Set Theory Union of arrays in PHP

Question

There are 3 operations with sets in mathematics: intersection, difference and union (unification). In PHP we can do this operations with arrays:

• intersection:

Answer 1

The OP did not specify whether the union is by value or by key and PHP has array_merge for merging values and + for merging the keys. The results depends on whether the array is indexed or keyed and which array comes first.

$a = ['a', 'b'];
$b = ['b', 'c'];

$c = ['a' => 'A',  'b' => 'B'];
‌‌$d = ['a' => 'AA', 'c' => 'C'];

Indexed array

See array_merge

By value using array_merge

‌‌array_merge($a, $b); // [‌0 => 'a', 1 => 'b', 2 => 'b', 3 => 'c']
‌‌array_merge($b, $a); // ‌[0 => 'b', 1 => 'c', 2 => 'a', 3 => 'b']

merge by key using + operator

See + operator

‌‌$a + $b; ‌// [0 => 'a', 1 => 'b']
$b + $a; // [0 => 'b', 1 => 'c']

Keyed array

By value using array_merge

‌array_merge($c, $d); // ‌['a' => 'AA', 'b' => 'B', 'c' => 'C']
array_merge($d, $c); // ['a' => 'A',  'c' => 'C', 'b' => 'B']

merge by key using + operator

$c + $d; // [‌'a' => 'A',  'b' => 'B', 'c' => 'C']
‌‌$d + $c; // ‌['a' => 'AA', 'c' => 'C', 'b' => 'B']