PHP: array_diff - remove one value

Question

I'm currently trying to use array_diff to remove 1 value from an array.

The code looks like this right now:

$item_id = 501;
$array = array_diff($user_items, array($item_id));

user items array: 501,501,502,502

results correctly in array: 502,502

Is it possible to remove only 1x501 instead of 2x501 value? or said differently: limit the removal by 1 value

array is then: 501,502,502

Any advice is appreciated

Answer 1

You can use array_search to find and remove the first value:

$pos = array_search($item_id, $user_items);

if($pos !== false)
  unset($user_items[$pos]);

Answer 2

How about searching for the item, then removing it if it exists?

$key = array_search($item_id, $user_items)
if ($key !== FALSE) {
  unset($user_items[$key]);
}

Using unset isn't quite as straightforward as you'd think. See Stefan Gehrig's answer in this similar question for details.