PHP count null or 'new' elements within array

Question

My array is below. What I am trying to do is count the number of nodes in the array have null or 'new' for read_status.

Is there something more sufficient than looping through the array?

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [id] => 428
            [read_status] => 
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [id] => 427
            [read_status] => 
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [id] => 441
            [read_status] => new
        )  
    [3] => Array
        (
            [id] => 341
            [read_status] => read
        )  
)

So the count should be 3.

DiverseAndRemote.com · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28 16:37:29Z

2

you could do

$count = count(array_filter($myArray, function($item){
    return $item['read_status'] != 'new';
}));

echo $count;

but I think its more efficient to just loop through it like this:

$count = 0;
foreach($myArray as $item){
    if($item['read_status'] != 'new')$count++;
}

echo $count;

answered Jun 28, 2013 at 16:37

DiverseAndRemote.com

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Comments

Dany Caissy · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28 16:51:51Z

1

There is nothing wrong with looping in the array to do this, it might actually be faster than using a generic method to do it for you. It's simply this :

$count = 0;
foreach ($arrays as $entry)
{
    if (!$entry['read_status'] || $entry['read_status'] === "new")
    {
        $count++;
    }
}

echo $count;

edited Jun 28, 2013 at 16:51

answered Jun 28, 2013 at 16:36

Dany Caissy

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7 Comments

user684202 Over a year ago

Minor improvement: use === instead of ==.

TravisO Over a year ago

My personal pet peeve of PHP devs is: they're always asking "how do I do X to an array, without looping".

Dany Caissy Over a year ago

I changed it to ===, might as well.

Mike Over a year ago

@TravisO should I not be concerned about looping? I was taught looping was not most efficient. Was I taught wrong? Can you explain why it's your pet peeve?

Mike Over a year ago

@DanyCaissy got you. so one way or another, this puppy is looping.

|

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28 16:41:41Z

0

I actually improved my SQL by removing the null completely -- so now read_status is either read or new.

IF(feed_read.read_status IS NULL,'new','read') AS read_status

From there, I was able to utilize another SO question in order to count the 'new' elements.

$counted = array_count_values(array_map(function($value){return $value['read_status'];}, $result));
echo $counted['new'];

answered Jun 28, 2013 at 16:41

Mike

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