PHP Unset Array value effect on other indexes

Question

I am working with a PHP loop, and I had one question regarding how unset affects the array keys. This array uses the standard numeric keys assigned by PHP, 0, 1, 2, 3 etc.... Whenever unset() runs on an array value, are the array keys shuffled or are they maintained as before?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

The keys are not shuffled or renumbered. The unset() key is simply removed and the others remain.

$a = array(1,2,3,4,5);
unset($a[2]);
print_r($a);

Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [3] => 4
    [4] => 5
)

Answer 2

Test it yourself, but here's the output.

php -r '$a=array("a","b","c"); print_r($a); unset($a[1]); print_r($a);'
Array
(
    [0] => a
    [1] => b
    [2] => c
)
Array
(
    [0] => a
    [2] => c
)

Answer 3

They are as they were. That one key is JUST DELETED

Answer 4

The Key Disappears, whether it is numeric or not. Try out the test script below.

<?php
    $t = array( 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' );
    foreach($t as $k => $v)
        echo($k . ": " . $v . "<br/>");
    // Output: 0: a, 1: b, 2: c, 3: d

    unset($t[1]);

    foreach($t as $k => $v)
        echo($k . ": " . $v . "<br/>");
    // Output: 0: a, 2: c, 3: d
?>

Answer 5

This might be a little bit out of context but in unsetting values from a global array, apply the answer by Michael Berkowski above but in use with $GLOBALS instead of the the global value you declared with global $variable_name. So it will be something like:

unset($GLOBALS['variable_name']['array_key']);

Instead of:

global $variable_name; unset($variable_name['array_key']);

NB: This works only if you're using global variables.

Answer 6

The keys are maintained with the removed key missing but they can be rearranged by doing this:

$array = array(1,2,3,4,5);
unset($array[2]);
$arranged = array_values($array);
print_r($arranged);

Outputs:

Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 4
    [3] => 5
)

Notice that if we do the following without rearranging:

unset($array[2]);
$array[]=3;

The index of the value 3 will be 5 because it will be pushed to the end of the array and will not try to check or replace missing index. This is important to remember when using FOR LOOP with index access.