php - unset last item of array

Question

in this code i try to unset first and last item of $status array
to unset but the last item that i tried place thier pointer in $end
not unset what can I do for this reason?

$item[$fieldneedle] = " node_os_disk_danger ";
$status = preg_split('/_/',$item[$fieldneedle]);
unset($status[0]);
$end = & end($status);
unset($end);

in this example i need os_disk

Answer 1

array_shift($end); //removes first
array_pop($end); //removes last