How to search by key=>value in a multidimensional array in PHP

Question

Is there any fast way to get all subarrays where a key value pair was found in a multidimensional array? I can\'t say how deep the array will be.

Simple example arra

Answer 1

Here is solution:

<?php
$students['e1003']['birthplace'] = ("Mandaluyong <br>");
$students['ter1003']['birthplace'] = ("San Juan <br>");
$students['fgg1003']['birthplace'] = ("Quezon City <br>");
$students['bdf1003']['birthplace'] = ("Manila <br>");

$key = array_search('Delata Jona', array_column($students, 'name'));
echo $key;  

?>

Answer 2

function findKey($tab, $key){
    foreach($tab as $k => $value){ 
        if($k==$key) return $value; 
        if(is_array($value)){ 
            $find = findKey($value, $key);
            if($find) return $find;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

Answer 3

And another version that returns the key value from the array element in which the value is found (no recursion, optimized for speed):

// if the array is 
$arr['apples'] = array('id' => 1);
$arr['oranges'] = array('id' => 2);

//then 
print_r(search_array($arr, 'id', 2);
// returns Array ( [oranges] => Array ( [id] => 2 ) ) 
// instead of Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 2 ) )

// search array for specific key = value
function search_array($array, $key, $value) {
  $return = array();   
  foreach ($array as $k=>$subarray){  
    if (isset($subarray[$key]) && $subarray[$key] == $value) {
      $return[$k] = $subarray;
      return $return;
    } 
  }
}

Thanks to all who posted here.