min()

min() — Find lowest value.

Built-in function of PHP 8.5. The manual lists it as available in PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8. This page is the reference card: signature, parameters and return value, plus the changelog and the example the manual provides.

What it does

If the first and only parameter is an array, min() returns the lowest value in that array. If at least two parameters are provided, min() returns the smallest of these values.

Signature

min(mixed $value, mixed ...$values): mixed min(array $value_array): mixed

Parameters

Parameter	Type	What it takes
$value	mixed	Any comparable value.
...$values	mixed	Any comparable values.
$value_array	array	An array containing the values.

Return value

min() returns the parameter value considered "lowest" according to standard comparisons. If multiple values of different types evaluate as equal (e.g. 0 and false) the first provided to the function will be returned.

Example

A runnable snippet:

echo min(2, 3, 1, 6, 7), PHP_EOL; // 1 echo min(array(2, 4, 5)), PHP_EOL; // 2 // 'hello' is a non-numeric string, so -1 is cast to the string "-1" and the // values are compared as strings: "-1" is lower than "hello" echo min('hello', -1), PHP_EOL; // -1 // With multiple arrays of different lengths, min returns the shortest $val = min(array(2, 2, 2), array(1, 1, 1, 1)); // array(2, 2, 2) var_dump($val); // Multiple arrays of the same length are compared from left to right // so in our example: 2 == 2, but 4 < 5 $val = min(array(2, 4, 8), array(2, 5, 1)); // array(2, 4, 8) var_dump($val); // If both an array and non-array are given, the array is never returned // as comparisons treat arrays as greater than any other value // Of the remaining values, 42 is cast to the string "42" when compared with the // non-numeric string 'string', and "42" is lower than "string" $val = min('string', array(2, 5, 7), 42); // 42 var_dump($val); // If one argument is NULL or a boolean, it will be compared against // other values using the rules FALSE < TRUE and NULL == FALSE regardless of the // other types involved // In the below examples, both -10 and 10 are treated as TRUE in the comparison $val = min(-10, FALSE, 10); // FALSE var_dump($val); $val = min(-10, NULL, 10); // NULL var_dump($val); // 0, on the other hand, is treated as FALSE, so is "lower than" TRUE $val = min(0, TRUE); // 0 var_dump($val);

Changelog

Version	Change
8.0.0	min() throws a ValueError on failure now; previously, false was returned and an E_WARNING error was emitted.
8.0.0	As string to number comparisons were changed, min() no longer returns a different value based on the argument order in those cases.