Array_unshift like function that returns the array

Question

is there a built in function in php that prepends an element to an array, and returns the new array?

instead of returning the new length of the array?

Answer 1

You could use

array_merge()

For example

$resultingArray = array_merge(array($newElement), $originalArray);

Answer 2

Next to array_merge, if there ain't any duplicate keys, you can do:

$array = array('a' => 'A');
$append = array('b' => 'hello');
$array = $append + $array;

Gives:

Array
(
    [b] => hello
    [a] => A
)

The plus is the array union operator^­Docs.