[RESOLVED] Array caught in memory... unset doesn't work!

markmax33

Guys,
I have a 3 dimensional array that I am processing below. Unfortunately the server will not forget the value of the 2 dimensional array when I go back and forth between pages. The goal of the statement below is to sum all of the $i dimension of the 3 dimensional array $bar into the 2nd dimension of the $foo array. The loop works as expected the first time through and displays correctly on the next page. The issues is when the user goes back and forth.

line 1 for ($j = 0 ; $j < $z ; $j++){
line 2 for ($k = 0 ; $k <= $y; $k++){
line 3 for ($i = 0 ; $i < $x; $i++){
line 4 $foo[$j][$k] = $bar[$j][$k][$i] + $foo[$j][$k];};};}

I have thought of 2 solutions.

1. I unset($foo); before the loop, and theortically the array $foo is empty and should be processed cleanly. That is not happening! I even tried to unset(_$SESSION'$foo'); and no luck!

There is a better way to sum the $i dimension of that array. I think my main problem is that the previous value of $foo[$j][$k] is still in memory and gets added into line 4 during the 1st loop back through the array.

There must be a ton of ways to skin this cat! Please help! Gracias, Happy 6th de Mai!

rvdavid

just a shot in the dark, you might have just mistyped it for example's sakes, but unsetting session variables is of the following format.

unset($_SESSION[$foo]);

Other than that, maybe you can further expand on your specs. What exactly are you trying to do? are these the variables you're actually using? or did you substitute them out? For example, what is the $y variable and the $z variable? what do they represent and how did you get them?

Perhaps we could provide a better solution if we understand the problem domain.

HTH 🙂

regards,

bike5

WRONG: you can only unset one array index at a time not a whole array at once, the easiest way is to overwrite it with an empty one.

CORRECTION: You can unset an array
thanks to: rvdavid

$foo= array(); // will set it back to empty

rvdavid

Hi there,

bike5 wrote:
you can only unset one array index at a time not a whole array at once

Yes you can. 🙂 Try running the following spike script.

<?php
$array = array();
$fooArray = array();
$barArray = array('bar'=>'somevalue');
$array['test'] = array('foo'=>$barArray);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// remove bar array from foo
unset($array['test']['foo']['bar']);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// remove foo array from test
unset($array['test']['foo']);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// add foo array to test again with bar
$array['test'] = array('foo'=>$barArray);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// remove foo array from test
unset($array['test']['foo']);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// add foo array to test again with bar
$array['test'] = array('foo'=>$barArray);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';

// unset the variable leaves $array variable as empty.
unset($array);
echo '<pre> value of unset($array):';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';
?>

HTH clear things up

regards,

bike5

Woa, I swear I have tried that before and it always failed. Thats good to know you can do that, thanks. Has unset always worked this way? I wonder what I was doing that kept failing (it was like 4 years ago so I don't remember specially what I was doing), owell at least I got to learn something new today, yeah! today wasn't a waste..lol

rvdavid

hahaha 🙂

I don't know if they changed the way it's worked, but I've always used it this way. Then again I very rarely use arrays in such a way where I'd have to unset an already set array.

You're welcome,