Remove elements within nested array

Question

I have a PHP array as follows:

$errors = array('Price'=>array('not a positive decimal number'=> 1), 'TaxYear'=>array('not a positive integer'=>1, 'not 4 digits'=>1), 'Address'=>array(''=>1), 'State'=>array('not 2 letters'=>1, ''=>1), 'ListDate'=>array(''=>1, 'some test'=>1, ''=>1));

echo '$errors:<pre>' . print_r($errors,1) . '</pre>';

Array
(
[Price] => Array
    (
        [not a positive decimal number] => 1
    )

[TaxYear] => Array
    (
        [not a positive integer] => 1
        [not 4 digits] => 1
    )

[Address] => Array
    (
        [] => 1
    )

[State] => Array
    (
        [not 2 letters] => 1
        [] => 1
    )

[ListDate] => Array
    (
        [] => 1
        [some test] => 1
    )

)

The goal is to create another array from this one that looks like this:

Array
(
[Price] => Array
    (
        [not a positive decimal number] => 1
    )

[TaxYear] => Array
    (
        [not a positive integer] => 1
        [not 4 digits] => 1
    )

[State] => Array
    (
        [not 2 letters] => 1
    )

[ListDate] => Array
    (
        [some test] => 1
    )

)

Essentially any element in a nested array that has [] as its element name needs to be removed. If any keys in the outer array have only 1 error and that error has an element name of [], then the key in the outer array needs to be removed as well (see [Address] in the example for an illustration of this). What is the best way to achieve this?

Answer 1

You could use something like this to selectively copy elements:

$filtered = array();
foreach($errors as $category => $pairs) {
    foreach($pairs as $key => $value) {
        if($key != '') {
            $filtered[$category][$key] = $value;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Maybe like this?

$return = array_filter($errors, function(&$value){
        if(array_key_exists('',$value)){
                unset($value['']);
        }
        return count($value);
});

Answer 3

Here is an answer (using the same array) :

$errors = array('Price'=>array('not a positive decimal number'=> 1), 'TaxYear'=>array('not a positive integer'=>1, 'not 4 digits'=>1), 'Address'=>array(''=>1), 'State'=>array('not 2 letters'=>1, ''=>1), 'ListDate'=>array(''=>1, 'some test'=>1, ''=>1));

foreach($errors as $key1 => $err1) {
    foreach($err1 as $key2 => $err2) {
        if($key2 == '') {
            unset($errors[$key1][$key2]);
        }
    }
}

var_dump($errors);

OUTPUT

array (size=5)
  'Price' => 
    array (size=1)
      'not a positive decimal number' => int 1
  'TaxYear' => 
    array (size=2)
      'not a positive integer' => int 1
      'not 4 digits' => int 1
  'Address' => 
    array (size=0)
      empty
  'State' => 
    array (size=1)
      'not 2 letters' => int 1
  'ListDate' => 
    array (size=1)
      'some test' => int 1

Answer 4

$errors = array('Price'=>array('not a positive decimal number'=> 1), 'TaxYear'=>array('not a positive integer'=>1, 'not 4 digits'=>1), 'Address'=>array(''=>1), 'State'=>array('not 2 letters'=>1, ''=>1), 'ListDate'=>array(''=>1, 'some test'=>1, ''=>1));


$filterOnKeys = function($x)
                {
                    $r = array(); 
                    foreach($x as $k=>$v) 
                        if($k) $r[$k]=$v; 
                    return $r;
                };

$return = array_filter(array_map($filterOnKeys, $errors));

echo '$return:<pre>' . print_r($return,true) . '</pre>';