How Can I Efficiently Retrieve the First Element of a PHP Array Without Using `array_shift`?

Retrieving the First Array Element in PHP

Consider an array:

$array = [
    'apple',
    'orange',
    'plum'
];

How can we obtain the first element of this array, excluding the use of array_shift, which involves passing by reference?

Original Solution (O(n)):

$firstElement = array_shift(array_values($array));

Optimized Solution (O(1)):

Reversing and popping the array offers a constant-time complexity solution:

$firstElement = array_pop(array_reverse($array));

Alternative Approaches:

• Modifying Array Pointers: reset($array)
• Efficient Copy: array_shift(array_slice($array, 0, 1))
• PHP 5.4 Shortcut: array_values($array)[0]

Note that modifying the array using reset() may be more efficient in certain scenarios where an array copy is not desired.

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