Getting last 5 elements of a php array

Question

How can I get the last 5 elements of a PHP array?

My array is dynamically generated by a MySQL query result. The length is not fixed. If the length is smaller or equ

Answer 1

I just want to extend the question a little bit. What if you looping though a big file and want to keep the last 5 lines or 5 elements from a current position. And you don't want to keep huge array in a memory and having problems with the performance of array_slice.

This is a class that implements ArrayAccess interface.

It gets array and desired buffer limit.

You can work with the class object like it's an array but it will automatically keep ONLY last 5 elements

<?php
class MyBuffer implements ArrayAccess {
    private $container;
    private $limit;

    function __construct($myArray = array(), $limit = 5){
        $this->container = $myArray;
        $this->limit = $limit;
    }
    public function offsetSet($offset, $value) {
        if (is_null($offset)) {
            $this->container[] = $value;
        } else {
            $this->container[$offset] = $value;
        }
        $this->adjust();
    }

    public function offsetExists($offset) {
        return isset($this->container[$offset]);
    }

    public function offsetUnset($offset) {
        unset($this->container[$offset]);
    }

    public function offsetGet($offset) {
        return isset($this->container[$offset]) ? $this->container[$offset] : null;
    }
    public function __get($offset){
        return isset($this->container[$offset]) ? $this->container[$offset] : null;
    }
    private function adjust(){
        if(count($this->container) == $this->limit+1){
            $this->container = array_slice($this->container, 1,$this->limit);
        }
    }
}


$buf = new MyBuffer();
$buf[]=1;
$buf[]=2;
$buf[]=3;
$buf[]=4;
$buf[]=5;
$buf[]=6;

echo print_r($buf, true);

$buf[]=7;
echo print_r($buf, true);


echo "\n";
echo $buf[4];

Answer 2

You need array_slice, which does exactly this.

$items = array_slice($items, -5);

-5 means "start at five elements before the end of the array".

Answer 3

array_pop() 5 times in a loop? If the returned value is a null, you've exhausted the array.

$lastFive = array();

for($i=0;$i < 5;$i++)
{
    $obj = array_pop($yourArray);

    if ($obj == null) break;
    $lastFive[] = $obj;
}

After seeing the other answers, I have to admit array_slice() looks shorter and more readable.

Answer 4

array_slice($array, -5) should do the trick

Answer 5

It's simple use array_slice and count()

$arraylength=count($array);

    if($arraylength >5)
         $output_array= array_slice($array,($arraylength-5),$arraylength);
    else
        $output_array=$array;