php help? (unique unserialize)

[woopwoop]

Need a bit of help with some php and a few kind members helped me in the past.

My code is:

$query = "SELECT names FROM table WHERE type='$type'";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
foreach(unserialize($row['names']) as $key => $value){ 
echo $value . '<br />'; 
} 
}

Basically, a field on my table is called names. The information in this field is serialized (so many names are together in a single field, for a single row).

I want to be able to search the whole table (where type='$type' - so many rows) for all names and then show unique names only.

My code above unserializes the names from each field and then lists them, but doesn't deal with any duplicates (which I need removing).

I have looked at functions like "unique_array()", and have tried using it in different places but it isn't doing the job.

Any help appreciated.

 

[JDubya]

$new_array = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
    foreach(unserialize($row['names']) as $key => $value){ 
    //echo $value . '<br />'; 
    $new_array[] = $value
    } 
}

$unique_array = array_unique( $new_array );
var_dump( $unique_array );

Try this quick fix...

 

[woopwoop]

Many thanks for your reply jDubya.

I just took someone's advice on another forum and the following code worked:

$names = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
   $names = array_unique(array_merge($names, unserialize($row['names'])));
}
foreach($names as $value){ 
   echo $value . '<br />'; 
}

Will take a look at your code later. I love PHP but the more i learn the more i don't understand!

Appreciate your help.

 

[JDubya]

Your welcome - one thing to keep in mind though is that a solution like this doesn't scale well so on a larger data set performance would degrade massively... If working with larger data sets the DB should be doing the work instead of PHP.

My problem when I first started learning PHP I wasn't properly shown Mysql - didn't learn for a long time things like EXPLAIN, INDEXES, DISTINCT(), DATE_SUB() etc instead of relying completely on PHP. Probably the single most useful period of learning I went through.

Good luck!