anyone has a better way for achieving this ?

$data = array('dayo','tobi','john');
$firstChar = array();
for ($i=0; $i < count($data); $i++){
$firstChar[$i] = $data[$i][0];
}

for($letter = ord('a'); $letter <= ord('z'); $letter++) {

if (in_array(chr($letter), $firstChar)) {
print chr($letter);
echo "<br/>";
}
}


just need a better function cos my $data set has more than 100k records, want something faster to look through the array instead of parsing through it and then using in_array

maybe something faster? here's what i have now.
thanks.

function firstChar($string)
{
return($string[0]);
}

$data = array('dayo','tobi','john');
$data = array_map("firstChar", $data);

for($letter = ord('a'); $letter <= ord('z'); $letter++) {

if (in_array(chr($letter), $data)) {
print chr($letter);
echo "<br/>";
}
}

$my_array = array("buy","a","bad", "egg";

for($i=0; $i <= count($my_array); $i++){
$first_char = $my_array[$i]{0};
echo $first_char;
}


hope this helps somehow, boss

thanks dualcore.
my main goal is to check if letters a to z are the first letter of my data array. i have a search function that returns a list of names depending on your search string.  so say i search 'ay' in my database, it should return all the names that contains 'ay', then my snippet above will return the list of first letters of my record set. that way, i can make a list of A-Z, and just make the whatever letter i got from my snippet an active link.

so you search 'ay', you get your result.

then you can click an active link from A-Z.

say D is an active link, then the search condition will be , from the search 'ay' result set, find the records that starts with 'D'.

if the first search returns this list:
Ayo
Layo
Dayo
Tayo
Mayo
Morayo
Tunrayo
Desayo

then my snippet will return A, D, L, M, T

so when i echo letters A - Z, only A,D,L,M and T will be active links. and when you click on D, the search result = 'Dayo', 'Desayo'