Why assigning an array member to a variable return me Undefined offset: 0

Question

When I want to get a member of an array and assign it to a variable it returns error to me: Undefined offset: 0

$answers=Answer::where(
    [
        ['questionid', '=', $question['questionid']],
        ['uniqid','=',$uniqCode]
    ]
    )->get()
    ->toArray();
$answer=$answers[0]['answer'];

but when I print it exactly before assignment it returns the value correctly:

dd($answers[0]['answer']) ;
$answer=$answers[0]['answer'];

Answer 1

first, check that the array actually exists, you could try something like

if(isset($answers[0])) {
      //grab value here
      $answer=$answers[0]['answer'];
  }