PHP Remove Array Containing Empty Value within a Bigger, more complex Array

Question

I know this might seem like a duplicate for other questions out there, but I've been testing the solutions for the other questions and I can't get them to work in my specific situation.

I have a "complex" multidimiensional array called $get_food that looks like this:

I need to iterate thru it and remove the sub arrays that have an empty [foodID].

e.g. Remove the whole sub-array with the key [5] because it has an empty [foodID] item and it's useless that way:

[5] => Array (
    [foodNumber] => 5
    [portions] => 1
    [foodID] =>
)

And once those sub arrays are deleted, I need to reconstruct the main array so it looks the same than it did originally (with the same levels), but without the unwanted sub-arrays.

I managed to do this on a much simpler multidimensional array, but not this time around. I can't get it to look the same at the end.

This is the messy code post-frustration that I have right now that just outputs nonsense:

foreach($get_food as $key => $meal):    
    foreach($meal as $key1 => $mealpart){
        foreach($mealpart as $key2 => $food){
            //print_r($food);

            foreach($food as $key3 => $fooditem){
                if(($key3 != 0)&&($get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3]['foodID'] == '')){

                    unset($get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3]);

                    //echo 'No Food ID';
                } else {
                    $updatedFood[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3]= $fooditem;
                }   
            }

        }

    }       endforeach;

So, any help is very much appreciated :)

//////// EDIT

The main array is put together from 8 arrays. Here's the var_export for them together as one:

$get_food = array(
0 => array(
    0 => array(
        0 => array(
            'dietID' => '562',
            'blockNum' => '1',
        ) ,
        1 => array(
            0 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '33',
                ) ,
            ) ,
            1 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '30',
                ) ,
            ) ,
            2 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '34',
                ) ,
            ) ,
        ) ,
    ) ,
) ,
1 => array(
    0 => array(
        0 => array(
            'dietID' => '562',
            'blockNum' => '2',
        ) ,
        1 => array(
            0 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '',
                ) ,
            ) ,
        ) ,
    ) ,
) ,
2 => array(
    0 => array(
        0 => array(
            'dietID' => '562',
            'blockNum' => '3',
        ) ,
        1 => array(
            0 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '',
                ) ,
            ) ,
        ) ,
    ) ,
) ,
3 => array(
    0 => array(
        0 => array(
            'dietID' => '562',
            'blockNum' => '4',
        ) ,
        1 => array(
            0 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '',
                ) ,
            ) ,
        ) ,
    ) ,
) ,
4 => array(
    0 => array(
        0 => array(
            'dietID' => '562',
            'blockNum' => '5',
        ) ,
        1 => array(
            0 => array(
                0 => array(
                    'mealTitle' => '',
                ) ,
                1 => array(
                    'foodNumber' => '1',
                    'portions' => '1',
                    'foodID' => '',
                ) ,
            ) ,
        ) ,
    ) ,
) ,
5 => array(
    0 => '',
) ,
6 => array(
    0 => '',
) ,
7 => array(
    0 => '',
) ,

);

///// EDIT 2

////////////////// SOLUTION ////////////////////

Thanks to @Brian 's help, who made me realize I was targeting the wrong keys and that I was trying to create an additional array that was not necessary I came up with the solution to this issue.

You can see the working code here: http://codepad.org/6xgrpo46

Hope this helps someone in the future! :)

It would be more helpful to post your array in a testable form (var_export). We can't test our answers with vardumps! — georg
– georg, Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 23:34
@thg435 Thank you for noting that! I've added the var_export now. — Alfie Robles
– Alfie Robles, Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 23:40

Giacomo1968 · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-11 02:57:18Z

1

When checking if the foodID is empty or not, you are looking at the wrong value:

$get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3]['foodID']

vs.

$get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3][1]['foodID']

And the same problem seems to be for the unset in your example.

foreach($get_food as $key => $meal){
    foreach($meal as $key1 => $mealpart){
        foreach($mealpart as $key2 => $food){
            foreach($food as $key3 => $fooditem){
                if ($key3 == 0)
                    continue;
                if (empty($get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3][1]['foodID']))
                    unset($get_food[$key][$key1][$key2][$key3][1]);
            }
        }
    }
}

edited Jun 11, 2014 at 2:57

Giacomo1968

25.3k11 gold badges78 silver badges106 bronze badges

answered Jun 11, 2014 at 2:54

Brian

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6 Comments

Alfie Robles Over a year ago

Oh, yeah! It was targeting the wrong key. That unsets the empty element. But how do I output the updated array?

Brian Over a year ago

I'm not so sure what you mean here. $get_food was mutated by running through the array using foreach and using unset on one of its members. Just access it with $get_food. Is there something I'm missing?

Alfie Robles Over a year ago

I edited the question with my results. I'm pretty sure it's my mistake, but I can't figure out what is it exactly :(

Brian Over a year ago

It was working on the exact array that you gave (from var_export), here: codepad.org/NTyfm5vB -- can you double check that the layout of $get_food matches?

Alfie Robles Over a year ago

The output still has sub-arrays with empty [foodID] elements.

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