How to keep only unique objects in JSON array | PHP

Question

I have the following JSON array, I would like to adjust the array to only keep unique name values, meaning id could be across numerous objects, but name must be unique, overall Tim and Jacob can only be listed once.

$data = '
[
  {
    "name": "Jacob",
    "id": 4
  },
  {
    "name": "Jacob",
    "id": 3
  },
  {
    "name": "Tim",
    "id": 2
  },
  {
    "name": "Brady",
    "id": 2
  },
  {
    "name": "Tim",
    "id": 1
  }
]';

$array = json_decode($data, TRUE);
$array = array_values( array_unique( $array, SORT_REGULAR ) );
$result = json_encode( $array );

The following is what I have currently tried, but it looks at both values in the object, so it leaves them as is.

Result I am looking for:

[
  {
    "name": "Jacob",
    "id": 4
  },
  {
    "name": "Tim",
    "id": 2
  },
  {
    "name": "Brady",
    "id": 2
  }
]

Jamsheed Mistri · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-17 02:34:47Z

You can write a function which goes through each of the entries in the array and removes them if their name has been seen before.

function array_unique_names($array) {
    // Copy our input as a temporary new array
    $output = $array;
    // Keep track of which names we've seen before
    $seen_names = [];

    foreach ($output as $key => $value) {
        // If we've seen a name before, remove it from our output
        if (in_array($value['name'], $seen_names)) {
            unset($output[$key]);
        }
        // Otherwise, keep it but add it to the list of seen names
        else {
            $seen_names[] = $value['name'];
        }
    }

    // Return a re-indexed array
    return array_values($output);
}

$data = // Your JSON input string

$array = json_decode($data, TRUE);
$array = array_unique_names($array);
$result = json_encode($array);

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