Remove duplicate sets of values in 2d array (regardless of the order or keys in each row)

Question

I have an array with the following structure:

[
    ["venue1" => 1, "venue2" => 2],
    ["venue1" => 3, "venue2" => 4],
    ["venue1" => 2, "venue2" => 1],
    ["venue1" => 5, "venue2" => 6],
]

I need to remove the duplicate "pair of values", in this case row [0] and row [2].

I tried it with that code, but it doesn't work (and of course it's not very elegant).

foreach ( $compare_arr as $v1 ) 
{
    $key = array_search( intval($v1[venue1]), array_column( $compare_arr, 'venue2' ) );
    if ( $key <> '' ) unset($compare_arr[$key]);
}

Answer 1

Here is an approach where an intermediate array is formed of sorted values. That you can then search for to find duplicate pairs to remove.

<?php

$venues = array(
    array(
      'venue1' => 1,
      'venue2' => 2,
    ),
    array(
      'venue1' => 3,
      'venue2' => 4,
    ),
    array (
      'venue1' => 2,
      'venue2' => 1,
    ),
    array(
      'venue1' => 5,
      'venue2' => 6,
    ),
);

$result = $pairs = $venues;
array_walk($pairs, static fn(array &$value) => sort($value));

var_export($pairs);

foreach ($pairs as $k => $pair) 
{
    if (count(array_keys($pairs, $pair)) > 1) 
    {
        unset($result[$k]);
    }
}

var_export($result); 

Output:

array (
    0 => 
    array (
      0 => 1,
      1 => 2,
    ),
    1 => 
    array (
      0 => 3,
      1 => 4,
    ),
    2 => 
    array (
      0 => 1,
      1 => 2,
    ),
    3 => 
    array (
      0 => 5,
      1 => 6,
    ),
  )array (
    1 => 
    array (
      'venue1' => 3,
      'venue2' => 4,
    ),
    3 => 
    array (
      'venue1' => 5,
      'venue2' => 6,
    ),
  )

Demo

If you want to remove occurring duplicates rather than pruning out duplicates altogether, you can do an array_unique on the sorted array above and then use the remaining keys to filter the original array.

$tmp     = $venues;
array_walk($tmp, static fn (array &$value) => sort($value));
$tmp     = array_unique($tmp, SORT_REGULAR);
$result  = array_intersect_key($venues, $tmp);
var_export($result);

Output:

array (
    0 => 
    array (
      'venue1' => 1,
      'venue2' => 2,
    ),
    1 => 
    array (
      'venue1' => 3,
      'venue2' => 4,
    ),
    3 => 
    array (
      'venue1' => 5,
      'venue2' => 6,
    ),
  )

Demo

Answer 2

Whether you use a classic foreach() loop or functional iteration, there is no reason to iterate the input array more than once.

This snippet will appear nearly identical to TheFourthBird's answer, but I don't like the unnecessary use of continue. This snippet will ensure no that rows in the result array have 100% shared venue values (in any order). The subarray keys will also not suffer reordering; in other words the first element key will be venue1 then the second element will be venue2. Using implode() offers additional flexibility because the code won't need to be altered if the number of elements in each row changes.

$result = [];
foreach ($data as $row) {
    sort($row);
    $key = implode('-', $row);
    $result[$key] ??= $row;
}
var_export(array_values($result));

Output:

array (
  0 => 
  array (
    'venue1' => 1,
    'venue2' => 2,
  ),
  1 => 
  array (
    'venue1' => 3,
    'venue2' => 4,
  ),
  2 => 
  array (
    'venue1' => 5,
    'venue2' => 6,
  ),
)

---

To completely remove all rows where venue values are shared, maintain a "found" array as well as a "result" array.

Code: (Demo)

$result = [];
foreach ($data as $index => $row) {
    sort($row);
    $key = implode('-', $row);
    if (!isset($found[$key])) {
        $found[$key] = true;
        $result[$key] = $data[$index];
    } else {
        unset($result[$key]);
    }
}
var_export(array_values($result));

Or mutate the input array directly. Demo

foreach ($data as $index => $row) {
    sort($row);
    $key = implode('-', $row);
    if (!isset($found[$key])) {
        $found[$key] = $index;
    } else {
        unset($data[$index], $data[$found[$key]]);
    }
}
var_export(array_values($data));

Output:

array (
  0 => 
  array (
    'venue1' => 3,
    'venue2' => 4,
  ),
  1 => 
  array (
    'venue1' => 5,
    'venue2' => 6,
  ),
)

Answer 3

You might also first loop the array creating a compound key based on the ordered keys.

Then you can filter the result only keeping arrays where the count is 2 as nothing is added because there are no duplicates.

For example

$result = [];
$compare_arr = [
    ["venue1" => 1, "venue2" => 2],
    ["venue1" => 3, "venue2" => 4],
    ["venue1" => 2, "venue2" => 1],
    ["venue1" => 5, "venue2" => 6],
];

foreach ($compare_arr as $v1) {
    sort($v1);
    $cKey = $v1[0] .'-'. $v1[1];
    if (array_key_exists($cKey, $result)) {
        $result[$cKey][] = $v1;
        continue;
    }
    $result[$cKey] = $v1;
}
$result = array_filter($result, function($item) {
    return count($item) === 2;
});

print_r($result);

Output

Array
(
    [3-4] => Array
        (
            [0] => 3
            [1] => 4
        )

    [5-6] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5
            [1] => 6
        )

)

You can see the compound keys are the values with a - in between. If you want to have the keys numbered from 0, you can use array_values.

Php demo

Edit

If you want to keep the first matching single pair, you can check for the compound key and if it already exists continue the loop without overwriting the existing one.

$result = [];
$compare_arr = [
    ["venue1" => 1, "venue2" => 2],
    ["venue1" => 3, "venue2" => 4],
    ["venue1" => 2, "venue2" => 1],
    ["venue1" => 5, "venue2" => 6]
];

foreach ($compare_arr as $v1) {
    sort($v1);
    $cKey = $v1[0] .'-'. $v1[1];
    if (array_key_exists($cKey, $result)) {
        continue;
    }
    $result[$cKey] = $v1;
}

print_r($result);

Output

Array
(
    [1-2] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
            [1] => 2
        )

    [3-4] => Array
        (
            [0] => 3
            [1] => 4
        )

    [5-6] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5
            [1] => 6
        )

)

Php demo