Finding unique values in Array

Question

I have an array where I'm trying to find the unique values. I've seen many answers for this type of thing, but I can't understand how to apply them to my situation. Thanks in advance for the help, as I'm learning.

    Array([0] => Array ( [department] => value1)
          [1] => Array ( [department] => value1)
          [2] => Array ( [department] => value2)
          [3] => Array ( [department] => value2)
          [4] => Array ( [department] => value3)
          [5] => Array ( [department] => value3))

So I want to pull out value1, value2 and value3 so I can populate them into a select box using foreach, but I am always receiving a list showing all of the instance of each value above (value1, value1, value2, value2, value3, value3).

Why don't you do that in database? SELECT DISTINCT department ... — zerkms
– zerkms, Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 11:16

rid · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-20 13:39:05Z

7

$departments = array();
foreach ($personnel_list as $part) {
    $departments[] = $part['department'];
}
$departments = array_unique($departments);

edited Jan 20, 2014 at 13:39

answered Jan 20, 2014 at 11:15

rid

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3 Comments

zerkms Over a year ago

array_map(function($i) { return $i['department']; }, $array);

NotAnotherCliche Over a year ago

Thank you SO much! I'm still having one issue. When I echo the results, one of the values is 'Array'. How can I get rid of that one? Below is my final code $personnel_list2 = $personnel_list; foreach ($personnel_list2 as $part) { $personnel_list2[] = $part['department']; } $departments = array_unique($personnel_list2); foreach ($departments as $depts) { echo '<option value="' . $depts. '">' . $depts. '</option>'; }

rid Over a year ago

@NotAnotherCliche, the foreach() loop was meant to go over the array you posted. If that array is stored in a variable called $personnel_list, please see the updated answer (foreach loops through $personnel_list, then for each entry, it adds its department in the $departments array).

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