PHP array delete by value (not key)

You are loking for simplest function? Well, you won't find anything simpler.

function array_delete($array, $element) {
    return array_diff($array, [$element]);
}

array_delete( [312, 401, 1599, 3], 401 ) // returns [312, 1599, 3]

Or in standalone version:

array_diff( [312, 401, 1599, 3], [401] ) // returns [312, 1599, 3]

One interesting way is by using array_keys():

foreach (array_keys($messages, 401, true) as $key) {
    unset($messages[$key]);
}

The array_keys() function takes two additional parameters to return only keys for a particular value and whether strict checking is required (i.e. using === for comparison).

This can also remove multiple array items with the same value (e.g. [1, 2, 3, 3, 4]).

If you know for definite that your array will contain only one element with that value, you can do

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

If, however, your value might occur more than once in your array, you could do this

$array = array_filter($array, function($e) use ($del_val) {
    return ($e !== $del_val);
});

Note: The second option only works for PHP5.3+ with Closures

$fields = array_flip($fields);
unset($fields['myvalue']);
$fields = array_flip($fields);

Have a look at following code:

$arr = array('nice_item', 'remove_me', 'another_liked_item', 'remove_me_also');

You can do:

$arr = array_diff($arr, array('remove_me', 'remove_me_also'));

And that will get you this array:

array('nice_item', 'another_liked_item')

Get the key with array_search().

function array_remove_by_value($array, $value)
{
    return array_values(array_diff($array, array($value)));
}

$array = array(312, 401, 1599, 3);

$newarray = array_remove_by_value($array, 401);

print_r($newarray);

Output

Array ( [0] => 312 [1] => 1599 [2] => 3 )

Or simply the good old fasion

foreach ($array as $key => $value){
    if ($value == $target_value) {
        unset(array[$key]);
    }
}

This is the safest of them because you have full control on your array

To delete multiple values try this one

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

unset($array[array_search($value,$array)]);

If your values you want to delete are, or can, be in an array. Use the array_diff function. Seems to work great for things like this.

array_diff

$arrayWithValuesRemoved = array_diff($arrayOfData, $arrayOfValuesToRemove);

<?php
if(in_array($del_file_name,$old_files_array,TRUE)){
$after_delete_array     =   array_values(array_diff($old_files_array, array($del_file_name)));
}
?>

Or a one-liner using the or operator:

($key = array_search($del_val, $messages)) !== false or unset($messages[$key]);

Another idea to delete a value of an array, use array_diff. If I want to

$my_array = array(1=>"a", "second_value"=>"b", 3=>"c", "d");
$new_array_without_value_c = array_diff($my_array, array("c"));

(Doc : http://php.net/manual/fr/function.array-diff.php)

If you don't know its key it means it doesn't matter.

You could place the value as the key, it means it will instant find the value. Better than using searching in all elements over and over again.

$messages=array();
$messages[312] = 312;
$messages[401] = 401;
$messages[1599] = 1599;
$messages[3] = 3;

unset($messages[3]); // no search needed

By the following code, the repetitive values will be removed from the $messages.

$messages = array_diff($messages, array(401));

@Bojangles answer did help me. Thank you.

In my case, the array could be associative or not, so I added this function

function test($value, $tab) {

 if(($key = array_search($value, $tab)) !== false) {
    unset($tab[$key]); return true;

 } else if (array_key_exists($value, $tab)){
        unset($tab[$value]); return true;

 } else {
    return false; // the $value is not in the array $tab
 }

}

Regards