如何计算数组中相同元素的数量

Question

I'm having very simple issue. I have array

 $a = array('dog', 'dog', 'dog', 'mouse', 'mouse','mouse', 'cat','cat');

How to count how many elements called 'dog' I have ? I tried count() function , i know it's not good because count doesn't look into array only counts number of elements.

So for example answer for my issue would be :

 dog = 3 
 mouse = 3
 cat = 2

Answer 1

Use array_count_values():

print_r(array_count_values($a));

Array
(
    [dog] => 3
    [mouse] => 3
    [cat] => 2
)

$count = array_count_values($a);
echo $count['dog']; // prints 3