PHP array delete by value (not key)

Question

I have a PHP array as follows:

$messages = [312, 401, 1599, 3, ...];

I want to delete the element containing the value $del_val

Answer 1

I think the simplest way would be to use a function with a foreach loop:

//This functions deletes the elements of an array $original that are equivalent to the value $del_val
//The function works by reference, which means that the actual array used as parameter will be modified.

function delete_value(&$original, $del_val)
{
    //make a copy of the original, to avoid problems of modifying an array that is being currently iterated through
    $copy = $original;
    foreach ($original as $key => $value)
    {
        //for each value evaluate if it is equivalent to the one to be deleted, and if it is capture its key name.
        if($del_val === $value) $del_key[] = $key;
    };
    //If there was a value found, delete all its instances
    if($del_key !== null)
    {
        foreach ($del_key as $dk_i)
        {
            unset($original[$dk_i]);
        };
        //optional reordering of the keys. WARNING: only use it with arrays with numeric indexes!
        /*
        $copy = $original;
        $original = array();
        foreach ($copy as $value) {
            $original[] = $value;
        };
        */
        //the value was found and deleted
        return true;
    };
    //The value was not found, nothing was deleted
    return false;
};

$original = array(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,4);
$del_val = 4;
var_dump($original);
delete_value($original, $del_val);
var_dump($original);

Output will be:

array(9) {
  [0]=>
  int(0)
  [1]=>
  int(1)
  [2]=>
  int(2)
  [3]=>
  int(3)
  [4]=>
  int(4)
  [5]=>
  int(5)
  [6]=>
  int(6)
  [7]=>
  int(7)
  [8]=>
  int(4)
}
array(7) {
  [0]=>
  int(0)
  [1]=>
  int(1)
  [2]=>
  int(2)
  [3]=>
  int(3)
  [5]=>
  int(5)
  [6]=>
  int(6)
  [7]=>
  int(7)
}