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advanced patterns when using PHP's `array_filter` with an associative array on PHP 8.1

👀 Views: 79 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-07-16
php array-filter associative-array php8.1 PHP

I tried several approaches but none seem to work. I'm experiencing unexpected behavior when using `array_filter` on an associative array in PHP 8.1. I have an associative array of user data where I want to filter out users based on a certain condition. Here's a simplified version of my code: ```php $users = [ 'user1' => ['name' => 'Alice', 'age' => 25], 'user2' => ['name' => 'Bob', 'age' => 30], 'user3' => ['name' => 'Charlie', 'age' => 20], ]; $filteredUsers = array_filter($users, function($user) { return $user['age'] >= 25; }); print_r($filteredUsers); ``` I expected the output to contain only `user1` and `user2`, but instead, I get: ``` Array ( [user1] => Array ( [name] => Alice [age] => 25 ) ) ``` It seems like `array_filter` is only keeping the first matching user and not filtering properly. I've also checked that the callback function is correctly returning true for users that meet the age criteria. I've tried debugging by adding `var_dump($user);` inside the callback, and it seems to be called for all users, but only the first user matches the filtering condition. I even tested this behavior with a numeric array, and it works as expected. I've also confirmed that my PHP version is indeed 8.1. I need to find any documentation that indicates this should behave differently than expected. Is this a known scenario, or am I missing something in my implementation? For context: I'm using Php on macOS. Any ideas what could be causing this?