Check if an object exists in an array

Question

I've got an array with multiple person-objects in it, this objects look like this:

id: 1,
name: 'Max Muster',
email: '[email protected]',
language: 'German'

Now, I've got objects in another array, which doesn't look exactly the same:

id: 1,
name: 'Max Muster',
email: '[email protected]',
language: 'de'

I've got a foreach-loop to loop through array 2 and check if the objects exists in array 1.

foreach($array2 as $entry) {
    if(existsInArray($entry, $array1)) {
        // exists
    } else {
        // doesn't exist
    }
}

Is there a function to check (like my existsInArray()), if my object exists in the array? I just need to check, if the object-id exists, other attributes doesn't matter.

As the objects are different, then you can't do a simple comparison to see if they are the same. What qualifies an object from the first array as matching an object from the second array? Same id? Same name? Same email? Same language? Some combination of those? — Mark Baker
– Mark Baker, Commented May 30, 2016 at 11:52
Yes, need to convert them Object to array than array_diff. — Murad Hasan
– Murad Hasan, Commented May 30, 2016 at 11:52
You could make this a lot easier if you used the id's as the array keys. — jeroen
– jeroen, Commented May 30, 2016 at 11:54

axiac · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-30 12:00:08Z

19

Use the object IDs as keys when you put the objects in the array:

$array1[$object->id] = $object;

then use isset($array1[$object->id]) to check if the object already exists in $array:

if (isset($array1[$object->id])) {
    // object exists in array; do something
} else {
    // object does not exist in array; do something else
}

answered May 30, 2016 at 12:00

axiac

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2 Comments

Urasquirrel Over a year ago

this looks like it checks by index, but isn't index arbitrary? How does this work?

axiac Over a year ago

PHP Arrays are, in fact, maps/hashes/dictionaries. They associate a numeric or string key to a value of any type. The OP has two sets of objects identified by their id attributes. The answer suggests to put the first set of objects in an array and use the id as key. When the second set of objects is processed, use the object id to find the object with the same id in the array. By using the id as key (and not a numeric key generated automatically), the object can be identified without scanning the entire array.

wogsland · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-30 11:55:59Z

5

It does not, but you can write it:

function existsInArray($entry, $array) {
    foreach ($array as $compare) {
        if ($compare->id == $entry->id) {
            return true;
        }
    return false;
}

answered May 30, 2016 at 11:55

wogsland

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Comments

User2403 · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-30 12:15:02Z

0

foreach($array2 as $entry) {
    if(in_array($entry, $array1)) {
        // exists
    }  else {
    // doesn't exist
    }
}

Use in_array to check if that particular object exists in the array

answered May 30, 2016 at 12:15

User2403

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Comments

user14039007 · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-01 14:53:34Z

0

Use in_array

if(in_array($object, array)) {
   //exists
} else {
   //does not exist
}

answered May 1, 2021 at 14:53

user14039007

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