PHP: How to use array_filter() to filter array keys?

With array_intersect_key and array_flip:

var_dump(array_intersect_key($my_array, array_flip($allowed)));

array(1) {
  ["foo"]=>
  int(1)
}

I needed to do same, but with a more complex array_filter on the keys.

Here's how I did it, using a similar method.

// Filter out array elements with keys shorter than 4 characters
$a = array(
  0      => "val 0", 
  "one"  => "val one", 
  "two"  => "val two", 
  "three"=> "val three", 
  "four" => "val four", 
  "five" => "val five", 
  "6"    => "val 6"
); 

$f = array_filter(array_keys($a), function ($k){ return strlen($k)>=4; }); 
$b = array_intersect_key($a, array_flip($f));
print_r($b);

This outputs the result:

Array
(
    [three] => val three
    [four] => val four
    [five] => val five
)

Here is a more flexible solution using a closure:

$my_array = array("foo" => 1, "hello" => "world");
$allowed = array("foo", "bar");
$result = array_flip(array_filter(array_flip($my_array), function ($key) use ($allowed)
{
    return in_array($key, $allowed);
}));
var_dump($result);

Outputs:

array(1) {
  'foo' =>
  int(1)
}

So in the function, you can do other specific tests.

How to get the current key of an array when using array_filter

Regardless of how I like Vincent's solution for Maček's problem, it doesn't actually use array_filter. If you came here from a search engine you maybe where looking for something like this (PHP >= 5.3):

$array = ['apple' => 'red', 'pear' => 'green'];
reset($array); // Unimportant here, but make sure your array is reset

$apples = array_filter($array, function($color) use ($&array) {
  $key = key($array);
  next($array); // advance array pointer

  return key($array) === 'apple';
}

It passes the array you're filtering as a reference to the callback. As array_filter doesn't conventionally iterate over the array by increasing it's public internal pointer you have to advance it by yourself.

What's important here is that you need to make sure your array is reset, otherwise you might start right in the middle of it.

In PHP >= 5.4 you could make the callback even shorter:

$apples = array_filter($array, function($color) use ($&array) {
  return each($array)['key'] === 'apple';
}

Here's a less flexible alternative using unset():

$array = array(
    1 => 'one',
    2 => 'two',
    3 => 'three'
);
$disallowed = array(1,3);
foreach($disallowed as $key){
    unset($array[$key]);
}

The result of print_r($array) being:

Array
(
    [2] => two
)

This is not applicable if you want to keep the filtered values for later use but tidier, if you're certain that you don't.

If you are looking for a method to filter an array by a string occurring in keys, you can use:

$mArray=array('foo'=>'bar','foo2'=>'bar2','fooToo'=>'bar3','baz'=>'nope');
$mSearch='foo';
$allowed=array_filter(
    array_keys($mArray),
    function($key) use ($mSearch){
        return stristr($key,$mSearch);
    });
$mResult=array_intersect_key($mArray,array_flip($allowed));

The result of print_r($mResult) is

Array ( [foo] => bar [foo2] => bar2 [fooToo] => bar3 )

An adaption of this answer that supports regular expressions

function array_preg_filter_keys($arr, $regexp) {
  $keys = array_keys($arr);
  $match = array_filter($keys, function($k) use($regexp) {
    return preg_match($regexp, $k) === 1;
  });
  return array_intersect_key($arr, array_flip($match));
}

$mArray = array('foo'=>'yes', 'foo2'=>'yes', 'FooToo'=>'yes', 'baz'=>'nope');

print_r(array_preg_filter_keys($mArray, "/^foo/i"));

Output

Array
(
    [foo] => yes
    [foo2] => yes
    [FooToo] => yes
)

Perhaps an overkill if you need it just once, but you can use YaLinqo library* to filter collections (and perform any other transformations). This library allows peforming SQL-like queries on objects with fluent syntax. Its where function accepts a calback with two arguments: a value and a key. For example:

$filtered = from($array)
    ->where(function ($v, $k) use ($allowed) {
        return in_array($k, $allowed);
    })
    ->toArray();

(The where function returns an iterator, so if you only need to iterate with foreach over the resulting sequence once, ->toArray() can be removed.)

_{* developed by me}

Starting from PHP 5.6, you can use the ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY flag in array_filter:

$result = array_filter($my_array, function ($k) use ($allowed) {
    return in_array($k, $allowed);
}, ARRAY_FILTER_USE_KEY);

Otherwise, you can use this function (from TestDummy):

function filter_array_keys(array $array, $callback)
{
    $matchedKeys = array_filter(array_keys($array), $callback);

    return array_intersect_key($array, array_flip($matchedKeys));
}

$result = filter_array_keys($my_array, function ($k) use ($allowed) {
    return in_array($k, $allowed);
});

And here is an augmented version of mine, which accepts a callback or directly the keys:

function filter_array_keys(array $array, $keys)
{
    if (is_callable($keys)) {
        $keys = array_filter(array_keys($array), $keys);
    }

    return array_intersect_key($array, array_flip($keys));
}

// using a callback, like array_filter:
$result = filter_array_keys($my_array, function ($k) use ($allowed) {
    return in_array($k, $allowed);
});

// or, if you already have the keys:
$result = filter_array_keys($my_array, $allowed));

Last but not least, you may also use a simple foreach:

$result = [];
foreach ($my_array as $key => $value) {
    if (in_array($key, $allowed)) {
        $result[$key] = $value;
    }
}

With this function you can filter a multidimensional array

function filter_array_keys($array,$filter_keys=array()){

    $l=array(&$array);
    $c=1;
    //This first loop will loop until the count var is stable//
    for($r=0;$r<$c;$r++){
        //This loop will loop thru the child element list//
        $keys = array_keys($l[$r]);

        for($z=0;$z<count($l[$r]);$z++){
            $object = &$l[$r][$keys[$z]];

            if(is_array($object)){
                $i=0;
                $keys_on_array=array_keys($object);
                $object=array_filter($object,function($el) use(&$i,$keys_on_array,$filter_keys){
                    $key = $keys_on_array[$i];
                    $i++;

                    if(in_array($key,$filter_keys) || is_int($key))return false;                
                    return true;                        
                });
            }

            if(is_array($l[$r][$keys[$z]])){
                $l[] = &$l[$r][$keys[$z]];
                $c++;
            }//IF           
        }//FOR
    }//FOR  

    return $l[0];

}