Deleting an element from an array in PHP

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Is there an easy way to delete an
element from an array using PHP, such that foreach ($array) no
longer includes that element?

I
thought that setting it to null would do it, but apparently it
does not work.

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class="normal">Answer

There are
different ways to delete an array element, where some are more useful for some specific
tasks than others.

If you
want to delete just one array element you can use href="https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.unset.php"
rel="noreferrer">unset() or alternatively href="https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.array-splice.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_splice().

Also
if you have the value and don't know the key to delete the element you can use href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_search() to get the
key.

href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.unset.php"
rel="noreferrer">unset()

Note
that when you use unset() the array keys won't change/reindex.
If you want to reindex the keys you can use href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-values.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_values() after
unset() which will convert all keys to numerical enumerated
keys starting from
0.

Code

            $array = [0 => "a", 1 => "b", 2 => "c"];


            unset($array[1]);
 //↑ Key which you want to
            delete

?>

Output

[

            [0] => a

 [2] =>
            c
]

href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-splice.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_splice()
method

If you use
\array_splice() the keys will be automatically reindexed, but
the associative keys won't change as opposed to \array_values()
which will convert all keys to numerical
keys.

Also
\array_splice() needs the offset, not the key! as the second
parameter.

Code

            $array = [0 => "a", 1 => "b", 2 => "c"];
 \array_splice($array, 1,
            1);
 //↑ Offset which you want to
            delete

?>

Output

[

            [0] => a
 [1] =>
            c
]

array_splice()
same as unset() take the array by reference, and this means you
don't want to assign the return values of those functions back to the
array.

If you
want to delete multiple array elements and don't want to call
unset() or \array_splice() multiple
times you can use the functions \array_diff() or
\array_diff_key() depending on if you know the values or the
keys of the elements which you want to
delete.

href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-diff.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_diff()
method

If you know the values of the array
elements which you want to delete, then you can use
\array_diff(). As before with unset()
it won't change/reindex the keys of the
array.

Code

            $array = [0 => "a", 1 => "b", 2 => "c"];
 $array =
            \array_diff($array, ["a", "c"]);
 //└────────┘→ Array values which you want to
            delete

?>

Output

[

            [1] =>
            b
]

href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-diff-key.php"
rel="noreferrer">\array_diff_key()
method

If you know the keys of the elements
which you want to delete, then you want to use
\array_diff_key(). Here you have to make sure you pass the keys
as keys in the second parameter and not as values. Otherwise, you have to flip the array
with rel="noreferrer">\array_flip(). And also here the
keys won't
change/reindex.

Code

            $array = [0 => "a", 1 => "b", 2 => "c"];
 $array =
            \array_diff_key($array, [0 => "xy", "2" => "xy"]);
 //↑ ↑ Array keys
            which you want to
            delete
?>

Output

[

            [1] =>
            b
]

Also if
you want to use unset() or
\array_splice() to delete multiple elements with the same value
you can use rel="noreferrer">\array_keys() to get all the keys
for a specific value and then delete all elements.