How can I merge multiple dimensional arrays in PHP and replace the old values with the new values?

Question

I tried array_merge_recursive, but it does not work as expected. Here's an example:

$array1=array(
'name'=>'Bob',
'age'=>30
);

$array2=array(
'name'=>'John',
);

$array3=array_merge_recursive($array1,$array2);

// Expected result
$array3=array(
'name'=>'John',
'age'=>30
);

// Actual result
$array3=array(
'name'=>array(
  0=>'Bob',
  1=>'John'
),
'age'=>30
);

Answer 1

array_merge($array1, $array2)

Will give you what you want.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-merge.php

Answer 2

if you just want it to overwrite then you can do it yourself with a for loop... can you provide a multidimensional example if this isn't what you want?

$result = array();
foreach($arrays as $currentarray) {
    foreach($currentarray as $property => $value) 
        $result[$property] = $value;
}

Answer 3

This will do the magic! :)

<?php
function array_extend($a1, $a2) {
    foreach ($a2 as $key => $val) {
        if (isset($a1[$key])) {
            if (is_array($a1[$key]) && is_array($val)) {
                $a1[$key] = array_extend($a1[$key], $val);
            }
            else if (is_array($a1[$key])) {
                $a1[$key][] = $val;
            }
            else {
                $a1[$key] = $val;
            }
        }
        else {
            $a1[$key] = $val;
        }
    }
    return $a1;
}

$array1=array(
    'name'=>'Bob',
    'age'=>30
);

$array2=array(
    'name'=>'John'
);
$array3 = array_extend($array1, $array2);
print_r($array3);
// Array
// (
//    [name] => John
//    [age] => 30
//)

Answer 4

php > $array1_keys = array_keys($array1); $array2_keys = array_keys($array2);
php > $array1 = array('name' => 'bob', 'age' => 30); $array2 = array('name' => 'john');
php > $array1_keys = array_keys($array1); $array2_keys = array_keys($array2);   
php > foreach ($array1_keys as $key) {
php { foreach ($array2_keys as $key2) {
php { if ($key == $key2) {
php { $array1[$key] = $array2[$key2];
php { }
php { }
php { }
php > var_dump($array1);
array(2) {
  ["name"]=>
  string(4) "john"
  ["age"]=>
  int(30)
}
php > 

Jonathan's answer is better :)