Determining the Index of the Highest Value in an Array

When working with arrays, identifying the index of the element with the maximum value is a common task. Let's explore a solution to this problem.

Problem Description:
Given an array, retrieve the index of the highest value present in the array. For example, if the array is:

[11 => 14, 10 => 9, 12 => 7, 13 => 7, 14 => 4, 15 => 6]

The desired output would be '11' as it holds the maximum value of 14.

Solution:
To find the index of the highest value in an array, we can utilize the max() and array_keys() functions in PHP. The max() function returns the highest value from an array, while array_keys() returns an array containing the keys associated with the specified value.

Here's a code snippet that demonstrates the solution:

$maxs = array_keys($array, max($array));

Explanation:
The max($array) call retrieves the maximum value from the input array. The array_keys() function is then called with two arguments: $array and the maximum value obtained from the previous step. This results in an array containing all the keys associated with the maximum value.

In our example array, the maximum value is 14, which is associated with the key '11'. Therefore, the $maxs variable will contain an array with a single element, which is '11'.

Additional Note:
If you are only interested in obtaining one of the keys associated with the maximum value, you can use the following syntax:

$maxs[0];

This will provide you with the first key in the $maxs array, which represents the index of the element with the highest value.