How to count non-empty entries in a PHP array?

Question

Consider:

[name] => Array ( [1] => name#1                   [2] => name#2                   [3] => name#3                   [4] => name#4                   [5] =>                   [6] =>                   [7] =>                   [8] =>                   [9] =>                 )   $name = $_POST['name'] 

I want the result to be 4.

count ($name) = 9 count (isset($name)) = 1 count (!empty($name)) = 1 

I would think that last one would accomplish what I need, but it is not (the empty entries are from unfilled inputs on the form).

Answer 1

You can use array_filter to only keep the values that are “truthy” in the array, like this:

array_filter($array); 

If you explicitly want only non-empty, or if your filter function is more complex:

array_filter($array, function($x) { return !empty($x); }); # function(){} only works in in php >5.3, otherwise use create_function 

So, to count only non-empty items, the same way as if you called empty(item) on each of them:

count(array_filter($array, function($x) { return !empty($x); }));