Wednesday, May 30, 2012

How to delete an element from an array in php?


does anyone know an easy way to delete an element from a php array? I mean so that foreach($array) no longer includes that element. I thought that setting it to null would do it, but apparently not.



Source: Tips4all

6 comments:

  1. You use unset:

    <?php
    $x = array(1, 2);
    unset($x[0]);
    var_dump($x);
    ?>

    ReplyDelete
  2. It should be noted that unset() will keep indexes untouched, which is what you'd expect when using string indexes (array as hashtable), but can be quite surprising when dealing with integer indexed arrays:

    $array = array(0, 1, 2, 3);
    unset($array[2]);
    var_dump($array);
    /* array(3) {
    [0]=>
    int(0)
    [1]=>
    int(1)
    [3]=>
    int(3)
    } */

    $array = array(0, 1, 2, 3);
    array_splice($array, 2, 1);
    var_dump($array);
    /* array(3) {
    [0]=>
    int(0)
    [1]=>
    int(1)
    [2]=>
    int(3)
    } */


    So array_splice() can be used if you'd like to normalize your integer keys. Another option is using array_values() after unset():

    $array = array(0, 1, 2, 3);

    unset($array[2]);
    $array = array_values($array);
    var_dump($array);
    /* array(3) {
    [0]=>
    int(0)
    [1]=>
    int(1)
    [2]=>
    int(3)
    } */

    ReplyDelete
  3. // our initial array
    $arr = array("blue", "green", "red", "yellow", "green", "orange", "yellow", "indigo", "red");
    print_r($arr);

    // remove the elements who's values are yellow or red
    $arr = array_diff($arr, array("yellow", "red"));
    print_r($arr);


    This is the output from the code above:


    Array ( [0] => blue [1] => green [2] => red [3] => yellow [4] => green [5] => orange [6] => yellow [7] => indigo [8] => red )
    Array ( [0] => blue [1] => green [4] => green [5] => orange [7] => indigo )


    Now, array_values() will reindex a numerical array nicely, but will remove all key strings from the array and replace them with numbers. If you need to preserve the key names (strings), or reindex the array if all keys are numerical, use array_merge():

    $arr = array_merge(array_diff($arr, array("yellow", "red")));
    print_r($arr);


    outputs


    Array ( [0] => blue [1] => green [2] => green [3] => orange [4] =>
    indigo )

    ReplyDelete
  4. $key = array_search($needle,$array);
    if($key){
    unset($array[$key]);
    }

    ReplyDelete
  5. Also, for a named element:

    unset($array["elementName"]);

    ReplyDelete