note 76940 deleted from ref.array by felipe

Note Submitter: pedja at uzice dot net 

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Here is the function that cleans array of empty records. It goes recursive through multidimensional array and erases any item that has empty value or is empty array. 

This actually works on any variable type, not just arrays.

<?php

	function clean_item ($p_value) {

		if (is_array ($p_value)) {
			if ( count ($p_value) == 0) {
				$p_value = null;
			} else {
				foreach ($p_value as $m_key => $m_value) {
					$p_value[$m_key] = clean_item ($m_value);
					if (empty ($p_value[$m_key])) unset ($p_value[$m_key]);
				}
			}
		} else {
			if (empty ($p_value)) {
				$p_value = null;
			}
		}
		return $p_value;
	}
?>

Example:

<?php

$m_array['aaa'] = 'bbb';
$m_array['ccc'] = '';
$m_array['ddd'] = Array();
$m_array['eee']['fff'] = Array();
$m_array['eee']['ggg'] = '';
$m_array['eee']['hhh'] = 'iii';
$m_array['eee']['j']['a'] = 'gh';
$m_array['eee']['j']['b'] = '';
$m_array['eee']['j']['c'] = 'rty';
$m_array['eee']['j']['d'] = Array();
$m_array['eee']['j']['e'][1] = 'r';
$m_array['eee']['j']['e'][2] = 'y';
$m_array['eee']['j']['e'][1] = '';
$m_array['eee']['j']['e'][4] = Array();
$m_array['eee']['j']['e'][5] = '';

$m_clean = $seo->clean_item ($m_array);

print_r ($m_array);

print_r ($m_clean);

?>

Variable $m_clean contains:

Array
(
    [aaa] => bbb
    [eee] => Array
        (
            [hhh] => iii
            [j] => Array
                (
                    [a] => gh
                    [c] => rty
                    [e] => Array
                        (
                            [2] => y
                        )

                )

        )

)

?>