Unique array values

[Husain]

I have an array that looks something like this:

$Participant[1]['Name'] = 'Husain';
$Participant[1]['Email'] = 'some@email.com';

$Participant[2]['Name'] = 'Someone';
$Participant[2]['Email'] = 'some@email.com';

I want some ideas regarding how I could check if there are no duplicate emails in my array. I don't want to remove duplicate email addresses, just return an error if there are any.

The size of the array is pre-determined.

Hope to get some bright ideas

[beetle]

This seems to work...not too hard....

$foundEmails = array();
for( $i = 0; ( $email = $Participant[$i]['Email'] ); $i++ )
{
    if ( !in_array( $email, $foundEmails ) )
        $foundEmails[] = $email;
    else
        die( $email . " is a duplicate" );
}
echo( "All emails unique" );
?> 

[Husain]

That is smart! Thanks.

[Dr Livingston]

There is in fact a quicker and easier way of doing this... there is a PHP Array function to check for duplicates within an array.

Have a look at the manual; see what functions are there - one single function call and your problem is solved.

[beetle]

There is in fact a quicker and easier way of doing this... there is a PHP Array function to check for duplicates within an array.

Have a look at the manual; see what functions are there - one single function call and your problem is solved.

I believe that. Memorizing all those functions is hard!

[anode]

That's why php.net is there. It's always pretty easy to go to the manual and look to see if there's a built-in function you can use; I always check when I run across a problem I havent coded before.

[beetle]

That's why php.net is there. It's always pretty easy to go to the manual and look to see if there's a built-in function you can use; I always check when I run across a problem I havent coded before.

True, but from what I can tell, there are 59 array functions. Unless the function name just jumps out at you ( like find_duplicates() ) sometimes it can be hard to locate what you need.

[anode]

There's descriptions next to 'em, you know.

[Husain]

There is in fact a quicker and easier way of doing this... there is a PHP Array function to check for duplicates within an array.

Have a look at the manual; see what functions are there - one single function call and your problem is solved.

I did go through all the array function before posting this question but I couldn't find any. There is a function called array_unique but that removes duplicates. I do not want to do that. I might have missed something perhaps.

[beetle]

I did go through all the array function before posting this question but I couldn't find any. There is a function called array_unique but that removes duplicates. I do not want to do that. I might have missed something perhaps.

Perhaps Dr. Livingston can impress us

[Dr Livingston]

Not attempting to impress anyone - I remembered about the array function from memory only, not knowing the function name, nor that it removed an array element 8)

Only that it dealt with duplicates. But since you put me up to the challenge, I did have a nosey around the manual, trying to find a way of doing this.

At the moment, the challenge is still open. LoL

[firepages]

In this case I dont think it gets any better than Beetle's script, you can use a combo of several other array_functions but none alone do the job in this case (as its a multi-dimensional array else array_unique would have been useful)

[Dr Livingston]

Yep, I was looking for a way - from the manual - off a way to 'catch' the array indexes that were thrown out by the array_unique function.