Insert new item in array on any position in PHP

Question

How can I insert a new item into an array on any position, for example in the middle of array?

Answer 1

You may find this a little more intuitive. It only requires one function call to array_splice:

$original = array( 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e' );
$inserted = array( 'x' ); // not necessarily an array, see manual quote

array_splice( $original, 3, 0, $inserted ); // splice in at position 3
// $original is now a b c x d e

If replacement is just one element it is not necessary to put array() around it, unless the element is an array itself, an object or NULL.

Answer 2

A function that can insert at both integer and string positions:

/**
 * @param array      $array
 * @param int|string $position
 * @param mixed      $insert
 */
function array_insert(&$array, $position, $insert)
{
    if (is_int($position)) {
        array_splice($array, $position, 0, $insert);
    } else {
        $pos   = array_search($position, array_keys($array));
        $array = array_merge(
            array_slice($array, 0, $pos),
            $insert,
            array_slice($array, $pos)
        );
    }
}

Integer usage:

$arr = ["one", "two", "three"];
array_insert(
    $arr,
    1,
    "one-half"
);
// ->
array (
  0 => 'one',
  1 => 'one-half',
  2 => 'two',
  3 => 'three',
)

String Usage:

$arr = [
    "name"  => [
        "type"      => "string",
        "maxlength" => "30",
    ],
    "email" => [
        "type"      => "email",
        "maxlength" => "150",
    ],
];

array_insert(
    $arr,
    "email",
    [
        "phone" => [
            "type"   => "string",
            "format" => "phone",
        ],
    ]
);
// ->
array (
  'name' =>
  array (
    'type' => 'string',
    'maxlength' => '30',
  ),
  'phone' =>
  array (
    'type' => 'string',
    'format' => 'phone',
  ),
  'email' =>
  array (
    'type' => 'email',
    'maxlength' => '150',
  ),
)

Answer 3

You can use this

foreach ($array as $key => $value) 
{
    if($key==1)
    {
        $new_array[]=$other_array;
    }   
    $new_array[]=$value;    
}

Answer 4

This is what worked for me for the associative array:

/*
 * Inserts a new key/value after the key in the array.
 *
 * @param $key
 *   The key to insert after.
 * @param $array
 *   An array to insert in to.
 * @param $new_key
 *   The key to insert.
 * @param $new_value
 *   An value to insert.
 *
 * @return
 *   The new array if the key exists, FALSE otherwise.
 *
 * @see array_insert_before()
 */
function array_insert_after($key, array &$array, $new_key, $new_value) {
  if (array_key_exists($key, $array)) {
    $new = array();
    foreach ($array as $k => $value) {
      $new[$k] = $value;
      if ($k === $key) {
        $new[$new_key] = $new_value;
      }
    }
    return $new;
  }
  return FALSE;
}

The function source - this blog post. There's also handy function to insert BEFORE specific key.

Answer 5

function insert(&$arr, $value, $index){       
    $lengh = count($arr);
    if($index<0||$index>$lengh)
        return;

    for($i=$lengh; $i>$index; $i--){
        $arr[$i] = $arr[$i-1];
    }

    $arr[$index] = $value;
}

Answer 6

This is also a working solution:

function array_insert(&$array,$element,$position=null) {
  if (count($array) == 0) {
    $array[] = $element;
  }
  elseif (is_numeric($position) && $position < 0) {
    if((count($array)+position) < 0) {
      $array = array_insert($array,$element,0);
    }
    else {
      $array[count($array)+$position] = $element;
    }
  }
  elseif (is_numeric($position) && isset($array[$position])) {
    $part1 = array_slice($array,0,$position,true);
    $part2 = array_slice($array,$position,null,true);
    $array = array_merge($part1,array($position=>$element),$part2);
    foreach($array as $key=>$item) {
      if (is_null($item)) {
        unset($array[$key]);
      }
    }
  }
  elseif (is_null($position)) {
    $array[] = $element;
  }  
  elseif (!isset($array[$position])) {
    $array[$position] = $element;
  }
  $array = array_merge($array);
  return $array;
}

credits go to: http://binarykitten.com/php/52-php-insert-element-and-shift.html