PHP Remove Empty Elements/Items From Array

In Php

PHP provides a number of functions that can be used to remove empty elements from an array. In this blog post, we'll take a look at some of these functions and how they can be used to remove empty elements from an array in PHP.

array_filter()

One way to remove empty elements from an array is to use the array_filter() function. This function takes an array as an input and returns a new array with only the elements that pass a specified test. For example, to remove empty elements from an array, we can use the following code:


$array = [1, 2, '', 3, 4, '', 5];
$filtered_array = array_filter($array, function($value) {
    return !empty($value);
});


The array_filter() function will iterate over each element in the array and pass it to the callback function (in this case, an anonymous function). If the callback function returns true, the element will be included in the new array. If it returns false, the element will be excluded.


In the example above, the anonymous function simply checks if the element is empty using the empty() function. If the element is empty, the function returns false and the element is excluded from the new array. If the element is not empty, the function returns true and the element is included in the new array.


The resulting array will be:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

array_diff()

Another way to remove empty elements from an array is to use the array_diff() function. This function returns an array containing the elements that are present in one array but not in another. For example, to remove empty elements from an array, we can use the following code:


$array = [1, 2, '', 3, 4, '', 5];
$filtered_array = array_diff($array, ['']);


The array_diff() function compares the elements in the $array array with the elements in the second array (in this case, an array containing a single empty string). If an element in the $array array is present in the second array, it is removed from the resulting array.


The resulting array will be:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

array_udiff()

The array_udiff() function compares the elements of two or more arrays using a user-defined callback function and returns an array containing the elements that are present in one array but not in the other(s).


For example, to remove empty elements from an array using array_udiff(), we can use the following code:


$array = [1, 2, '', 3, 4, '', 5];
$filtered_array = array_udiff($array, [''], function($a, $b) {
    if ($a === $b) {
        return 0;
    }
    return ($a > $b) ? 1 : -1;
});


The array_udiff() function compares the elements in the $array array with the elements in the second array (in this case, an array containing a single empty string). If an element in the $array array is present in the second array, it is removed from the resulting array.


The resulting array will be:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]


I hope this blog post has helped you understand how to remove empty elements from an array in PHP. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a message below.

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