Remove empty values from PHP array but keep 0

Question

I have an array

array (size=7)
0 => string '2' 
1 => string '' 
2 => string '' 
3 => string '0' 
4 => string '' 
5 => string '' 
6 => string '2.5'

I used:-

array_filter()

to remove the null values and it returns

Array ( [0] => 2 [6] => 2 )

array_filter() removes null value and also '0' value.

Any builtin function is available in PHP to remove NULL values only.

` '2', 1 => '', 2 => '', 3 => '0', 4 => '', 5 => '', 6 => '2' ); print_r(array_filter($entry)); ?>` This is my code I used array_filter() and it removes 0 value — Mukhila Asokan, Dec 28 '17 at 06:17
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3654295/remove-empty-array-elements see here — sunil, Dec 28 '17 at 06:17
@Athi - that would also remove empty strings as well, which is not the same as `NULL`. You can use a closure as your callback to control what gets filtered. — But those new buttons though.., Dec 28 '17 at 06:25
@Athi `NULL != ''`, so i think you want to remove null as well as empty strings too from your array.Isn't it? — Alive to die - Anant, Dec 28 '17 at 06:38
@AlivetoDie--Anantsingh your coding is working fine. I want to remove empty value — Mukhila Asokan, Dec 28 '17 at 06:39
*"I used `array_filter()` to remove the null values"* -- your input array does not contain `NULL` values. It contain empty strings (`''`) and they are not the same as `NULL`. [`NULL`](http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.null.php) means the absence of any value, an empty string is a string of length `0`. They are completely different concepts. — axiac, Dec 28 '17 at 06:48

Alive to die - Anant · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-07T03:40:58.370

30

Assumption: I think you want to remove NULL as well as empty-strings/values '' from your array. (What i understand from your desired output)

You have to use array_filter() with strlen()

array_filter($array,'strlen');

Output:-

https://eval.in/926585

https://eval.in/926595

https://eval.in/926602

Refrence:-

PHP: array_filter - Manual

PHP: strlen - Manual

edited Jul 07 '21 at 03:40

answered Dec 28 '17 at 06:14

Alive to die - Anant

70,531
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98

5

This will also filter out `false`, in addition to `null` and `''` – oriadam Feb 06 '19 at 15:03

But those new buttons though.. · Answer 2 · 2017-12-28T06:28:11.393

16

Both 0 and '' are considered falsey in php, and so would be removed by array filter without a specific callback. The suggestion above to use 'strlen' is also wrong as it also remove an empty string which is not the same as NULL. To remove only NULL values as you asked, you can use a closure as the callback for array_filter() like this:

array_filter($array, function($v) { return !is_null($v); });

edited Dec 28 '17 at 06:28

answered Dec 28 '17 at 06:20

But those new buttons though..

21,377
10
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108

Your coding is not working. It returns all values in the array. – Mukhila Asokan Dec 28 '17 at 06:44
3

@Athi - that's because the array in your question contains no `NULL` values. – But those new buttons though.. Dec 28 '17 at 06:46
2

Not your problem :) Even I thought OP said *Any builtin function is available in PHP to remove NULL values only.* **Until an edit** – Aniket Sahrawat Dec 28 '17 at 06:46
Okay . I understand – Mukhila Asokan Dec 28 '17 at 06:47

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 08 '19 at 14:03

You can remove empty value and then re-index the array elements by using array_values() and array_filter() function together as such:

$arr = array("PHP", "HTML", "CSS", "", "JavaScript", null, 0);
print_r(array_values(array_filter($arr)));

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => PHP
    [1] => HTML
    [2] => CSS
    [3] => JavaScript
)

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 28 '17 at 06:16

function myFilter($var){
  return ($var !== NULL && $var !== FALSE && $var !== '');
}

$res = array_filter($yourArray, 'myFilter');

If you just need the numeric values you can use is_numeric as your callback

Demo

$res = array_filter($values, 'is_numeric');

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 23 '22 at 06:38

In case your array could contain line feeds and you want to filter them out as well, you may want to trim values first:

$arrayItems = ["\r", "\n", "\r\n", "", " ", "0", "a"];
$newArray = array_values(array_filter(array_map('trim', $arrayItems), 'strlen'));
// Output(newArray): ["0", "a"]

//Another great snippet to remove empty items from array
$newArray = array_filter($arrayItems , function ($item) {
    return !preg_match('/^\\s*$/', $item);
    // filter empty lines
});
// Output(newArray): ["0", "a"]

If you face any issue with implementing the code just comment here below.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 08 '22 at 19:29

0

As of PHP 7.4:

$withoutNulls = array_filter($withNulls, static fn($e) => $e !== null);

answered Feb 08 '22 at 19:29

Matt Janssen

1,505
13
14

Mazhar Hussain · Answer 7 · 2017-12-28T12:22:57.880

-2

Remove null values from array

$array = array("apple", "", 2, null, -5, "orange", 10, false, "");

var_dump($array);

echo "<br>";



// Filtering the array

$result = array_filter($array);                 

var_dump($result);

?>

edited Dec 28 '17 at 12:22

answered Dec 28 '17 at 06:18

Mazhar Hussain

125
1
11

Whilst code only answers may solve the problem, some explanation would help in understanding this solution and how this may be applied to similar problems. – Nigel Ren Dec 28 '17 at 11:32
While this code snippet may be the solution, [including an explanation](//meta.stackexchange.com/questions/114762/explaining-entirely-‌code-based-answers) really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. – yivi Dec 28 '17 at 11:44
array_filter without callback will remove any value that can be casted to false by PHP such as '',0, '0', false, null, []. Your claim "Remove null values from array" is bad documentation so I'll add a negative score until proper documentation is provided. – Alessandro Benoit Oct 23 '19 at 09:53

Remove empty values from PHP array but keep 0

7 Answers7