PHP array_count_values Function

last modified March 13, 2025

The PHP array_count_values function counts the occurrences of values in an array. It returns an associative array with value counts.

Basic Definition

array_count_values counts how many times each value appears in an array. The result is an array where keys are the original values.

Syntax: array_count_values(array $array): array. Values must be strings or integers. Other types will trigger a warning and be skipped.

Counting String Values

This example demonstrates counting occurrences of string values in an array.

string_count.php

<?php

$colors = ["red", "blue", "green", "blue", "red", "red"];
$counts = array_count_values($colors);

print_r($counts);

The function counts each color occurrence. "red" appears 3 times, "blue" 2 times, and "green" once. The output is an associative array.

Counting Integer Values

This example shows how to count occurrences of integer values in an array.

integer_count.php

<?php

$numbers = [1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3];
$counts = array_count_values($numbers);

print_r($counts);

The number 1 appears most frequently (4 times). Numbers 2 and 3 each appear twice. The function works identically for integers and strings.

Mixed Value Types

This example demonstrates behavior with mixed string and integer values.

mixed_values.php

<?php

$mixed = ["apple", 1, "orange", 1, "apple", "1"];
$counts = array_count_values($mixed);

print_r($counts);

Note that integer 1 and string "1" are treated as the same value. The function converts all values to strings before counting them.

Handling Invalid Values

This example shows what happens when the array contains invalid values.

invalid_values.php

<?php

$data = ["a", "b", 3.14, ["array"], null];
$counts = @array_count_values($data); // Suppress warnings

print_r($counts);

Float, array, and null values trigger warnings and are excluded from the result. Only valid string and integer values are counted in the output.

Practical Application

This example shows a practical use case for analyzing survey responses.

survey_analysis.php

<?php

$responses = [
    "Excellent", "Good", "Fair", "Good",
    "Excellent", "Poor", "Good", "Excellent"
];

$ratings = array_count_values($responses);
arsort($ratings); // Sort by count descending

foreach ($ratings as $rating => $count) {
    echo "$rating: $count responses\n";
}

This analyzes survey responses by counting each rating. The results are then sorted to show most common responses first, providing quick insights.

Best Practices

Type Safety: Ensure array contains only strings/integers.
Error Handling: Check for warnings with invalid types.
Sorting: Use sorting functions to analyze results.
Performance: Works efficiently even with large arrays.

Source

PHP array_count_values Documentation

This tutorial covered the PHP array_count_values function with practical examples showing its usage for counting value frequencies.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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