search associative array by value

I’m fetching some JSON from flickrs API. My problem is that the exif data is in different order depending on the camera. So I can’t hard-code an array number to get, for instance, the camera model below. Does PHP have any built in methods to search through associative array values and return the matching arrays? In my example below I would like to search for the [label] => Model and get [_content] => NIKON D5100.

Please let me know if you want me to elaborate.

print_r($exif['photo']['exif']);

Result:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [tagspace] => IFD0
            [tagspaceid] => 0
            [tag] => Make
            [label] => Make
            [raw] => Array
                (
                    [_content] => NIKON CORPORATION
                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [tagspace] => IFD0
            [tagspaceid] => 0
            [tag] => Model
            [label] => Model
            [raw] => Array
                (
                    [_content] => NIKON D5100
                )

        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [tagspace] => IFD0
            [tagspaceid] => 0
            [tag] => XResolution
            [label] => X-Resolution
            [raw] => Array
                (
                    [_content] => 240
                )

            [clean] => Array
                (
                    [_content] => 240 dpi
                )

        )

Answer

To my knowledge there is no such function. There is array_search, but it doesn’t quite do what you want.

I think the easiest way would be to write a loop yourself.

function search_exif($exif, $field)
{
    foreach ($exif as $data)
    {
        if ($data['label'] == $field)
            return $data['raw']['_content'];
    }
}

$camera = search_exif($exif['photo']['exif'], 'model');

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Answer