Find The Common Elements In Two Arrays In PHP

Finding common elements in two arrays in PHP can be a common requirement in web development. This brief article reveals an easy methodology to achieve this with a helpful code snippet.

Code Snippet

In PHP, we can use built-in functions array_intersect() to find common elements between two arrays. Here is a simple code snippet demonstrating it:

<?php
    $array1 = array("a" => "green", "b" => "brown", "c" => "blue", "red");
    $array2 = array("a" => "green", "yellow", "red");
    $result = array_intersect($array1, $array2);
    print_r($result);
?>

Code Explanation

In the above PHP script, we have two arrays $array1 and $array2. The array_intersect() function is used to compare the values of the two arrays. It returns the matches, i.e., common elements of both arrays.

Step-by-step breakdown of the above code:

1. We start by declaring two arrays, $array1 and $array2.

2. $array1 is an array with four elements, namely “green”, “brown”, “blue” and “red”.

3. $array2 is another array containing three elements, which are “green”, “yellow”, and “red”.

4. The array_intersect() function is called with $array1 and $array2 as arguments. This function compares the values of these two arrays.

5. If a value from the first array is found in the second array, then the value is returned as part of the result.

6. Ultimately, the $result variable will hold the common elements from both arrays.

7. The print_r() function is then used to print the array $result. The output of this PHP script will be:

Array
(
    [a] => green
    [0] => red
)

It shows that the common elements in both arrays are “green” and “red”. That’s how you can easily find common elements in two arrays in PHP.