PHP array length count

[renierdbruyn]

Hi... I got the following:

function solution($A) {
    if (is_array($A)) {
        if ($b = preg_grep("/\-1/", $A)) {
            foreach ($b as $key => $value) {

                $A_count = count($A);
                $remove = ($A_count-1) - $key;
                $v = $A[$key];
                unset($A[$key]);
                for($i = $key+1; $i < $A_count; $i++){
                unset($A[$i]); // to remove the element after -1                    
                }
                $A[$key] = $v;

               print_r($A);
                $result = count($A);

            }
        }

    }
    return $result;
}

print_r(solution(array(1, 4, -1, 3, 2))); // returns 4
print_r(solution(array(2, -1, 1, 0, 0, 0))); // returns 3
print_r(solution(array(2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, -1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0))); // returns 8

I need the function to return 4 at all times. -1 is the last element of the array. please help?

[anthonydaly]

What exactly are you trying to achieve with the function?

[renierdbruyn]

it was a question in a test I wrote:
I was told that if given an array cosisting of any number of integers, constructed as follows:
the first element is located at index 0,
the value of a element located at index K is A[K],
next-in-line of a element located at index K is located at index A[K],
if the value of a element is −1 then it is the last element of the array.

then I was told to write a function that returns four. I was told to take into consideration that the array can consist of 1-200000 elements,
each element can be a number of between -1 and 200000 and that it will always be possible to construct the array and its length will be limited