PHP - Delete all duplicates in array - php

Question

How can I delete duplicates from multiple arrays?
pinky and cocos are double in my array. All words which are double, must be removed. If those are removed, I will put these words in my select.
I get those words from my database.
The query:
$queryClient = " SELECT DISTINCT `clients` FROM `reps` WHERE `clients` != ''";
This is my code:
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($resultClient)){
$names = explode(",", $row['clients']);
echo '<pre>'; print_r($names); echo '</pre>';
}
Result: (Those food words are just an example)
Array
(
[0] => chocolate
)
Array
(
[0] => vanilla
[0] => cocos
)
Array
(
[0] => strawberry
)
Array
(
[0] => pinky
[1] => watermelon
[2] => melon
[3] => cocos
)
Array
(
[0] => pinky
)
Array
(
[0] => dark-chocolate
)
I tried this in my while loop but it did not work:
$array = array_unique($names, SORT_REGULAR);
How can I remove all duplicates? Can you help me or do you have a solution for my problem? Help.

Answer 1

Here's a one-liner:
print_r(array_unique(call_user_func_array('array_merge', $names)));
First merge all subarrays into one, then get unique values.
Full example:
$names = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($resultClient)){
$names[] = explode(",", $row['clients']);
}
print_r(array_unique(call_user_func_array('array_merge', $names)));

Answer 2

You can just do a little trick:
Flatten, count and then remove all except the last.
$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($array));
$flatArray = [];
foreach($it as $v) {
$flatArray[] = $v; //Flatten array
}
//Note you can do array_unique on the flat array if you also need to flatten the array
$counts = array_count_values($flatArray); //Count
foreach ($array as &$subarray) {
foreach ($subarray as $index => $element) {
$counts[$element]--;
if ($counts[$element] > 0) { //If there's more than 1 left remove it
unset($subarray[$index]);
}
}
}
This will remove duplicates nested exactly on the 2nd level without flattening the original array.
http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/346fd868bc89f484dac48d12575d678f3cb53626

Answer 3

first you need to join your array before you can filter out the duplicates:
<?php
$allNames = [];
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($resultClient)){
$names = explode(",", $row['food']);
$allNames[] = $names;
}
$allNames = array_merge(...$allNames); //Join everything to a one dimensional array
$allNames = array_unique($allNames); // Only keep unique elementes
print_r($allNames);