Going through my entire $_SESSION array and removing null variables - php

I've been doing some tests with $_SESSION variables and that left a lot of them set to NULL, but still existing. I can remove them one-by-one, but how can I just loop through the $_SESSION array and remove NULL variables quickly?

You can use array_filter with a callback function that uses is_null:
$output = array_filter($input, function($val) { return !is_null($val); });

$_SESSION = array_filter($_SESSION, 'count');
Will have the effect of removing all NULL values (since count() returns 0 for NULL) and also any countable (either an array or an object) that has 0 elements, from the PHP manual:
Returns the number of elements in var,
which is typically an array, since
anything else will have one element.
If var is not an array or an object
with implemented Countable interface,
1 will be returned. There is one
exception, if var is NULL, 0 will be
returned.
Since 0 evaluates to false in a boolean context there is no need to implement any custom function.

This will remove NULL values, but not other empty or FALSE. Easily modified if you also want rid of FALSE vals and empty strings, etc.
foreach ($_SESSION as $key=>$var)
{
if ($var === NULL) unset($_SESSION[$key]);
}

$_SESSION = array_filter($_SESSION);
This will remove any "falsy" values from the session array, including null.

That should do it:
foreach ($_SESSION as $key => $value)
{
if ($value === NULL)
unset($_SESSION[$key];
}
P.S. array_filter will remove anything equal to "false". You should provide your own callback function or use this example if you need to remove only NULL-values and keep empty strings or zeros.

foreach($_SESSION as $key => $value){
if(empty($value) || is_null($value)){
unset($_SESSION[$key]);
}
}

If you are "deleting" $_SESSION elements by setting value to NULL, you are doing it wrong. To unset array element you should use
unset
on $_SESSION element.
# Wrong
$_SESSION['foo'] = NULL;
#Good
unset($_SESSION['foo']);

Related

Transform any null input to empty string

So I've got a while loop, inside I have $array_collections that gives me 35 value per loop, I want to verify for every value if it's equal to NULL then give it an empty string. I did that :
while ($array_collections = tep_db_fetch_array($query)) {
foreach ($array_collections as $key => $value) {
if (is_null($value)) {
$array_collections[$key] = "";
}
}
$docs[] = new \Elastica\Document('', \Glam\HttpUtils::jsonEncode(
array(
'X' => $array_collections['X'],
... etc
)));
}
This technically should work, but the loop goes over 500K elements so it's huge, and for every element we put it into a table, problem is that I run out of memory at some point. So is there another simple way to give any given NULL value an empty string without looping?
well, you can put NOT NULL constraint with empty string as DEFAULT value in the DB for that so you dont need to do that in php using looping, but if you dont want to change the DB design then you can use COALESCE in your query
select COALESCE(yourfield,'') from table
it will convert NULL value into empty string
You can use array_map function to replace null values into empty string.
$array_collections=array_map(function($ar)
{
if(isset($ar) && $ar!=null){
return $ar;
}
return '';
},$array_collections);
Above code replace all null values to empty string. No need of loop.
you can use array_walk:
function replace_null(&$lsValue, $key) {
if(is_null($lsValue)) {
$lsValue = "";
}
}
array_walk($array_collections, 'replace_null');

PHP Array Search - key => string

I got some trouble with in_array()
$list = array(
"files/" => "/system/application/files/_index.php",
"misc/chat/" => "/system/application/misc/chat/_index.php"
);
I have this $_GET['f'] which holds the string files/.
How can I search through the array for possible matches?
If the string is found in the array, then the file should be included
Thanks for any help :)
It's really simple. All you need to do is check if the array element is set. The language construct that's usually used is isset() (yes, it's that obvious)...
if (isset($list[$_GET['f']])) {
}
There's no need to call a function for this, isset is cleaner and easier to read (IMHO)...
Note that isset is not actually a function. It's a language construct. That has a few implications:
You can't use isset on the return from a function (isset(foo()) won't work). It will only work on a variable (or a composition of variables such as array accessing or object accessing).
It doesn't have the overhead of a function call, so it's always fast. The overall overhead of a function call is a micro-optimization to worry about, but it's worth mentioning if you're in a tight loop, it can add up.
You can't call isset as a variable function. This won't work:
$func = 'isset';
$func($var);
array_key_exists is a function that returns true of the supplied key is in the array.
if(array_key_exists( $_GET['f'], $list )) {
echo $list[$_GET['f']];
}
You can use in_array() in conjunction with array_keys():
if (in_array($_GET['f'], array_keys($list))) {
// it's in the array
}
array_keys() returns an array of the keys from its input array. Using $list as input, it would produce:
array("files/", "misc/chat/");
Then you use in_array() to search the output from array_keys().
Use array_key_exists.
if(array_key_exists($_GET['f'], $list)){
// Do something with $list[$_GET['f']];
}
in_array() searches array for key using loose comparison unless strict is set.
it's like below.
foreach ($array as $value){
if ($key == $value){
return true;
}
}
My way.
function include_in_array($key, $array)
{
foreach($array as $value){
if ( strpos($value, $key) !== false ){
return false;
}
}
}

Checking for a string in array and add

How can i check if a string is already present withing an array before adding to it in php?
say if array is $value
$value[0]="hi";
$value[1]="hello";
$value[2]="wat";
I want to check if value exists in it before adding it to it.
$s='hi';
if (!in_array($s, $value)) {
$value[]=$s;
}
in_array() checks if that value (1st parameter) is in the array (2nd parameter), returns boolean (! negates it)
$value[]=$s will add the value to the array with the next index
There is another tricky way if you want to add a bunch of values into an array, but only if they are not there yet. You just have to organize these new values into another array and use a combination of array_merge() and array_diff():
//your original array:
$values=array('hello', 'xy', 'fos', 'hi');
//the values you want to add if they are not in the array yet:
$values_to_add=array('hi', 'hello', 'retek');
$values=array_merge($values, array_diff($values_to_add, $values));
//$values becomes: hello, xy, fos, hi, retek
You can use in_array($searchstring, $array)
in_array("hello", $value) returns true
in_array("hllo", $value) returns false
http://php.net/manual/en/function.in-array.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.in-array.php
if(in_array("hello", $value)) { // needle in haystack
return TRUE;
}
in_array - Checks if a value exists in an array.
In case of in_array($searchstring, $array), remember, the comparison is done in a case-sensitive manner, if the $searchstring is a "String"
Example :
- in_array("wat", $value) returns true
- in_array("what", $value) returns false.
// Observe carefully
- in_array("WAT", $value) returns false.
if you're going to create a Set, it's much better to use array keys instead of values. Simply use
$values["whatever"] = 1;
to add a value, no need to check anything.

what is the fastest method to check if given array has array or non-array or both values?

We gave a given array which can be in 4 states.
array has values that are:
only arrays
only non-arrays
both array and non array
array has no values
Considering than an array-key can only be a numerical or string value (and not an array), I suppose you want to know about array-values ?
If so, you'll have to loop over your array, testing, for each element, if it's an array or not, keeping track of what's been found -- see the is_array function, about that.
Then, when you've tested all elements, you'll have to test if you found arrays, and/or non-array.
Something like this, I suppose, might do the trick :
$has_array = false;
$has_non_array = false;
foreach ($your_array as $element) {
if (is_array($element)) {
$has_array = true;
} else {
$has_non_array = true;
}
}
if ($has_array && $has_non_array) {
// both
} else {
if ($has_array) {
// only arrays
} else {
// only non-array
}
}
(Not tested, but the idea should be there)
This portion of code should work for the three first points you asked for.
To test for "array has no value", The fastest way is to use the empty() language construct before the loop -- and only do the loop if the array is not empty, to avoid any error.
You could also count the number of elements in the array, using the count() function, and test if it's equal to 0, BTW.
Some precalculation:
function isArray($reducedValue, $currentValue) {
// boolean value is converted to 0 or 1
return $reducedValue + is_array($currentValue);
}
$number_of_arrays = array_reduce($array, 'isArray', 0);
Then the different states can be evaluated as follows:
only arrays
count($array) == $number_of_arrays
only non-arrays
$number_of_arrays == 0
both array and non array keys
count($array) != $number_of_arrays
array has no keys
empty($array);
So you just need to write a function that returns the appropriate state.
Reference: in_array, array_reduce, empty

How to check if a PHP array has any value set?

I am working on a signup form, I am using PHP and on my processing part I run some code, if a submitted item fails I then add it to an errors array.
Below is a snip of the code, I am at the point where I need to find the best method to determine if I should trigger an error.
So if there is a value set in the error array then I need to redirect and do some other stuff.
I was thinking of using isset or else is_array but I don't think that is the answer since I set the array using **$signup_errors = array()** wouldn't this make the is_array be true?
Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?
//at the beginning I set the error array
$signup_errors = array();
// I then add items to the error array as needed like this...
$signup_errors['captcha'] = 'Please Enter the Correct Security Code';
if ($signup_errors) {
// there was an error
} else {
// there wasn't
}
How does it work? When converting to boolean, an empty array converts to false. Every other array converts to true. From the PHP manual:
Converting to boolean
To explicitly convert a value to
boolean, use the (bool) or (boolean)
casts. However, in most cases the cast
is unncecessary, since a value will be
automatically converted if an
operator, function or control
structure requires a boolean argument.
See also Type Juggling.
When converting to boolean, the
following values are considered FALSE:
the boolean FALSE itself
the integer 0 (zero)
the float 0.0 (zero)
the empty string, and the string "0"
an array with zero elements
an object with zero member variables (PHP 4 only)
the special type NULL (including unset variables)
SimpleXML objects created from empty tags
Every other value is considered TRUE (including any resource).
You could also use empty() as it has similar semantics.
Perhaps empty()?
From Docs:
Return Values
Returns FALSE if var has a non-empty
and non-zero value.
The following things are considered to
be empty:
"" (an empty string)
0 (0 as an integer)
"0" (0 as a string)
NULL
FALSE
array() (an empty array)
var $var; (a variable declared, but without a value in a class)
Check if...
if(count($array) > 0) { ... }
...if it is, then at least one key-value pair is set.
Alternatively, check if the array is not empty():
if(!empty($array)) { ... }
Use array_filter if you already have keys, but want to check for non-boolean evaluated values.
<?php
$errors = ['foo' => '', 'bar' => null];
var_dump(array_filter($errors));
$errors = ['foo' => 'Oops', 'bar' => null];
var_dump(array_filter($errors));
Output:
array(0) {
}
array(1) {
["foo"]=>
string(4) "Oops"
}
Use:
<?php
if(array_filter($errors)) {
// Has errors
}
You could check on both the minimum and maximum values of the array, in this case you can have a large array filled with keys and empty values and you don't have to iterate through every key-value pair
if(!min($array) && !max($array)) { ... }
The language construct isset(), is for testing to see if variables and array elements are set and not NULL. Using is_array() would tell you if the argument you supply to it is an array. Thus, I do not think using isset() or is_array() would give you the correct and desired result that you are seeking.
The code:
$signup_errors = array();
means that ...
is_array($signup_errors);
would return true. However, this does not mean that the Boolean language rules of PHP would evaluate....
if($signup_errors)
{
//*Do something if $signup_errors evaluates to true*;
}
as true, unless some elements are added to it. When you did this,
$signup_errors['captcha'] = 'Please Enter the Correct Security Code';
you fulfilled the PHP language requirement for the array above to evaluate to true.
Now, if for some reason you wanted, or needed, to use isset() on the array elements in the future, you could. But, the conditional statement above is enough for you this case.
I should add an obvious answer here. If you initialise your error array as an empty array. And later want to check if it is no longer an empty array:
<?php
$errors = [];
if($errors !== [])
{
// We have errors.
}

Categories