Merge possible values to array when comparing two arrays - php

Question

I'm looking for a simple solution to merge two arrays. They both look mostly alike, except one key-value-pair. I want my result to have an array with both possible values.
The xdebugged arrays look like this (simplified):
array (size=3)
'entry' => string '18' (length=2)
'mykey' => string 'value1' (length=6) // here is the difference
'something' => string '1' (length=1)
array (size=3)
'entry' => string '18' (length=2)
'mykey' => string 'value2' (length=6)) // here is the difference
'something' => string '1' (length=1)
I'd like the result to be:
array (size=2)
'entry' => string '18' (length=2)
'mykey' => array (size=2)) // both values merged to array
'0' => 'value1' (length=6)
'1' => 'value2' (length=6)
'something' => string '1' (length=1)
How to achieve this easily?

Answer 1

Would this suffice:
<?php
$array1 = array(
'entry'=>'18',
'mykey'=>'value1',
'something'=>'1'
);
$array2 = array(
'entry'=>'18',
'mykey'=>'value2',
'something'=>'1'
);
$output = array();
foreach($array1 as $k=>$v){
if(isset($array2[$k]) && $array2[$k] === $v){
$output[$k] = $v;
}elseif(isset($array2[$k])){
$output[$k][] = array($v,$array2[$k]);
}else{
$output[$k] = $v;
}
}
foreach($array2 as $k=>$v){
if(!array_key_exists($k,$output)){
$output[$k] = $v;
}
}
echo '<pre>',print_r($output),'</pre>';
Edit:I do like the use of array_merge_recursive() mentioned by Ziarno, but the issue is that it will create an array for each key. So I have added the use of array_unique(), then checking if the length is 1, and flattening it if so.
$output = array_merge_recursive($array1, $array2);
foreach($output as $k=>&$v){
$v = array_unique($v);
if(count($v)==1){
$v = $v[0];
}
}
echo '<pre>',print_r($output),'</pre>';

Answer 2

You need to write your own custom code for this.
// Get all the key values.
foreach($arrays as $array){
$keys[] = $array['mykey']
}
// retain 1st element & discard others.
$array = array_slice($arrays, 0, 1);
// update to the 1st array element
$array['mykey'] = $keys;
// print
print_r($array);
Hope this will help.

Answer 3

I think this function is designed exactly for what you need:
array_merge_recursive($array1, $array2)