Compare multidimensional arrays in PHP
The simplest way I know:
$a == $b;
Note that you can also use the ===
. The difference between them is:
With Double equals
==
, order is important:$a = array(0 => 'a', 1 => 'b'); $b = array(1 => 'b', 0 => 'a'); var_dump($a == $b); // true var_dump($a === $b); // false
With Triple equals
===
, types matter:$a = array(0, 1); $b = array('0', '1'); var_dump($a == $b); // true var_dump($a === $b); // false
Reference: Array operators
function multi_diff($arr1,$arr2){
$result = array();
foreach ($arr1 as $k=>$v){
if(!isset($arr2[$k])){
$result[$k] = $v;
} else {
if(is_array($v) && is_array($arr2[$k])){
$diff = multi_diff($v, $arr2[$k]);
if(!empty($diff))
$result[$k] = $diff;
}
}
}
return $result;
}
//example:
var_dump(multi_diff(
array(
"A"=>array(
"A1"=>array('A1-0','A1-1','A1-2','A1-3'),
"A2"=>array('A2-0','A2-1','A2-2','A2-3'),
"A3"=>array('A3-0','A3-1','A3-2','A3-3')
),
"B"=>array(
"B1"=>array('B1-0','B1-1','B1-2','B1-3'),
"B2"=>array('B2-0','B2-1','B2-2','B2-3'),
"B3"=>array('B3-0','B3-1','B3-2','B3-3')
),
"C"=>array(
"C1"=>array('C1-0','C1-1','C1-2','C1-3'),
"C2"=>array('C2-0','C2-1','C2-2','C2-3'),
"C3"=>array('C3-0','C3-1','C3-2','C3-3')
),
"D"=>array(
"D1"=>array('D1-0','D1-1','D1-2','D1-3'),
"D2"=>array('D2-0','D2-1','D2-2','D2-3'),
"D3"=>array('D3-0','D3-1','D3-2','D3-3')
)
),
array(
"A"=>array(
"A1"=>array('A1-0','A1-1','A1-2','A1-3'),
"A2"=>array('A2-0','A2-1','A2-2','A2-3'),
"A3"=>array('A3-0','A3-1','A3-2')
),
"B"=>array(
"B1"=>array('B1-0','B1-2','B1-3'),
"B2"=>array('B2-0','B2-1','B2-2','B2-3'),
"B3"=>array('B3-0','B3-1','B3-3')
),
"C"=>array(
"C1"=>array('C1-0','C1-1','C1-2','C1-3'),
"C3"=>array('C3-0','C3-1')
),
"D"=>array(
"D1"=>array('D1-0','D1-1','D1-2','D1-3'),
"D2"=>array('D2-0','D2-1','D2-2','D2-3'),
"D3"=>array('D3-0','D3-1','D3-2','D3-3')
)
)
));
This function will do it all for you.
You can use it to truly compare any 2 arrays of same or totally different structures.
It will return:
Values in array1 not in array2 (more)
Values in array2 not in array1 (less)
Values in array1 and in array2 but different (diff)
//results for array1 (when it is in more, it is in array1 and not in array2. same for less)
function compare_multi_Arrays($array1, $array2){
$result = array("more"=>array(),"less"=>array(),"diff"=>array());
foreach($array1 as $k => $v) {
if(is_array($v) && isset($array2[$k]) && is_array($array2[$k])){
$sub_result = compare_multi_Arrays($v, $array2[$k]);
//merge results
foreach(array_keys($sub_result) as $key){
if(!empty($sub_result[$key])){
$result[$key] = array_merge_recursive($result[$key],array($k => $sub_result[$key]));
}
}
}else{
if(isset($array2[$k])){
if($v !== $array2[$k]){
$result["diff"][$k] = array("from"=>$v,"to"=>$array2[$k]);
}
}else{
$result["more"][$k] = $v;
}
}
}
foreach($array2 as $k => $v) {
if(!isset($array1[$k])){
$result["less"][$k] = $v;
}
}
return $result;
}
Another way to do it is to serialize()
both of the arrays and compare the strings.
http://php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php