removing duplicate arrays in multidimensional array in PHP

Question

For some reason I am having trouble with this, I have a multi-dimensional array in PHP like the following below (MySQL data). What I want to do is remove any duplicate arrays based on "dealerID".

In the example below, I want to search through the arrays and remove any of duplicate dealerID arrays.

Example, take this:

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  array(3) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "634"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
    ["Other Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(3) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "777"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
    ["Other Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }
  [2]=>
  array(2) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "777"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }
  [3]=>
  array(3) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "777"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
    ["Other Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }
  [4]=>
  array(2) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "777"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }

Desired result, only arrays with unique dealerID:

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  array(3) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "634"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
    ["Other Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(3) {
    ["dealerID"]=>
     string(3) "777"
    ["Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
    ["Other Name"]=>
    string(15) "Dealer Name String"
  }

What I have tried:

$copy = $array; // create copy to delete dups from
$used = array(); // used emails

  for( $i=0; $i<count($array); $i++ ) {

if ( in_array( $array[$i][0], $used ) ) {
    unset($copy[$i]);
}
else {
    $used[] = $array[$i][0];
}

}

and:

foreach($dealerList as $key => $subarray) {

    if ( in_array( $dealerList[$subarray], $used ) ) {
            echo "ALREADY";
     }
     else {
          $used[] = $dealerList[$subarray];
           echo "NOT ALREADY";
     }

    }
    #$dealerList = $copy;

I put the things I tried, there is also a single command that will compare the arrays but I think it doesn't work because my arrays aren't always the same size.. — Mike Q
– Mike Q, Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 19:55

Mickey · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-16 19:56:16Z

1

$arr=array(
    array(
        'dealerID'=>344,
        'Name'  => 'sdds',
        'Other Name'
    ),
    array(
        'dealerID'=>400,
        'Name'  => 'sdds',
        'Other Name'
    ),
    array(
        'dealerID'=>400,
        'Name'  => 'sdds',
        'Other Name'
    ),
    array(
        'dealerID'=>347,
        'Name'  => 'sdds',
        'Other Name'
    ),
);


foreach($arr as $key=>$item){
    for($i=$key+1; $i<count($arr);$i++){
        if($item['dealerID']==$arr[$i]['dealerID']){
            unset($arr[$i]);
        }
    }
}
print_r($arr);

answered Jul 16, 2016 at 19:56

Mickey

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4 Comments

Mike Q Over a year ago

Thanks, can you tell me what key+1 is doing ? I seems to be ignoring one of the arrays because of this

Mike Q Over a year ago

Actually it looks like it's leaving at least one dup ... hmmm

Mickey Over a year ago

no just apply and tell, me, actually when it is starting to check it didn't need to check value with itself.... So it's leaving atleast one value. you need to delete duplicate values, not all the values who have duplicates. I belive you need one of them and to remove it's duplicates :)

Death-is-the-real-truth Over a year ago

@MikeQ you have other answers too. check them and if any-one worked for you Mark+up-vote that. you can up-vote others too if they are useful thanks.

RomanPerekhrest · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-16 20:17:48Z

Short solution using array_values function:

// $arr is your exemplary array from the question
$result = [];
foreach ($arr as $v) {
    $result[$v['dealerID']] = $v;
}
$result = array_values($result);

print_r($result);

The output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [dealerID] => 634
            [Name] => Dealer Name String
            [Other Name] => Dealer Name String
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [dealerID] => 777
            [Name] => Dealer Name String
            [Other Name] => Dealer Name String
        )
)

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