How Can I Remove an Element from a PHP Array by Value, Not Key?

Removing Elements from a PHP Array by Value (Not Key)

When dealing with arrays in PHP, it's often necessary to remove elements based on their values rather than their keys. Consider an array like this:

$messages = [312, 401, 1599, 3, ...];

With the values in this array being unique, how can we selectively delete an element with a specific value without knowing its key?

Solution: Using array_search() and unset()

PHP provides two useful functions for this purpose: array_search() and unset(). The combination of these functions allows us to search for the element's key and then remove it from the array. Here's how it works:

if (($key = array_search($del_val, $messages)) !== false) {
    unset($messages[$key]);
}

This code uses array_search() to find the key of the element with the value $del_val. If the key is not found, array_search() returns FALSE. However, we use the strict comparison operator !== to ensure that the expression only evaluates to true if array_search() explicitly returns FALSE, avoiding false-y values (e.g., key 0).

If the key is found, the unset() function is used to remove the element from the $messages array. It's important to note that unset() works by key, which is why we need to obtain the key from array_search() first.

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