Remove empty array elements except first (empty)

Question

Is possible to remove all empty elements from a array except the first element? Looking at this example:

Original

Array (
[0] => val1
[1] => val2
[2] => val3
[3] => 
[4] => val4
[5] => val5
[6] => val6
[7] => 
[8] => val7
[9] => val8
[10] => val9
)

Desired Result

Array (
[0] => val1
[1] => val2
[2] => val3
[3] => 
[4] => val4
[5] => val5
[6] => val6
[7] => val7
[8] => val8
[9] => val9
)

Is this possible? Which is the best way to achieve this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Of course you have tried a few things right? So show us a few! — RiggsFolly
– RiggsFolly, Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 16:34
Hi @RiggsFolly i am not expert on PHP, i tried the basic, array_filter but of course it remove all the empty elements, do you have any solution? Thank you. — ricardotbfreitas
– ricardotbfreitas, Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 15:56

u_mulder · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-02 16:39:07Z

1

Simple solution is:

$a = array(
    '0' => 'val1',
    '1' => 'val2',
    '2' => 'val3',
    '3' => '',
    '4' => 'val4',
    '5' => 'val5',
    '6' => 'val6',
    '7' => '',
    '8' => 'val7',
    '9' => 'val8',
    '10' => 'val9',
);
// special flag to check if empty 
// element already exists in new array
$has_empty = false;
$new_a = [];
foreach ($a as $el) {
    if (!empty($el) || !$has_empty) {
        $new_a[] = $el;
        if (empty($el)) {
            $has_empty = true;
        }
    }
}
echo'<pre>',print_r($new_a),'</pre>';

answered Jan 2, 2017 at 16:39

u_mulder

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Comments

Mark Amery · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-02 19:53:21Z

1

You can use array_filter:

$first = false;
$result = array_filter($arr, function($k) use($first){
    if(empty($k) && !first){
       $first = true;
       return true;
    }
    return !empty($k);
})

edited Jan 2, 2017 at 19:53

Mark Amery

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answered Jan 2, 2017 at 16:42

fatima

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