PHP gives you several ways to remove items from arrays, and each method behaves differently. Understanding when to use each one is important.

array_splice() removes and reindexes:

This function removes items starting at a specific position and automatically reindexes the array so there are no gaps. You specify where to start and how many items to remove. Use this when you want a clean, sequential array after deletion.

unset() removes but leaves gaps:

This deletes an item at a specific index or key but doesn't reindex the array. You can end up with arrays like [0 => "first", 2 => "third", 3 => "fourth"] where index 1 is missing. For associative arrays, this is fine since keys are names anyway. For indexed arrays, only use this if you don't care about gaps.

You can delete multiple items at once: unset($cars[0], $cars[1], $cars[5]).

array_diff() filters by value:

Give it a list of values to remove, and it returns a new array without those values. It compares the actual values, not their positions or keys. Useful when you know what to remove but not where it is.

array_pop() and array_shift() remove ends:

array_pop() removes and returns the last item. array_shift() removes and returns the first item. Both are simple, single-purpose functions for common operations.