avoiding duplicate array elements

[Robert]

Im a beginner in PHP and Im having a problem with this code. Im
trying to remove duplicate elements from an array created via $_GET.
I want users to be able to click on a link which sends an email
address to an array. I just want to remove duplicate email addresses
from the array. Ive tried array_unique() on my test server but it
doesnt work. So i tried to remove duplicates myself before storing
them into the array. The script works great without the checking, but
I cant have duplicate emails in the array...please help!

session_start();

$email = $HTTP_GET_VARS['email'];
if (isset($_SESSION['Array']))
{

$Array = $_SESSION['Array'];
$numElements = count($Array);
for($counter=0; $counter < $numElements; $counter++)
{
/* Problem is here */ if ($Array[$counter] == $email)
{
exit();
}

else
{
array_push($_SESSION['Array'],$email);
$EmailArray = $_SESSION['Array'];
$_SESSION['Array'] = $EmailArray;
}
}
}

else
{
$EmailArray = array();
array_push($EmailArray,$email);
$_SESSION['Array'] = $EmailArray;
}

[Nikolai Chuvakhin]

go****@si.rr.com (Robert) wrote in message
news:<74**************************@posting.google. com>...

Im a beginner in PHP and Im having a problem with this code. Im
trying to remove duplicate elements from an array created via $_GET.

I think you are dealing with the problem at the wrong end. Rather
than remove duplicates, try not to allow them. There is a function
called in_array(), which allows you to check if a variable is already
in array. So you could do something like this:

if (!in_array ($address, $addresses)) {
$addresses[] = $address;
}

Cheers,
NC

[Robert]

[e-mail] (Nikolai Chuvakhin) wrote in message news:<32**************************@posting.google. com>...

go****@si.rr.com (Robert) wrote in message
news:<74**************************@posting.google. com>...

Im a beginner in PHP and Im having a problem with this code. Im
trying to remove duplicate elements from an array created via $_GET.

I think you are dealing with the problem at the wrong end. Rather
than remove duplicates, try not to allow them. There is a function
called in_array(), which allows you to check if a variable is already
in array. So you could do something like this:

if (!in_array ($address, $addresses)) {
$addresses[] = $address;
}

Cheers,
NC

Thanks alot...That solved my problem!
Rob

[Kevin Thorpe]

Robert wrote:

Im a beginner in PHP and Im having a problem with this code. Im
trying to remove duplicate elements from an array created via $_GET.
I want users to be able to click on a link which sends an email
address to an array. I just want to remove duplicate email addresses
from the array. Ive tried array_unique() on my test server but it
doesnt work. So i tried to remove duplicates myself before storing
them into the array. The script works great without the checking, but
I cant have duplicate emails in the array...please help!

If you are stuck with an array with duplicates...

$unique_array = array_keys(array_flip($array));

Only works for numerically indexed arrays of integers or strings.

[jkjr]

$unique_array = array_keys(array_flip($array));

Thank you for the above solution, that is quite an elegant solution. After spending about four hours trying to come up with a solution I am quite humbled by your amazing solution. I tried it and it works perfectly.

I think you are dealing with the problem at the wrong end. Rather
than remove duplicates, try not to allow them. There is a function
called in_array(), which allows you to check if a variable is already
in array. So you could do something like this

That is very good advice to check for duplicates I will kept this in mind also but I had arrays I needed to remove duplicates from that were already made.

I just want to thank everyone for their posts that have been so helpful.