Most Efficient Way to Delete Nested Array Element - php

Question

Say I have the following:
Array(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[item] => first item
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[item] => second item
)
[2] => Array
(
[id] => 5
[item] => third item
)
)
I want to delete the item with id = 5. I know I can loop through the array and unset, but I'm hoping for a more direct/efficient solution.

Answer 1

If you cannot make the IDs the keys of the outer array (then you could simply use unset($arr[5]);), looping over the array is indeed the way to dg.
foreach($arr as $key => $value) {
if($value['id'] === 5) {
unset($arr[$key]);
break;
}
}
Another option would be using array_filter - that's less efficient though since it creates a new array:
$arr = array_filter($arr, function($value) {
return $value['id'] !== 5;
});

Answer 2

Why don't you create the array with the keys set as the ID's? E.g:
Array(
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[item] => first item
)
[3] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[item] => second item
)
[5] => Array
(
[id] => 5
[item] => third item
)
)
You can then write:
<?php
unset($array[5]); // Delete ID5
?>

Answer 3

For Multi level nested array
<?php
function remove_array_by_key($key,$nestedArray){
foreach($nestedArray as $k=>$v){
if(is_array($v)){
remove_array_by_key($key,$v);
} elseif($k==$key){
unset($nesterArray[$k]);
}
}
return $nestedArrat;
}
?>

Answer 4

The most efficient way would be to have 2 arrays.
ID => Index
Index => Object (your current array)
Search for ID in your ID => Index helper array and the value will be the Index for your main array, then unset them both.