This function returns start and end position of of given value in an array

FindStartEndOfVal.php

<?php

function FindStartEnd($array, $val)
{
    $type = gettype($array);
    try {
        if (!$array) {
            throw new Exception("Expects parameter 1 to be array and should contain at least one value");
        }
        if (!is_numeric($val)) {
            throw new Exception("Second value passed must be a number");
        }
        if(sort($array)){
            $indexes = array_keys($array, $val);
            if (!$indexes) {
                return [-1, -1];
            }
            return [min($indexes), max($indexes)];
        }
        throw new Exception("expects parameter 1 to be array, $type given");
      
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        echo 'Error: ' . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
    }
}

print_r(FindStartEnd([0,8,-2,5,0], 0));

Really commendable effort @harmlessprince, I like this solution a lot better even though it is still dependent on the performance of array_keys and count functions.

I have written a blog post here sharing my solution to this problem - a solution that avoids having to sort the array. Please read through and let me know what you think.

Thank you for participating once again and see you on Friday for Week 4 of #AlgorithmFridays.

Thank you very much and look forward to coming Friday.

By the way, the link is broken, I am getting a 404 error.