I have an array in php $arr("ABC","","XYZ","",""). now i want to trim the null values in the array and want $arr("ABC","XYZ"). And the element number must also be manipulated likewise which means "XYZ" must have the key value as 1 after trimming. How do we do it? Thanks in advance! Cheers!
Use array_filter()
Filters elements of an array using a callback function. If no callback is supplied, all entries of array equal to FALSE (see converting to boolean) will be removed.
$arr = array_filter($arr);
Related
Which one would you use?
Basically I only want to get the 1st element from a array, that's it.
Well, they do different things.
array_shift($arr) takes the first element out of the array, and gives it to you.
$arr[0] just gives it to you... if the array has numeric keys.
An alternative that works for associative arrays too is reset($arr). This does move the array's internal pointer, but unless you're using those functions this is unlikely to affect you.
array_shift will actually remove the specified value from the array. Do not use it unless you really want to reduce the array!
See here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-shift.php
You would use $arr[ 0 ]; array_shift removes the first element from the array.
EDIT
This answer is actually somewhere between incomplete and plain out wrong but, because the comments of the two jon's I think that it should actually stay up so that others can see that discourse.
The right answer:
reset is the method to return the first defined index of the array. Even in non-associative arrays, this may not be the 0 index.
array_shift will remove and return the value which is found at reset
The OP made the assumption that $arr[0] is the first index is not accurate in that particular context.
$arr[0] only works if the array as numerical keys.
array_shift removes the element from the array and it modifies the array itself.
If you are not sure what the first key is , and you do not want to remove it from the array, you could use:
<?php
foreach($arr $k=>$v){
$value = $v;
break;
}
or even better:
<?php
reset($arr);
$value = current($arr);
If you have an associative Array you can also use reset($arr): It returns the first Element (doesn't remove), and sets the array pointer to this element.
But the fastest way is $arr[0].
Do you want to modify the arr array also? array_shift removes the first element of the array and returns it, thus the array has changed. $arr[0] merely gives you the first element.
I would use $arr[0] unless I explicitly wanted to modify the array. You may add code later to use the arr array and forget that it was modified.
given what you need, $arr[0] is preferrable, because it's faster. array_shift is used in other situations.
arrshift is more reliable and will always return the first element in the array, but this also modifies the array by removing that element.
arr[0] will fail if your array doesn't start at the 0 index, but leaves the array itself alone.
A more convoluted but reliable method is:
$keys = array_keys($arr);
$first = $arr[$keys[0]];
with array_shif you have two operations:
retrive the firs element
shift the array
if you access by index, actually you have only one operation.
If you want the first element of an array, use $arr[0] form. Advantages - Simplicity, Readability and Maintainability. Keep things straight forward.
Edit: Use index 0 only if you know that the array has default keys starting from 0.
If you don't want to change the array in question, use $arr[0] (which merely gets the first element), otherwise if you want to remove the first element of $arr from $arr, use array_shift($arr).
For example:
$arr=array(3,-6,2);
$foo=$arr[0]; //$foo==3 and $arr==array(3,-6,2).
$bar=array_shift($arr); //$bar==3 and $arr==array(-6,2).
ETA: As others have pointed out, be sure that your array isn't an associative array (ie the keys are 0,1,...,(sizeof($arr)-1)), otherwise this probably won't work.
I noticed the following strange occurrence:
var_dump(in_array("test", array_keys(array("hello"))));
Yields: bool(true)
How is this possible? Array does not contains keys, therefore array_keys() will return an empty array. Test is not in this empty array, so why would it return true? Is this a bug in PHP?
simple answer: loose typing, 'test' == 0
Use
var_dump(in_array("test", array_keys(array("hello")), true));
for strict typing
And all arrays have keys, if you don't explicitly assign a key, then PHP will assign one based on incrementing integers from 0 (hence 'test' == 0).... array_keys() will not be empty, because PHP will assign a key of 0 to your array entry of "hello"
This is probably a very trivial question, but please bear with me.
I am trying to read a lot of data into an array of associative arrays. The data contains a lot of empty arrays and arrays with keys set and but all null values. I want to ignore those and only push arrays with at least one key mapped to a non-null value. (The data comes from an excel sheet and it has lots of empty cells that are registered as "set" anyway.) So far I have tried:
if(!empty(${$small_dummy}))
array_push(${$big_dummy}, ${$small_dummy});
That gets rid of the empty arrays but not the ones where all keys map to null. Is there a better way to do this than looping through the entire array and popping all null values?
Judging by the code you have already, you can change:
if(!empty(${$small_dummy}))
to:
if(!empty(array_filter(${$small_dummy})))
That will filter out all empty values (values evaluating to FALSE to be precise) and check if the resulting array is empty. Also see the manual on array_filter().
Note that this would also filter 0 values so you might need to write a custom callback function for array_filter().
You can try if(!array_filter($array)) { also
This isn't an ideal approach, but array_sum will return 0 if all values can't be cast to a numeric value. So :
$small_dummy = array("a" => null, "foo", "", 0);
if(array_sum($small_dummy) === 0)
would pass. But this is only the way to go if you are expecting the values to be numeric.
Actually, if the problem is that the array keys have values and therefor are not passing as empty(), the go with array_values:
if(!empty(array_values(${$small_dummy})))
In my code, I fill an array using this line in a loop :
$_SESSION['my_array'][] = $some_value;
After each execution of this line, I do some check (doesn't matter here for which purpose) using the function in_array(). However, at the first iteration it says :
« in_array() expects parameter 2 to be array ».
How to fix this problem?
You can initialize the array (before you fill it with values) like this:
$_SESSION['my_array']=array();
This way you can be sure that it is array, even when it would be empty.
You are assigning or accesing it wrongly
Use this
$_SESSION['my_array'] = $some_value;
When you are doing the in_array check, you can cast the second item to an array, so if it's empty then it will pass an empty array. This way you don't ever set anything to the session when you don't need to (which could trip you up later on)
e.g.,
if (in_array('foo', (array)$_SESSION['my_array'])) {
// do something
}
I know there is array_key_exists() but after reading the documentation I'm not really sure if it fits for this case:
I have an $array and an $index. Now I want to access the $array, but don't know if it has an index matching $index. I'm not talking about an associative array, but an plain boring normal numerically indexed array.
Is there an safe way to figure out if I would really access an $array element with the given $index (which is an integer!)?
PHP may not care if I access an array with an index out of bounds and maybe just returns NULL or so, but I don't want to even attempt to code dirty, so I want to check if the array has the key, or not ;-)
You can use either the language construct isset, or the function array_key_exists : numeric or string key doesn't matter : it's still an associative array, for PHP.
isset should be a bit faster (as it's not a function), but will return false if the element exists and has the value NULL.
For example, considering this array :
$a = array(
123 => 'glop',
456 => null,
);
And those three tests, relying on isset :
var_dump(isset($a[123]));
var_dump(isset($a[456]));
var_dump(isset($a[789]));
You'll get this kind of output :
boolean true
boolean false
boolean false
Because :
in the first case, the element exists, and is not null
in the second, the element exists, but is null
and, in the third, the element doesn't exist
On the other hand, using array_key_exists like in this portion of code :
var_dump(array_key_exists(123, $a));
var_dump(array_key_exists(456, $a));
var_dump(array_key_exists(789, $a));
You'll get this output :
boolean true
boolean true
boolean false
Because :
in the two first cases, the element exists -- even if it's null in the second case
and, in the third, it doesn't exist.
You can easily use isset():
if (isset($array[$index])) {
// array index $index exists
}
And as you have suggested, PHP is not very kind if you try to access a non-existent index, so it is crucial that you check that you are within bounds when dealing with accessing specific array indexes.
If you decide to use array_key_exists(), please note that there is a subtle difference:
isset() does not return TRUE for array
keys that correspond to a NULL value,
while array_key_exists() does.
That's exactly what the array_key_exists is for. It works on both numerical and string indexes.