php array unique type check

Question

I am using array_unique to get rid of the duplicate values in an array. But, the problem is array_unique does not consider data types while checking for duplicates. For example:

$a = [1, true, null, false];
$u = array_unique($a);
var_dump($u);

Outputs:

array(2) {
  [0] =>int(1)
  [2] =>NULL
}

But, if you consider data types every value of the array are unique. I know I can fix this by running a loop. But, is there a better way or an alternative to array_unique by which I can achieve this?

From the documentation: Two elements are considered equal if and only if (string) $elem1 === (string) $elem2. It's intended for strings and numbers, not arbitrary types. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Sep 29, 2016 at 0:06

Phiter · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-29 00:09:58Z

1

I came up with this solution that seems to work:

<?php
function array_really_unique($array){
    foreach ($array as $key => $item){
        foreach ($array as $key2 => $item2)
            if ($key2 != $key && $item2 === $item)
                unset($array[$key]);
    }
    return $array;
}

$a = [1, true, null, false, false, false, true, null, 2, 3, "hi", 2];
$u = array_really_unique($a);
var_dump($u);
?>

Result:

array(7) { [0]=> int(1) [5]=> bool(false) [6]=> bool(true) [7]=> NULL [9]=> int(3) [10]=> string(2) "hi" [11]=> int(2) }

It's not so elegant and is probably not that fast, but seems to work.

It will keep only the last value in the array.

Working example: example

edited Sep 29, 2016 at 0:09

answered Sep 29, 2016 at 0:03

Phiter

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Comments

Kamrul Khan · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-29 05:49:23Z

1

i was bored :)

$a = ['test',1, true, null, false,null,'test',true];

function arrayUnique($a)
{
    $u=array();
    foreach ($a as $k => $v) {
        if(!in_array($v,$u,TRUE)){
          $u[]=$v;  
        }

    }
        return $u;
}

var_dump(arrayUnique($a));

Output:

array(5) { [0]=> string(4) "test" [1]=> int(1) [2]=> bool(true) [3]=> NULL [4]=> bool(false) }

edited Sep 29, 2016 at 5:49

Kamrul Khan

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answered Sep 29, 2016 at 0:20

user6763587

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