PHP - How to remove empty entries of an array recursively?

Question

I need to remove empty entries on multilevel arrays. For now I can remove entries with empty sub-arrays, but not empty arrays... confused, so do I... I think the code will h

Answer 1

I think this should solve your problem.

$retArray =array_filter($array, arrayFilter);

function arrayFilter($array) {
     if(!empty($array)) {
         return array_filter($array);
     }
}

Answer 2

Recursively clear multidimensional array of empty'ish items:

final class ArrayCleaner
{
    public static function clean(array $value): array
    {
        foreach ($value as $k => $v) {
            if (\is_array($v)) {
                $value[$k] = self::clean($v);

                if (0 == \count($value[$k])) {
                    unset($value[$k]);
                }
            } elseif (empty($v)) {
                unset($value[$k]);
            }
        }

        return $value;
    }
}

Unit test:

final class ArrayCleanerTest
{
    public function testItCleans(): void
    {
        $input = [
            'empty_string_to_remove' => '',
            'empty_int_to_remove' => 0,
            'empty_string_number_to_remove' => '0',
            'value_to_keep' => 5,
            'empty_array_to_remove' => [],
            'empty_array_of_empty_arrays_to_remove' => [
                'one' => [],
                'two' => [],
                'three' => [false, null, '0'],
            ],
            'array_to_keep_1' => [
                'value' => 1,
            ],
            'array_to_keep_2' => [
                'empty_to_remove' => [],
                'array_to_keep' => ['yes'],
            ],
        ];

        $expected = [
            'value_to_keep' => 5,
            'array_to_keep_1' => [
                'value' => 1,
            ],
            'array_to_keep_2' => [
                'array_to_keep' => ['yes'],
            ],
        ];

        $this->assertEquals($expected, ArrayCleaner::clean($input));
    }
}

Working proof of concept at 3v4l.org

Answer 3

Here is my solution, it will remove exactly specified list of empty values recursively:

/**
 * Remove elements from array by exact values list recursively
 *
 * @param array $haystack
 * @param array $values
 *
 * @return array
 */
function array_remove_by_values(array $haystack, array $values)
{
    foreach ($haystack as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value)) {
            $haystack[$key] = array_remove_by_values($haystack[$key], $values);
        }

        if (in_array($haystack[$key], $values, true)) {
            unset($haystack[$key]);
        }
    }

    return $haystack;
}

You can use it like this:

$clean = array_remove_by_values($raw, ['', null, []]);

Note, it removes empty sub arrays if you pass [] as one of values.

Answer 4

My function:

function removeEmptyItems($item)
{
    if (is_array($item)) {
        $item = array_filter($item, 'removeEmptyItems');
    }
    return !empty($item);
}

$nonEmpty = array_filter($raw, 'removeEmptyItems');

Answer 5

If you want array_filter to work recursively, you'll need to make sure that the subsequent calls may edit the deeper nested items of the array. Short: You'll need to pass it by reference:

function removeEmptyItems(&$item) {
    if (is_array($item) && $item) {
        $item = array_filter(&$item, 'removeEmptyItems');
    }

    return !!$item;
}

Answer 6

Try this code:

<?php
function array_remove_empty($haystack)
{
    foreach ($haystack as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value)) {
            $haystack[$key] = array_remove_empty($haystack[$key]);
        }

        if (empty($haystack[$key])) {
            unset($haystack[$key]);
        }
    }

    return $haystack;
}

$raw = array(
    'firstname' => 'Foo',
    'lastname'  => 'Bar',
    'nickname' => '',
    'birthdate' => array(
        'day'   => '',
        'month' => '',
        'year'  => '',
    ),
    'likes' => array(
        'cars'  => array('Subaru Impreza WRX STi', 'Mitsubishi Evo', 'Nissan GTR'),
        'bikes' => array(),
    ),
);

print_r(array_remove_empty($raw));