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I have an PHP array that looks something like this: 

Index Key Value [0] 1 Awaiting for Confirmation [1] 2 Assigned [2] 3 In Progress [3] 4 Completed [4] 5 Mark As Spam

When I var_dump the array values i get this:

array(5) { [0]=> array(2) { ["key"]=> string(1) "1" ["value"]=> string(25) "Awaiting for Confirmation" } [1]=> array(2) { ["key"]=> string(1) "2" ["value"]=> string(9) "Assigned" } [2]=> array(2) { ["key"]=> string(1) "3" ["value"]=> string(11) "In Progress" } [3]=> array(2) { ["key"]=> string(1) "4" ["value"]=> string(9) "Completed" } [4]=> array(2) { ["key"]=> string(1) "5" ["value"]=> string(12) "Mark As Spam" } }

I wanted to remove Completed and Mark As Spam. I know I can unset[$array[3],$array[4]), but the problem is that sometimes the index number can be different.

Is there a way to remove them by matching the value name instead of the key value?

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  • not sure whether I understand the question at hand here? What do you mean sometimes the index number can be different? Commented Mar 27, 2011 at 15:20

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
159

Your array is quite strange : why not just use the key as index, and the value as... the value ?

Wouldn't it be a lot easier if your array was declared like this :

$array = array( 1 => 'Awaiting for Confirmation', 2 => 'Asssigned', 3 => 'In Progress', 4 => 'Completed', 5 => 'Mark As Spam', );

That would allow you to use your values of key as indexes to access the array...

And you'd be able to use functions to search on the values, such as array_search() :

$indexCompleted = array_search('Completed', $array); unset($array[$indexCompleted]); $indexSpam = array_search('Mark As Spam', $array); unset($array[$indexSpam]); var_dump($array);

Easier than with your array, no ?


Instead, with your array that looks like this :

$array = array( array('key' => 1, 'value' => 'Awaiting for Confirmation'), array('key' => 2, 'value' => 'Asssigned'), array('key' => 3, 'value' => 'In Progress'), array('key' => 4, 'value' => 'Completed'), array('key' => 5, 'value' => 'Mark As Spam'), );

You'll have to loop over all items, to analyse the value, and unset the right items :

foreach ($array as $index => $data) { if ($data['value'] == 'Completed' || $data['value'] == 'Mark As Spam') { unset($array[$index]); } } var_dump($array);

Even if do-able, it's not that simple... and I insist : can you not change the format of your array, to work with a simpler key/value system ?

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1 Comment

"You'll have to loop over all items, to analyse the value". When you're using array_search you might also search through all items.
95 
 ... $array = array( 1 => 'Awaiting for Confirmation', 2 => 'Asssigned', 3 => 'In Progress', 4 => 'Completed', 5 => 'Mark As Spam', ); return array_values($array); ...
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2 Comments

nice and easy . just looking for this
This is the true answer, not that was checked.
16 
$key = array_search("Mark As Spam", $array); unset($array[$key]);

For 2D arrays...

$remove = array("Mark As Spam", "Completed"); foreach($arrays as $array){ foreach($array as $key => $value){ if(in_array($value, $remove)) unset($array[$key]); } }
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9

You can use this 

unset($dataArray['key']);
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3

Why do not use array_diff?

$array = array( 1 => 'Awaiting for Confirmation', 2 => 'Asssigned', 3 => 'In Progress', 4 => 'Completed', 5 => 'Mark As Spam', ); $to_delete = array('Completed', 'Mark As Spam'); $array = array_diff($array, $to_delete);

Just note that your array would be reindexed.

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1

Try this:

$keys = array_keys($array, "Completed");

/edit As mentioned by JohnP, this method only works for non-nested arrays.

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1

I kinda disagree with the accepted answer. Sometimes an application architecture doesn't want you to mess with the array id, or makes it inconvenient. For instance, I use CakePHP quite a lot, and a database query returns the primary key as a value in each record, very similar to the above.

Assuming the array is not stupidly large, I would use array_filter. This will create a copy of the array, minus the records you want to remove, which you can assign back to the original array variable.

Although this may seem inefficient it's actually very much in vogue these days to have variables be immutable, and the fact that most php array functions return a new array rather than futzing with the original implies that PHP kinda wants you to do this too. And the more you work with arrays, and realize how difficult and annoying the unset() function is, this approach makes a lot of sense.

Anyway:

$my_array = array_filter($my_array, function($el) { return $el["value"]!="Completed" && $el!["value"]!="Marked as Spam"; });

You can use whatever inclusion logic (eg. your id field) in the embedded function that you want.

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0

The way to do this to take your nested target array and copy it in single step to a non-nested array. Delete the key(s) and then assign the final trimmed array to the nested node of the earlier array. Here is a code to make it simple:

$temp_array = $list['resultset'][0]; unset($temp_array['badkey1']); unset($temp_array['badkey2']); $list['resultset'][0] = $temp_array;
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-1

for single array Item use reset($item)

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The reset function should be used to move the internal array pointer, not to remove items or unset items from an array. Use unset instead. If your solution even works, it also has unwanted side effects.

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