Question

Let’s say I have an array that has 4 arrays in it. What I need to do is take the one that has most numbers in it, if I have 2 or more arrays with same max numbers in it I will combine them.

Example array, we see that array 0 and 3 have max members that is 3. So what I will do is take them and combine.

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5
            [1] => 6
            [2] => 4
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5
            [1] => 6
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => 4
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => 6
            [1] => 6
            [2] => 9
        )
)

This is what I have, it works but I think it can be done better.

// Getting arrays that have most members in it
$max = count($groupArray[0]);
foreach ($groupArray as $group) {
    if (count($group) > $max) {
        $max = count($group);
    }
}

// Taking all those arrays and combining them in one
$finishArray = array();
foreach ($groupArray as $group) {
    if (count($group) == $max) {
        foreach ($group as $key) {
            array_push($finishArray, $key);
        }
    }
}

So can it be done better or this is how it should look like?

Answer 1

I think you can do it in one loop instead of two.

Instead of finding the max in one loop and searching for that max in a second loop, search while you are looping, and change the max if you find a bigger array and reset your result. You know there is no match before that point, so you can go on.

$max = 0;

foreach($groupArray as $arr) {
    $count = count($arr);
    if($count > $max) {
        $result = $arr;
        $max = $count;
    } else if($count == $max) {
        $result = array_merge($result, $arr);
    }
}