array_filter
using array_flip(array_flip($array)) or array_keys(array_flip($array)) as key-collapsing alternatives to array_unique() makes your intention less apparent. Try:
array_values(array_unique($array))
as a more readable alternative.
array_flip
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
array_flip — Exchanges all keys with their associated values in an array
Description
array array_flip
( array $trans
)
array_flip() returns an array in flip order, i.e. keys from trans become values and values from trans become keys.
Note that the values of trans need to be valid keys, i.e. they need to be either integer or string. A warning will be emitted if a value has the wrong type, and the key/value pair in question will not be flipped.
If a value has several occurrences, the latest key will be used as its values, and all others will be lost.
Parameters
- trans
-
An array of key/value pairs to be flipped.
Return Values
Returns the flipped array on success and FALSE on failure.
Examples
Example #1 array_flip() example
<?php
$trans = array_flip($trans);
$original = strtr($str, $trans);
?>
Example #2 array_flip() example : collision
<?php
$trans = array("a" => 1, "b" => 1, "c" => 2);
$trans = array_flip($trans);
print_r($trans);
?>
now $trans is:
Array ( [1] => b [2] => c )
add a note
User Contributed Notesarray_flip
rdanner
21-Aug-2008 10:17
21-Aug-2008 10:17
Anonymous
29-Feb-2008 04:45
29-Feb-2008 04:45
True, array_unique does preserve keys, but if you are incrementing in a loop, then it will stop once the key values break numerical order. If you don't care about preserving keys, a life-saver (originally a headache) for me was...
<?php
$new_array = array_keys(array_flip($old_array));
?>
i used this little snip-it after results from preg_match_all() as a way to remove duplicates from an array and then re-organize the numerical keys ;)
*Only works on arrays with numerical keys.
eSeYaRr
28-Aug-2007 01:21
28-Aug-2007 01:21
In array_unique() user notes, you'll see that the flip flip use is faster than the array_unique() use for that purpose.
pinkgothic at gmail dot com
26-Apr-2007 05:37
26-Apr-2007 05:37
In case anyone is wondering how array_flip() treats empty arrays:
<?php
print_r(array_flip(array()));
?>
results in:
Array
(
)
I wanted to know if it would return false and/or even chuck out an error if there were no key-value pairs to flip, despite being non-intuitive if that were the case. But (of course) everything works as expected. Just a head's up for the paranoid.
http://www.callum-macdonald.com/
06-Mar-2007 03:13
06-Mar-2007 03:13
It might seem obvious, but if you want to remove duplicates from an array, you can use array_flip() twice:
$arr = array_flip(array_flip($arr));
mikeb at tracersinfo dot com
06-Feb-2006 07:42
06-Feb-2006 07:42
Further deriving on benles -> crescentfreshpot, I think the following restatement of array_invert() reads much easier and probably runs faster, too. It does yield the same results:
function array_invert($arr) {
$flipped = array();
foreach ( $arr as $k => $a ) {
# put the value in the key, with a throw-away value. dups are inherently avoided,
# though overwritten. not sure if prefixing with if ( !isset($flipped[$a][$k]) )
# would speed this up or slow it down. probably depends on quantity of dups.
$flipped[$a][$k] = NULL;
}
foreach ( $flipped as $k => $fl ) {
# now make the keys the values.
$flipped[$k] = array_keys($fl);
}
return $flipped;
}
crescentfreshpot at yahoo dot com
03-Jul-2005 08:21
03-Jul-2005 08:21
Furthering benles note, if you don't want duplicate values to overwrite existing keys but need non-duplicate values to be assigned like array_flip, use:
<?php
function array_invert($arr)
{
$flipped = array();
foreach(array_keys($arr) as $key) {
if(array_key_exists($arr[$key],$flipped)) {
$flipped[$arr[$key]] = array_merge((array)$flipped[$arr[$key]], (array)$key);
} else {
$flipped[$arr[$key]] = $key;
}
}
return $flipped;
}
$a = array(
'orange' => 'fruit',
'milk' => 'dairy',
'apple' => 'fruit',
'banana' => 'fruit'
);
print_r(array_invert($a));
/*
Output:
Array
(
[fruit] => Array
(
[0] => orange
[1] => apple
[2] => banana
)
[dairy] => milk
)
*/
?>
benles at bldigital dot com
05-Mar-2005 10:52
05-Mar-2005 10:52
In case anyone wants a function that doesn't lose duplicates:
function array_invert($arr)
{
$res = Array();
foreach(array_keys($arr) as $key)
{
if (!array_key_exists($arr[$key], $res)) $res[$arr[$key]] = Array();
array_push($res[$arr[$key]], $key);
}
return $res;
}
snaury at narod dot ru
23-Nov-2004 04:21
23-Nov-2004 04:21
When you do array_flip, it takes the last key accurence for each value, but be aware that keys order in flipped array will be in the order, values were first seen in original array. For example, array:
[1] => 1
[2] => 2
[3] => 3
[4] => 3
[5] => 2
[6] => 1
[7] => 1
[8] => 3
[9] => 3
After flipping will become:
(first seen value -> first key)
[1] => 7
[2] => 5
[3] => 9
And not anything like this:
(last seen value -> last key)
[2] => 5
[1] => 7
[3] => 9
In my application I needed to find five most recently commented entries. I had a sorted comment-id => entry-id array, and what popped in my mind is just do array_flip($array), and I thought I now would have last five entries in the array as most recently commented entry => comment pairs. In fact it wasn't (see above, as it is the order of values used). To achieve what I need I came up with the following (in case someone will need to do something like that):
First, we need a way to flip an array, taking the first encountered key for each of values in array. You can do it with:
$array = array_flip(array_unique($array));
Well, and to achieve that "last comments" effect, just do:
$array = array_reverse($array, true);
$array = array_flip(array_unique($array));
$array = array_reverse($array, true);
In the example from the very beginning array will become:
[2] => 5
[1] => 7
[3] => 9
Just what I (and maybe you?) need. =^_^=
znailz at yahoo dot com
05-Aug-2003 06:42
05-Aug-2003 06:42
I know a lot of people want a function to remove a key by value from an array. I saw solutions that iterate(!) though the whole array comparing value by value and then unsetting that value's key. PHP has a built-in function for pretty much everything (heard it will even cook you breakfast), so if you think "wouldn't it be cool if PHP had a function to do that...", odds are it already has. Check out this example. It takes a value, gets all keys for that value if it has duplicates, unsets them all, and returns a reindexed array.
<?php
$arr = array(11,12,13,12); // sample array
$arr = array_flip($arr);
unset($arr[12]);
$arr = array(array_keys($arr));
?>
$arr contains:
<?php
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 11
[1] => 13
)
?>
)