two similar items in an array

[russthebarber]

How can I check if an array contains two items that are the same?

 

For example ("apples", "bananas", "oranges") returns false

But ("apples", "bananas", "bananas") returns true

[Pikachu2000]

If you just need to know if duplicates exist in the array, you could compare the results of count() to count(array_unique()). If it isn't the same, there are duplicates.

[AyKay47]

what exactly do you want to do to duplicate values? if you want to remove them, whereas only one of the duplicate values will be present, you can use array_unique. Otherwise, it will get a little more in depth.

 

Edit: Pika beat me to it.

[russthebarber]

Thanks for the replies. I think Pikachu2000 may have the answer....I'll look into that.

 

Basically this array will store what a user inputs, but I want to return an error and warn the user if he inputs the same thing twice.

[AyKay47]

in that case.. you can most likely compare the count of the original array, and the count of the new array after using array_unique. If the 2 counts are equal, then there are no duplicates and you should proceed with the rest of your code, else, return an error.

[Pikachu2000]

In that case, you could always use in_array() when the user attempts to add an element. If in_array() returns TRUE, disallow the action, and alert the user. But really, I guess it depends on how you want the application to flow.

[russthebarber]

that works perfectly...thanks again for the good advice!