: https://3v4l.org/DHcsJ

More info about the method can be found in the official documentation.

answered Jun 5, 2019 at 22:19

Jan

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