To delete one element, use unset( )
:
unset($array[3]); unset($array['foo']);
To delete multiple noncontiguous elements, also use unset( )
:
unset($array[3], $array[5]); unset($array['foo'], $array['bar']);
To delete multiple contiguous elements, use array_splice( )
:
array_splice($array, $offset, $length);
Using these functions removes all references to these elements from PHP. If you want to keep a key in the array, but with an empty value, assign the empty string to the element:
$array[3] = $array['foo'] = '';
Besides syntax, there’s a logical difference between
using unset( )
and assigning ''
to the element. The first says “This
doesn’t exist anymore,” while the
second says “This still exists, but its value is the
empty string.”
If you’re dealing with numbers, assigning
0
may be a better alternative. So, if a company
stopped production of the model XL1000 sprocket, it would update its
inventory with:
unset($products['XL1000']);
However, if it temporarily ran out of XL1000 sprockets, but was planning to receive a new shipment from the plant later this week, this is better:
$products['XL1000'] = 0;
If you unset( )
an element, PHP adjusts the array
so that looping still works correctly. It doesn’t
compact the array to fill in the missing holes. This is what we mean
when we say that all arrays are associative, even when they appear to
be numeric. Here’s an example:
// create a "numeric" array $animals = array('ant', 'bee', 'cat', 'dog', 'elk', 'fox'); print $animals[1]; // prints 'bee' print $animals[2]; // prints 'cat' count($animals); // returns 6 // unset( ) unset($animals[1]); // removes element $animals[1] = 'bee' print $animals[1]; // prints '' and throws an E_NOTICE error print $animals[2]; // still prints 'cat' count($animals); // returns 5, even though $array[5] is 'fox' // add new element $animals[ ] = 'gnu'; // add new element (not Unix) print $animals[1]; // prints '', still empty print $animals[6]; // prints 'gnu', this is where 'gnu' ended up count($animals); // returns 6 // assign '' $animals[2] = ''; // zero out value print $animals[2]; // prints '' count($animals); // returns 6, count does not decrease
To compact the array into a densely filled numeric array, use
array_values( )
:
$animals = array_values($animals);
Alternatively, array_splice( )
automatically reindexes
arrays to avoid leaving holes:
// create a "numeric" array $animals = array('ant', 'bee', 'cat', 'dog', 'elk', 'fox'); array_splice($animals, 2, 2); print_r($animals); Array ( [0] => ant [1] => bee [2] => elk [3] => fox )
This is useful if you’re using the array as a queue
and want to remove items from the queue while still allowing random
access. To safely remove the first or last element from an array, use
array_shift( )
and array_pop( )
,
respectively.
However, if you find yourself often running into problems because of
holes in arrays, you may not be “thinking
PHP.” Look at the ways to iterate through the array
in Recipe 4.5 that don’t
involve using a for
loop.
Recipe 4.5 for iteration techniques;
documentation on unset( )
at
http://www.php.net/unset, array_splice( )
at http://www.php.net/array-splice,
and array_values( )
at
http://www.php.net/array-values.
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