Trying to delete array element from multidimensional array read from text file [duplicate]

Question

I have a text file with the following arrays:

a:3:{i:0;s:5:"class";i:1;s:7:"class01";i:2;s:7:"fa-user";}
a:3:{i:0;s:5:"class";i:1;s:7:"class02";i:2;s:12:"fa-briefcase";}
a:2:{i:0;s:8:"homeText";i:1;s:13:"Battlestation";}
a:3:{i:0;s:5:"class";i:1;s:7:"class03";i:2;s:6:"fa-eye";}
a:3:{i:0;s:5:"class";i:1;s:7:"class04";i:2;s:7:"fa-code";}
a:2:{i:0;s:8:"homeText";i:1;s:7:"Welcome";}

I have the code to add the new homeText array working, but I need to delete the previous one before I add it, so that there's only one at a time. What I have is this but it's not working:

function removePreviousHomeText() {
    $fileOptions = 'options.txt';
    $file1 = fopen($fileOptions, "a+");
    $array = file($fileOptions);
    print_r($array);
    foreach($array as $subArray){
        if ($subArray[0] == 'homeText'){
            unset($subArray);
        }
    }
    echo '<p>end result:</p>';
    print_r($array);
}

I'd like some help please. There might be a way to override the previous homeText array upon entering the new one, but I'll need this sort of function later on in this project for other similar problems.

UPDATE: I got it to work. This is how I did it:

function removePreviousHomeText() {
    $fileOptions = 'options.txt';
    $file1 = fopen($fileOptions, "a+");
    $array = file($fileOptions);
    foreach($array as $key => $value) {
        $subArray = unserialize($value);
        if ($subArray[0] == 'homeText') {
            unset($array[$key]);
        }
    }
    file_put_contents($fileOptions, $array);
}

That's a serialized array, use unserialize to get the actual array in a more readable format. — Andrei
– Andrei, Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 12:24
I added $array = unserialize($array); on the fourth line, but nothing happened. Any idea what happened? — tsa
– tsa, Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 13:14
thanks, I managed to make the unserialize work and it helped. I still haven't quite solved the problem but your answer along with the other guy's has made it clearer. — tsa
– tsa, Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 19:06
Please do not post resolving advice or code in the question as an edit -- this is not how the Stack Exchange Q&A format is designed to work. — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented Dec 12, 2022 at 23:00

MaggsWeb · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-15 12:30:33Z

0

You cannot unset elements of an array from inside that array, but you can reference the original array to delete its value.

Change

unset($subArray);

To:

unset(key($subArray));

answered Jul 15, 2015 at 12:30

MaggsWeb

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3 Comments

tsa Over a year ago

thanks for the help and I'm sorry for what must be a newb question, but what is it I should put instead of "key"?

Viral Over a year ago

ummm, that is a function, take a look here

tsa Over a year ago

thanks for the help, I still haven't quite made it work, but your answer helped me get along to the next problem.

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