Array functions in PHP - the way we do it - part 1

Hi,
  Back again! If you have read my previous posts then you will be sure this post is about PHP - the programming language that drives most major websites, at least more than 50% of them. Well we have already discussed how arrays are addressed in PHP. Now let's see how to do things with arrays without any panic and fear in our mind. Let me tell you PHP has a good amount of functions to manipulate arrays in all sorts of ways. This post will be as long as the great wall if I keep them all here. So, as they say, Break-it-down, I will break this post in several parts. First lets have a look at the functions available in PHP that can be used with arrays.

I found this list on php.net

1. array_change_key_case — Changes all keys in an array
2. array_chunk — Split an array into chunks
3. array_combine — Creates an array by using one array for keys and another for its values
4. array_count_values — Counts all the values of an array
5. array_diff_assoc — Computes the difference of arrays with additional index check
6. array_diff_key — Computes the difference of arrays using keys for comparison
7. array_diff_uassoc — Computes the difference of arrays with additional index check which is performed by a user supplied callback function
8. array_diff_ukey — Computes the difference of arrays using a callback function on the keys for comparison
9. array_diff — Computes the difference of arrays
10. array_fill_keys — Fill an array with values, specifying keys
11. array_fill — Fill an array with values
12. array_filter — Filters elements of an array using a callback function
13. array_flip — Exchanges all keys with their associated values in an array
14. array_intersect_assoc — Computes the intersection of arrays with additional index check
15. array_intersect_key — Computes the intersection of arrays using keys for comparison
16. array_intersect_uassoc — Computes the intersection of arrays with additional index check, compares indexes by a callback function
17. array_intersect_ukey — Computes the intersection of arrays using a callback function on the keys for comparison
18. array_intersect — Computes the intersection of arrays
19. array_key_exists — Checks if the given key or index exists in the array
20. array_keys — Return all the keys or a subset of the keys of an array
21. array_map — Applies the callback to the elements of the given arrays
22. array_merge_recursive — Merge two or more arrays recursively
23. array_merge — Merge one or more arrays
24. array_multisort — Sort multiple or multi-dimensional arrays
25. array_pad — Pad array to the specified length with a value
26. array_pop — Pop the element off the end of array
27. array_product — Calculate the product of values in an array
28. array_push — Push one or more elements onto the end of array
29. array_rand — Pick one or more random entries out of an array
30. array_reduce — Iteratively reduce the array to a single value using a callback function
31. array_replace_recursive — Replaces elements from passed arrays into the first array recursively
32. array_replace — Replaces elements from passed arrays into the first array
33. array_reverse — Return an array with elements in reverse order
34. array_search — Searches the array for a given value and returns the corresponding key if successful
35. array_shift — Shift an element off the beginning of array
36. array_slice — Extract a slice of the array
37. array_splice — Remove a portion of the array and replace it with something else
38. array_sum — Calculate the sum of values in an array
39. array_udiff_assoc — Computes the difference of arrays with additional index check, compares data by a callback function
40. array_udiff_uassoc — Computes the difference of arrays with additional index check, compares data and indexes by a callback function
41. array_udiff — Computes the difference of arrays by using a callback function for data comparison
42. array_uintersect_assoc — Computes the intersection of arrays with additional index check, compares data by a callback function
43. array_uintersect_uassoc — Computes the intersection of arrays with additional index check, compares data and indexes by a callback functions
44. array_uintersect — Computes the intersection of arrays, compares data by a callback function
45. array_unique — Removes duplicate values from an array
46. array_unshift — Prepend one or more elements to the beginning of an array
47. array_values — Return all the values of an array
48. array_walk_recursive — Apply a user function recursively to every member of an array
49. array_walk — Apply a user function to every member of an array
50. array — Create an array
51. arsort — Sort an array in reverse order and maintain index association
52. asort — Sort an array and maintain index association
53. compact — Create array containing variables and their values
54. count — Count all elements in an array, or something in an object
55. current — Return the current element in an array
56. each — Return the current key and value pair from an array and advance the array cursor
57. end — Set the internal pointer of an array to its last element
58. extract — Import variables into the current symbol table from an array
59. in_array — Checks if a value exists in an array
60. key — Fetch a key from an array
61. krsort — Sort an array by key in reverse order
62. ksort — Sort an array by key
63. list — Assign variables as if they were an array
64. natcasesort — Sort an array using a case insensitive "natural order" algorithm
65. natsort — Sort an array using a "natural order" algorithm
66. next — Advance the internal array pointer of an array
67. pos — Alias of current
68. prev — Rewind the internal array pointer
69. range — Create an array containing a range of elements
70. reset — Set the internal pointer of an array to its first element
71. rsort — Sort an array in reverse order
72. shuffle — Shuffle an array
73. sizeof — Alias of count
74. sort — Sort an array
75. uasort — Sort an array with a user-defined comparison function and maintain index association
76. uksort — Sort an array by keys using a user-defined comparison function
77. usort — Sort an array by values using a user-defined comparison function

  Hmm! that's a long list. I promise all those are for manipulating or reading arrays.Yes there are 77 of them. Apart from these there are functions that return arrays of convert them to strings, like explode(), implode(), respectively. I will cover most of them but I will club the linked functions together. If you want a specific function to be explained in detail you can always leave a request in comments.
  OK, so let's see at the functions individually:
1) array_change_key_case - this function changes the character case of keys in a associative array. Means if you call it on a certain associative array, it will return the same array but with all keys changed to lower/upper case. If the keys have mixed lower and upper case characters then this function returns ...

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Amit Kriplani
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