Hi!

One thing I'm wondering: are you sure it returns the value? 🤔
I just tested it out with this simple example:

public function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
    $choices = [
        'key_0' => 'value_0',
        'key_1' => 'value_1',
        'key_2' => 'value_2',
    ];

    $io = new SymfonyStyle($input, $output);

    $value = $io->choice('Choose something', $choices);
    $output->writeln($value);

    return Command::SUCCESS;
}

And here is the output:

 Choose something:
  [key_0] value_0
  [key_1] value_1
  [key_2] value_2
 > value_1

key_1

You didn't precise which Symfony version you're using, but it seems the 5.x is doing just fine with what you're trying to accomplish: getting the key and not the value with choice method.

Actually, IIRC: it returns the value for lists (no keys), while it returns the key for maps.

Alright, thanks @ogizanagi, just tested what you said and you remembered correctly!
It brings another problem. Given that we have a different behavior between maps and lists, we can't just add something like $returnKeys (with or without default value) without breaking backward compatibility for one of these two behavior.

There might be another solution to do it? I don't know if it worth breaking backward compatibility with the proposed solution.

Thank you for this suggestion.
There has not been a lot of activity here for a while. Would you still like to see this feature?

Hello? This issue is about to be closed if nobody replies.

Hey,

I didn't hear anything so I'm going to close it. Feel free to comment if this is still relevant, I can always reopen!

Sorry, but this is still relevant.

When the keys of the choices array are integers, I get the choice result as the value of the selected choice instead of the key. The same happens when using ChoiceQuestion.

Hello, I have the same problem.

In my case, the code is:

$brands = $em->getRepository(Brand::class)->findByCompany($company);

if (count($brands) > 0) {
    $choices = [(string)0 => 'Create a new brand'];
    foreach ($brands as $brand) {
        $choices[(string)$brand->getId()] = $brand->getName();
    }
    $question = new ChoiceQuestion(
        'Which brand do you want to attach to the surveys?',
        $choices,
        0
    );
    $brandId = $this->getHelper('question')->ask($input, $output, $question);
}

But even by trying to cast the object's ID into a string, the response returned is still the name of the object and not the key of my choices array.

I also tried this

$question = new ChoiceQuestion(
    'Which brand do you want to attach to the surveys?',
    array_merge(["0" => 'Create a new brand'], $brands),
    0
);

with no luck too.

So having a way to tell the QuestionHelper if we want the key or value returned as the response would be very great as an improvement!

HOWEVER, I have to be honest, the project I'm working on is still in Symfony 2.8 (please don't judge, I've been trying for years to have it updated)

@carsonbot open issue 👍🏼

@algorun77 your casting to string is useless. PHP casts it back to integer due to the way array keys work.

For the record, getting the key from the value is simple.

$value = $io->choice("Select a value", $choices);
$key = array_search($value, $choices);

Although I would prefer if the key was somehow returned upon request.

Honestly, I don't know what would be best: 🤔

• One more parameter to \Symfony\Component\Console\Style\SymfonyStyle::choice.
• A config parameter passed to ChoiceQuestion.
• A new choiceKey function.