search and replace value in PHP array - php

Question

I was looking for some standard PHP function to replace some value of an array with other, but surprisingly I haven't found any, so I have to write my own:
function array_replace_value(&$ar, $value, $replacement)
{
if (($key = array_search($ar, $value)) !== FALSE) {
$ar[$key] = $replacement;
}
}
But I still wonder - for such an easy thing there must already be some function for it! Or maybe much easier solution than this one invented by me?
Note that this function will only do one replacement. I'm looking for existing solutions that similarly replace a single occurrence, as well as those that replace all occurrences.

Answer 1

Instead of a function that only replaces occurrences of one value in an array, there's the more general array_map:
array_map(function ($v) use ($value, $replacement) {
return $v == $value ? $replacement : $v;
}, $arr);
To replace multiple occurrences of multiple values using array of value => replacement:
array_map(function ($v) use ($replacement) {
return isset($replacement[$v]) ? $replacement[$v] : $v;
}, $arr);
To replace a single occurrence of one value, you'd use array_search as you do. Because the implementation is so short, there isn't much reason for the PHP developers to create a standard function to perform the task. Not to say that it doesn't make sense for you to create such a function, if you find yourself needing it often.

Answer 2

While there isn't one function equivalent to the sample code, you can use array_keys (with the optional search value parameter), array_fill and array_replace to achieve the same thing:
EDIT by Tomas: the code was not working, corrected it:
$ar = array_replace($ar,
array_fill_keys(
array_keys($ar, $value),
$replacement
)
);

Answer 3

If performance is an issue, one may consider not to create multiple functions within array_map(). Note that isset() is extremely fast, and this solutions does not call any other functions at all.
$replacements = array(
'search1' => 'replace1',
'search2' => 'replace2',
'search3' => 'replace3'
);
foreach ($a as $key => $value) {
if (isset($replacements[$value])) {
$a[$key] = $replacements[$value];
}
}

Answer 4

Try this function.
public function recursive_array_replace ($find, $replace, $array) {
if (!is_array($array)) {
return str_replace($find, $replace, $array);
}
$newArray = [];
foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
$newArray[$key] = recursive_array_replace($find, $replace, $value);
}
return $newArray;
}
Cheers!

Answer 5

$ar[array_search('green', $ar)] = 'value';

Answer 6

Depending whether it's the value, the key or both you want to find and replace on you could do something like this:
$array = json_decode( str_replace( $replace, $with, json_encode( $array ) ), true );
I'm not saying this is the most efficient or elegant, but nice and simple.

Answer 7

What about array_walk() with callback?
$array = ['*pasta', 'cola', 'pizza'];
$search = '*';
$replace = '\*';
array_walk($array,
function (&$v) use ($search, $replace){
$v = str_replace($search, $replace, $v);
}
);
print_r($array);

Answer 8

Based on Deept Raghav's answer, I created the follow solution that does regular expression search.
$arr = [
'Array Element 1',
'Array Element 2',
'Replace Me',
'Array Element 4',
];
$arr = array_replace(
$arr,
array_fill_keys(
array_keys(
preg_grep('/^Replace/', $arr)
),
'Array Element 3'
)
);
echo '<pre>', var_export($arr), '</pre>';
PhpFiddle: http://phpfiddle.org/lite/code/un7u-j1pt

Answer 9

PHP 8, a strict version to replace one string value with another:
array_map(fn (string $value): string => $value === $find ? $replace : $value, $array);
An example - replace value foo with bar:
array_map(fn (string $value): string => $value === 'foo' ? 'bar' : $value, $array);

Answer 10

You can make full string matches without specifying the keys of qualifying values, by calling preg_replace() with a pattern containing start and end of string anchors (^, $). If your search term may contain characters which have a special meaning to the regex engine, then be sure to escape them with preg_quote() to avoid breakage. While regex is not entirely called for, regex offers some very convenient ways to tweak the search term handling. (Demo)
function array_replace_value(&$ar, $value, $replacement)
{
$ar = preg_replace(
'/^' . preg_quote($value, '/') . '$/',
$replacement,
$ar
);
}
I might be more inclined to use array_map() with arrow function syntax so that global variables can be accessed within the custom function scope. (Demo)
$needle = 'foo';
$newValue = 'bar';
var_export(
array_map(fn($v) => $v === $needle ? $newValue : $v, $array)
);

Answer 11

$ar = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8);
$find = array(2,3);
$replace = array(13);
function update_bundle_package($ar,$find,$replace){
foreach ($find as $x => $y) {
///TO REMOVE PACKAGE
if (($key = array_search($y, $ar)) !== false) {
unset($ar[$key]);
}
///TO REMOVE PACKAGE
}
$ar = array_merge($ar, $replace);
}

Answer 12

<b>$green_key = array_search('green', $input); // returns the first key whose value is 'green'
$input[$green_key] = 'apple'; // replace 'green' with 'apple'