PHP create option list from delimited string without duplicating values

Question

I have a string with values (which are suburbs) like so:

$suburbs = "Mawson, Elizabeth, Burnside, Elizbeth, Mawson";

There COULD be double ups in the suburbs that the string contains. I can't change this fact.

What I am trying to do is create an option list for a drop down menu that a user will use. I do not want to display the same suburb twice( or more for that matter).

What I have so far:

$suburbs = "Mawson, Elizabeth, Burnside, Elizbeth, Mawson";
//Explode the suburbs string delimited by a comma
$boom = explode(',', $suburbs);

foreach($boom as $b)
{
$suburbOptionList .= '<option value='.$b.'>'.$b.'</option>';
}
?>
<select> <?php
echo $suburbOptionList;
?>
</select>

I know that this will simply display all of the options but I really don't know how to display each suburb only once. Ive tried a few foreach,and if combinations but they look ugly and work just as bad.

Any help would be appreciated. Cheers in advance!

Just a side note: I would use a comma with a space , as the delimiter. Since technically you have one Mawson and one ` Mawson`, which are not the same. — Simon Forsberg
– Simon Forsberg, Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 13:40

Maxim Kumpan · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-07 14:19:22Z

7

Pass $boom through array_unique() and you'll be fine.

$bada_boom = array_unique($boom);

P.S.: This will not help if you have typos or variations in duplicates. (Elizbeth != Elizabeth). In that case you will need to get creative.

Also, hw (in comments) made a good point about trimming whitespaces. If the suburbs come from an untrusted source and are improperly formatted, you may need to normalize them. This means trimming whitespaces and normalizing capitals:

$boom = array_walk($boom, 'trim');
$boom = array_walk($boom, 'strtolower');
$bada_boom = array_unique($boom);

edited Jun 7, 2013 at 14:19

answered Jun 7, 2013 at 13:44

Maxim Kumpan

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1 Comment

hw. Over a year ago

In addition to above, you also need to trim values just in case there are spaces around the word, as in your case. You can use $boom = array_walk($boom, 'trim') before calling array_unique.

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