PHP array_chunk() Function

Hello folks! welcome back to a new section of our tutorial on PHP. In this tutorial guide, we are going to be studying about the PHP array_chunk() Function.

The PHP array_chunk() function takes an array as input and then splits that array into chunks of the given size. The last chunk may contain less number of elements than the passed size based on large range of factors of the total numbers available in the array.

Syntax

Following below is the syntax to use this function -

array array_chunk ( array $input, int $size [, bool $preserve_keys] );

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Parameter Details

Sr.No	Parameter & Description
1	input (mandatory) This is the input array which we want to slipt into smaller chunks. This is mandatory parameter.
2	size (mandatory) The size of each chunk we want to split our passed array in the form of input. This is again mandatory parameter.
3	preserve_keys (optional) This is an optional and boolean parameter but when it is set to TRUE, all the keys in the array will be preserved. If you do not pass it then its default value is FALSE which will reindex the chunk numerically

Return Value

This function will return a multidimensional numerical indexed array, starting from zero, with each of the dimension containing size element.

PHP Version

This function was first lunched as part of core PHP v 4.2.0.

Errors/Exceptions

If passed size is less than 1, E_WARNING error will be thrown and NULL returned.

Example1

The following example splits an array into multiple chunks of 2 elements each -

<?php
   $input = array('abc', 'bcd', 'cde', 'def', 'efg');
   print_r(array_chunk($input, 2));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it is going to produce the following result. Try to observe the index of each smaller array, it is starting with zero for all the three chunks -

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => abc
            [1] => bcd
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => cde
            [1] => def
        )

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

)

Example2

Let us try the same example again but this time around we are going to set parameter preserve_keys to true -

<?php
   $input = array('abc', 'bcd', 'cde', 'def', 'efg');
   print_r(array_chunk($input, 2, true));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => abc
            [1] => bcd
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [2] => cde
            [3] => def
        )

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

)

Example3

The following example passes 0 value for the size parameter and it throws a warning message -

<?php
   $input = array('abc', 'bcd', 'cde', 'def', 'efg');
   print_r(array_chunk($input, 0));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

PHP  Warning:  array_chunk(): Size parameter expected to be greater than 0 in main.php on line 3

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Alright guys! This is where we are rounding up for this tutorial post. In our next tutorial guide, we are going to be discussing about the PHP array_column() Function.

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