get first non-null value from array php

Question

If I have an array:

Array
(
    [0] => 
    [1] => a
    [2] => b
    [3] => c
)

And I want to get the first non-null value from the array, in this case "a". How could I go about doing that nice and easily?

Answer 1

Not sure about nice and easy. But a short approach might be:

 $first = current(array_filter($sparse_array));

Where array_filter will extract you the "truthy" values, thus skipping empty and false entries. While current simply gives you the first of those remaining entries.

Answer 2

function get_first_not_null($array){
  foreach($array as $v){
    if($v !== null){
        return $v;
    }
  }
  return null;
}

Answer 3

function getFirstNotNull($array) {
    foreach($array as $val) {
         if(!is_null($val) || !$val) return $val;
    }
}

Answer 4

$res = null;
foreach ($arr as $v) {
    if ($v !== null) {
        $res = $v;
        break;
    }
}