PHP Exercises: Get an array with n elements removed from the beginning of a given array

Last update on May 27 2025 13:08:25 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

91. Remove n Elements from the Beginning of an Array

Write a PHP program to get an array with n elements removed from the beginning of a given array.

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
// Licence: https://bit.ly/2CFA5XY

// Function definition for 'take' that takes an array of items and an optional parameter '$n' (default value is 1)
function take($items, $n = 1)
{
    // Use 'array_slice' to return the first '$n' elements of the array
    return array_slice($items, 0, $n);
}

// Call 'take' with an array and a specified number of elements to take, then display the result using 'print_r'
print_r(take([1, 2, 3], 1));

// Display a newline
echo "\n";

// Call 'take' with another array and a specified number of elements to take, then display the result using 'print_r'
print_r(take([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 2));

?>

Explanation:

Function Definition:

The function take is defined to accept two parameters:

$items: an array of items.
$n: an optional integer (default value is 1) representing the number of elements to take from the start of the array.

Using array_slice:

Inside the function, array_slice($items, 0, $n) is used:

This function returns a slice of the array, starting from index 0 and taking the first $n elements.

Purpose:

The take function effectively retrieves the first $n elements from the given array. If $n is not specified, it defaults to 1.

Function Calls:

The take function is called with different arrays and specified numbers:

First call: take([1, 2, 3], 1) retrieves the first element, which results in [1].
Second call: take([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 2) retrieves the first two elements, resulting in [1, 2].

Displaying Results:

The results of each function call are displayed using print_r.
A newline is printed between the two results for better readability.

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => 1
)

Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
)

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a PHP script to remove a variable number of elements from the start of an array and return the trimmed array.
Write a PHP function to drop the first n items from an array using a custom slicing technique.
Write a PHP script to output an array without its first n elements by iterating over the original array.
Write a PHP script to create a new array that excludes the specified number of leftmost elements.

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PHP Code Editor:

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