👀 Views: 26 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-07-22

php arrays array_merge PHP

I've been working on this all day and I'm working with unexpected results when using `array_merge` on two associative arrays in PHP 8.1. I expect the values of similar keys to be combined, but instead, the last value seems to overwrite the previous one, which is standard behavior. However, what I really need is a way to preserve the values in an array that might have similar keys without overwriting them. For example, given the following arrays: ```php $array1 = [ 'key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2' ]; $array2 = [ 'key2' => 'value3', 'key3' => 'value4' ]; ``` When I perform the merge: ```php $merged = array_merge($array1, $array2); print_r($merged); ``` The output is: ``` Array ( [key1] => value1 [key2] => value3 [key3] => value4 ) ``` I understand that's how `array_merge` works, but I want to maintain all values where keys overlap, resulting in: ``` Array ( [key1] => value1 [key2] => value2 [key2_1] => value3 [key3] => value4 ) ``` I've tried using a loop to iterate through the arrays and manually handle the merging, appending a suffix to overlapping keys, but it feels inefficient for large arrays. Is there a more elegant solution or a built-in function that can help achieve this behavior? Any suggestions would be appreciated! I'm working on a application that needs to handle this. Any pointers in the right direction?