How to delete element from array in php?

Question

I have done a lot of researching, and I cant find out how to delete an element from an array in PHP. In Java, if you have an ArrayList<SomeObject> list, you would say list.remove(someObject);.

Is there anything similar you can do in PHP? I have found unset($array[$index]);, but it doesnt seem to work.

Thanks for your help in advance!

`unset` is correct. How have you determined that it doesn't work? — Adam Wright, Feb 14 '13 at 13:07
Unset works but maybe your index is an int and the index you use for unsetting is a string? — Nir, Feb 14 '13 at 13:09
I'll define doesnt seem to work: When you use unset, I have read that the array doesnt get "reindexed". Then I used array_values($array); , but im not sure about if thats working either. — ACetin, Feb 14 '13 at 13:09
See this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5217721/how-to-remove-array-element-and-then-re-index-array — Luca Rainone, Feb 14 '13 at 13:18

Your Common Sense · Answer 1 · 2013-02-14T13:16:57.100

1

unset($array[$index]); actually works.
The only issue I can think of is the way you're iterating this array.
just use foreach instead of for

also make sure that $index contains correct value

to test your array you can use var_dump():

$cars[0]="Volvo"; 
$cars[1]="BMW"; 
$cars[2]="Toyota"; 

unset($cars[0]);
var_dump($cars);

edited Feb 14 '13 at 13:16

answered Feb 14 '13 at 13:08

Your Common Sense

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Lets say i have this array $cars[0]="Volvo"; $cars[1]="BMW"; $cars[2]="Toyota"; When i say unset($cars[0]), I only have [1] and [2] remaining, right? – ACetin Feb 14 '13 at 13:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 14 '13 at 13:14

1

unset should work, you can also try this:

$array = array_merge(
             array_slice($array, 0, $index),
             array_slice($array, $index+1)
         );

edited Feb 14 '13 at 13:14

asprin

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answered Feb 14 '13 at 13:12

pwolaq

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slices array into 2 subarrays without the element that you want to remove and then merges them into one – pwolaq Feb 14 '13 at 13:15

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 14 '13 at 13:16

You need to either remove it and remove the empty array:

function remove_empty($ar){
    $aar = array();
    while(list($key, $val) = each($ar)){
        if (is_array($val)){
            $val = remove_empty($val);
            if (count($val)!=0){
                $aar[$key] = $val;
            }
        }
        else {
            if (trim($val) != ""){
                $aar[$key] = $val;
            }
        }
    }
    unset($ar);
    return $aar;
}

remove_empty(array(1,2,3, '', 5)) returns array(1,2,3,5)

So if I have [1], [2], [3], [4], and i remove [2], i want the array to reindex the array, so instead of [1], [3], [4], i get [1], [2], [3] — ACetin, Feb 14 '13 at 13:18

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 28 '17 at 12:06

If you want to delete just one array element you can use unset() or alternative array_splice()

Unset()
Example :

Code

<?php

    $array = array(0 => "x", 1 => "y", 2 => "z");
    unset($array[1]);
    //If you want to delete the second index ie, array[1]
?>

Output

Array (
    [0] => a
    [2] => c
)

How to delete element from array in php?

4 Answers4