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up vote 1 down vote favorite

How can I remove duplicate values from a multi-dimensional array in PHP?

Example array:

   Array
(
    [choice] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [day] => Monday
                    [value] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 10:00 
                                    [location] =>  B123
                                )
                            [1] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 11:00 
                                    [location] =>  A123
                                )
                        )
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [day] => Tuesday
                    [value] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 10:00 
                                    [location] =>  B123
                                )
                            [1] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 11:00 
                                    [location] =>  A123
                                )
                        )
                    )
        )
)

I'd like to remove those with duplicate name. So i only want to keep one subject each day.

my code so far:

$taken = array();
foreach($subject_list['choice'][0]["value"] as $key =>$item )
{ 
    if(!in_array($item['name'], $taken)) 
    {
        $taken[] = $item['name'];
    }else 
    {
        unset($flight_list['choice'][0]["value"][$key]);
    }

}

OUTPUT of the code above (which is obviously wrong):

Array
(
    [choice] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [day] => Monday
                    [value] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 10:00 
                                    [location] =>  B123
                                )
                        )
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [day] => Tuesday
                    [value] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 10:00 
                                    [location] =>  B123
                                )
                            [1] => Array
                                (
                                    [name] => BI
                                    [time] => 11:00 
                                    [location] =>  A123
                                )
                        )
                    )
        )
)

Anyone can help me how can i remove same class name at Tuesday.

share|improve this question
up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you want to keep the first set of unique values in each value batch in terms of name, then just create a temporary container for that. If you already have pushed it, then don't process anything, after the gathering, overwrite the batch using foreach with & reference:

foreach($subject_list['choice'] as &$items) {
    $temp = array(); // temporary container for current iteration
    foreach($items['value'] as $value) {
        if(!isset($temp[$value['name']])) { // if its new
            $temp[$value['name']] = $value; // push the batch using the key name
        }
    }
    $items['value'] = $temp; // apply unique value in the end of this batch
}

Sample Output

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

where $array is a php variable where your array is coming

 $array = array_map("unserialize", array_unique(array_map("serialize", $array)));
share|improve this answer
up vote -1 down vote

Just a quick google to remove duplicates from a multi dimensional array:

<?php
function super_unique($array)
{
  $result = array_map("unserialize", array_unique(array_map("serialize", $array)));

  foreach ($result as $key => $value)
  {
    if ( is_array($value) )
    {
      $result[$key] = super_unique($value);
    }
  }

  return $result;
}
?>
share|improve this answer

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