How to use array values as keys without loops?

Simply use array_combine along with the array_column as

array_combine(array_column($array,'id'), array_column($array,'name'));

Or you can simply use array_walk if you have PHP < 5.5 as

$result = array();array_walk($array, function($v)use(&$result) {    $result[$v['id']] = $v['name']; });

Edited:

For future user who has PHP > 5.5 can simply use array_column as

array_column($array,'name','id');

Fiddle(array_walk)

UPD: Warning the slowest solution! See benchmarks below.

Try this code:

$a = array(array('id'   => 1234,                 'name' => 'blablabla'),           array('id'   => 1235,                 'name' => 'ababkjkj'),           array('id'   => 1236,                  'name' => 'xyzxyzxyz'));var_export(array_reduce($a, function($res, $item) {    $res[$item['id']] = $item['name'];    return $res;}));

Works fine even in PHP 5.3. And uses only one function array_reduce.

UPD:Here are some benchmarks (PHP 5.6 over Debian 7 on a medium quality server):

$a = [];for ($i = 0; $i < 150000; $i++) {    $a[$i] = ['id' => $i,               'name' => str_shuffle('abcde') . str_shuffle('01234')];}$start = microtime(true);if (false) {    // 7.7489550113678 secs for 15 000 itmes    $r = array_reduce($a, function($res, $item) {             $res[$item['id']] = $item['name'];             return $res;         });}if (false) {    // 0.096649885177612 secs for 150 000 items    $r = array_combine(array_column($a, 'id'),                       array_column($a, 'name'));}if (true) {    // 0.066264867782593 secs for 150 000 items    $r = [];    foreach ($a as $subarray) {        $r[$subarray['id']] = $subarray['name'];    }}if (false) {    // 0.32427287101746 secs for 150 000 items    $r = [];    array_walk($a, function($v) use (&$r) {        $r[$v['id']] = $v['name'];    });}echo (microtime(true) - $start)  . ' secs' . PHP_EOL;

So, as a conclusion: plain iteration with simple for loop is a winner (as mentioned in this answer). On a second place there is array_combine allowed only for new versions of PHP. And the worst case is using my own solution with closure and array_reduce.

If you have php >= 5.5:

$res = array_combine(array_column($source, 'id'), array_column($source, 'name'));

If not - make a loop.