Remove data from JSON if exact value matches?

Question

This is the part where json gets decoded

$response = file_get_contents("download.json");
$json = json_decode($response, true);

Example of data

{"count":2948,"errors":"","offers":[{"id":"85305","name":"Some Name",

Each of the offers has name The data goes like this json->offers->name

How to remove all otheroffers if name has been mached with another offer? And leave only one offer with the same name?

You know how to get the list (array) of offers, right?. So how would you go about accessing/checking each item in that array? Start there. — Patrick Q, Nov 28 '18 at 14:39
before you start bumbling around, read **[this SO post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29308898/how-do-i-extract-data-from-json-with-php)**, then try something, and come back if you have issues **with your code**. — YvesLeBorg, Nov 28 '18 at 14:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 28 '18 at 14:55

lazy solution:

    $arrayFromJson = (json_decode($json));

    $offers = [];
    $customers = [];
    foreach ($arrayFromJson->toppings as $value) {
            if(in_array($value->name, $customers)){
                continue;
            }
        $offers[] = $value;
        $customers[] = $value->name;
    }

    $arrayFromJson->toppings = $offers;

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 28 '18 at 15:27

let's suppose that the json response file has the following values:

$response = '{"count":2948,"errors":"","offers":[{"id":"1","name":"a"},{"id":"2","name":"b"},{"id":"3","name":"c"},{"id":"4","name":"a"},{"id":"5","name":"c"},{"id":"4","name":"a"},{"id":"4","name":"a"},{"id":"4","name":"b"}]}';

decode them:

$json = json_decode($response, true);

then remove the repeated offers:

// make sure that the required index is exists
if(!empty($json['offers'])){
    $json = scan_json_array($json['offers']);
}

by the following recursive function:

function scan_json_array(array $arr, $index = 0){
    // if we reached the last element of the array, exit!
    if($index == (sizeof($arr)-1)){
        return $arr;
    }

    for(; $index<sizeof($arr);){
        $current = $arr[$index];

        for($j=$index+1; $j<sizeof($arr); $j++){

            $next = $arr[$j];

            if($current['name'] === $next['name']){

                // remove the matched element
                unset($arr[$j]);

                // re-index the array
                $arr = array_values($arr);

                // if it was the last element, increment $index to move forward to the next array element
                if($j == (sizeof($arr)-1)){
                    $index++;   
                }

                return scan_json_array($arr, $index);
            }
        }

        $index++;
    }
}

Remove data from JSON if exact value matches?

2 Answers2