Get first element in PHP stdObject

I have an object (stored as $videos) that looks like this

object(stdClass)#19 (3) {
  [0]=>
  object(stdClass)#20 (22) {
    ["id"]=>
    string(1) "123"

  etc...

I want to get the ID of just that first element, without having to loop over it.

If it were an array, I would do this:

$videos[0]['id']

It used to work as this:

$videos[0]->id

But now I get an error "Cannot use object of type stdClass as array..." on the line shown above. Possibly due to a PHP upgrade.

So how do I get to that first ID without looping? Is it possible?

Thanks!

Both array() and the stdClass objects can be accessed using the current() key() next() prev() reset() end() functions.

So, if your object looks like

object(stdClass)#19 (3) {
  [0]=>
  object(stdClass)#20 (22) {
    ["id"]=>
    string(1) "123"
  etc...

Then you can just do;

$id = reset($obj)->id; //Gets the 'id' attr of the first entry in the object

If you need the key for some reason, you can do;

reset($obj); //Ensure that we're at the first element
$key = key($obj);

Hope that works for you. :-) No errors, even in super-strict mode, on PHP 5.4

Update PHP 7.4

Curly brace access syntax is deprecated since PHP 7.4

Update 2019

> Moving on to the best practices of OOPS, @MrTrick's answer must be > marked as correct, although my answer provides a hacked solution its not > the best method.

Simply iterate its using {}

Example:

$videos{0}->id

This way your object is not destroyed and you can easily iterate through object.

For PHP 5.6 and below use this

$videos{0}['id']

much easier:

$firstProp = current( (Array)$object );

Correct:

$videos= (Array)$videos;
$video = $videos[0];

$videos->{0}->id worked for me.

Since $videos and {0} both are objects, so we have to access id with $videos->{0}->id. The curly braces are required around 0, as omitting the braces will produce a syntax error : unexpected '0', expecting identifier or variable or '{' or '$'.

I'm using PHP 5.4.3.

In my case, neither $videos{0}->id and $videos{0}['id'] worked and shows error :

Cannot use object of type stdClass as array.

You could loop on the object maybe and break in the first loop... Something like

foreach($obj as $prop) {
   $first_prop = $prop;
   break; // exits the foreach loop
} 

Playing with Php interactive shell, Php 7:

➜  ~ php -a
Interactive shell

php > $v = (object) ["toto" => "hello"];
php > var_dump($v);
object(stdClass)#1 (1) {
  ["toto"]=>
  string(5) "hello"
}
php > echo $v{0};
PHP Warning:  Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in php shell code:1
Stack trace:
#0 {main}
  thrown in php shell code on line 1

Warning: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in php shell code:1
Stack trace:
#0 {main}
  thrown in php shell code on line 1
php > echo $v->{0};
PHP Notice:  Undefined property: stdClass::$0 in php shell code on line 1

Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$0 in php shell code on line 1
php > echo current($v);
hello

Only current is working with object.

the following can be done

$rows=null; 
foreach ($result as $rows) break;