PHP: search an array recursively to find the first instance of a key and return its value. array_find_first_recursive($needle, $haystack)

recursively to find the first instance of a key and return its value.php

/*
 * search an array recursively to find
 * the first instance of a key and return its value
 *
 * useful when you do not know the location of a key nested (only once) in a multidimensional array
 *
 */
function array_find_first_recursive($needle_key, array $haystack) {
	
	if (array_key_exists($needle_key, $haystack)) {
  	return $haystack[$needle_key];
	}
	
	foreach ($haystack as $key => $value) {
		if (is_array($value)) {
			$result = array_find_first_recursive($needle_key, $value);
			if ($result) {
				return $result;
			}
		}
	}
	
	return false;
}