php array_merge without erasing values?

Question

Background: Trevor is working with a PHP implementation of a standard algorithm: take a main set of default name-value pairs, and update those name-value pairs, but only for those name-value pairs where a valid update value actually exists.

Problem: by default, PHP array_merge works like this ... it will overwrite a non-blank value with a blank value.

$aamain   =   Array('firstname'=>'peter','age'=>'32','nation'=>'');
$update   =   Array('firstname' => '','lastname' => 'griffin', age =>'33','nation'=>'usa');

print_r(array_merge($aamain,$update));    
/*
Array
(
    [firstname] =>           // <-- update set this to blank, NOT COOL!
    [age] => 33              // <-- update set this to 33, thats cool
    [lastname] => griffin    // <-- update added this key-value pair, thats cool
    [nation] => usa          // <-- update filled in a blank, thats cool.
)
*/

Question: What's the fewest-lines-of-code way to do array_merge where blank values never overwrite already-existing values?

print_r(array_coolmerge($aamain,$update));    
/*
Array
(
    [firstname] => peter  // <-- don't blank out a value if one already exists!
    [age] => 33
    [lastname] => griffin
    [nation] => usa

)
*/

UPDATE: 2016-06-17T11:51:54 the question was updated with clarifying context and rename of variables.

Answer 1

Well, if you want a "clever" way to do it, here it is, but it may not be as readable as simply doing a loop.

$merged = array_merge(array_filter($foo, 'strval'), array_filter($bar, 'strval'));

edit: or using +...

Answer 2

array_replace_recursive($array, $array2);

This is the solution.