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It's another day for being thick—so sorry. :) Anyhow, I have 2 arrays that I want to manipulate; if a value from the first array exists in the second array do one thing and then do something else with the remaining values of the second array.

e.g.

$array1 = array('1','2','3','4'); - the needle
$array2 = array('1','3','5','7'); - the haystack

if(in_array($array1,$array2): echo 'the needle'; else: echo'the haystack LESS the needle '; endif;

But for some reason the in_array doesn't work for me. Help please.

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Do you mean that "any value" or "all values" from the needle must be present in the haystack? – konforce yesterday

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Do it like this:

<?php
$array1 = array('1','2','3','4');
$array2 = array('1','3','5','7');

//case 1:
print_r(array_intersect($array1, $array2));

//case 2:
print_r(array_diff($array2, $array1));
?>

This outputs the values of array (what you wanted earlier before question was changed):

Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [2] => 3
)
Array
(
    [2] => 5
    [3] => 7
)

And, if you want to use if-else, do it like this:

<?php
$array1 = array('1','2','3','4');
$array2 = array('1','3','5','7');

$intesect = array_intersect($array1, $array2);

if(count($intesect))
{
    echo 'the needle';
    print_r($intesect);
}
else
{
    echo'the haystack LESS the needle ';
    print_r(array_diff($array2, $array1));
}
?>

This outputs:

the needle
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [2] => 3
)
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Thanks shamittomar - said was being think, I couldn't get the first array into the array_diff as I had previously manipulated it somehow (forgotten now) as your code works a dream – russp yesterday
If this is literally what you want, then array_diff is completely superfluous since you've already determined that the intersection is null. – konforce yesterday
@konforce, yes I agree but in the original question (which is now revised) it was asked to show the remaining values. – shamittomar yesterday

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