Add 2 values to 1 key in a PHP array

Question

I have a result set of data that I want to write to an array in php. Here is my sample data:

**Name** **Abbrev**
Mike     M
Tom      T
Jim      J

Using that data, I want to create an array in php that is of the following:

1|Mike|M
2|Tom|T
3|Jim|j

I tried array_push($values, 'name', 'abbreviation') [pseudo code], which gave me the following:

1|Mike
2|M
3|Tom
4|T
5|Jim
6|J

I need to do a look up against this array to get the same key value, if I look up "Mike" or "M".

What is the best way to write my result set into an array as set above where name and abbreviation share the same key?

Walter Mundt · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 21:59:21Z

22

PHP's not my top language, but try these:

array_push($values, array("Mike", "M"))
array_push($values, array("Tom", "T"))
array_push($values, array("Jim", "J"))

$name1 = $values[1][0]
$abbrev1 = $values[1][1]

or:

array_push($values, array("name" => "Mike", "abbrev" => "M"))
array_push($values, array("name" => "Tom", "abbrev" => "T"))
array_push($values, array("name" => "Jim", "abbrev" => "J"))

$name1 = $values[1]["name"]
$abbrev1 = $values[1]["abbrev"]

The trick is to use a nested array to pair the names and abbreviations in each entry.

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 21:59

Walter Mundt

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Comments

ceejayoz · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 22:01:10Z

7

$person = array('name' => 'Mike', 'initial' => 'M');
array_push($people, $person);

That said, I'm not sure why you're storing the data separately. The initial can be fetched directly from the name via substr($name, 0, 1).

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 22:01

ceejayoz

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2 Comments

Tom Over a year ago

Basically, he's saying that you need to use a multi-dimensional array. The data array should contain numbers as keys and arrays as values. The arrays as values contain the name in one key and the value in another key. These two keys should be predefined (0 and 1 / name and initial / n and i / etc).

Mike Munroe Over a year ago

thanks for the suggestion on fetching the abbrev directly, but your suggestion only works for my simplified sample set. This suggestion would not work for my real data set because abbreviation is actually more characters and not always within the set of characters within the name.

Phil · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-18 00:12:15Z

2

You will need to create a two dimensional array to store more than one value.

Each row in your result set is already an array, so it will need to be added to your variable as an array.

array_push($values, array('name', 'abbreviation'));

answered Jun 18, 2010 at 0:12

Phil

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Comments

Andreas Linden · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-22 20:59:36Z

2

maybe you create a simple class for that as the abbreviation is redundant information in your case

class Person
{
    public $name;

    pulbic function __construct($name)
    {
        $this->name = (string)$name;
    }

    public function getAbbrev()
    {
        return substr($this->name, 0, 1);
    }

    public function __get($prop)
    {
        if ($prop == 'abbrev') {

            return $this->getAbbrev();
        }
    }
}


$persons = array(
    new Person('Mike'),
    new Person('Tom'),
    new Person('Jim')
);

foreach ($persons as $person) {

   echo "$person->name ($person->abbrev.)<br/>";
}

answered Jun 22, 2010 at 20:59

Andreas Linden

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Comments

Tom · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 22:11:15Z

1

You could use two separate arrays, maybe like:

$values_names = array();
$values_initials = array();
array_push($values_names, 'Mike');
array_push($values_initials, 'M');
array_push($values_names, 'Tom');
array_push($values_initials, 'T');
array_push($values_names, 'Jim');
array_push($values_initials, 'J');

So you use two arrays, one for each of the second and third columns using the values in the first one as keys for both arrays.

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 22:11

Tom

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1 Comment

Tom Over a year ago

PS: the keys are indexed starting with zero in PHP (as in most languages), so the first key-value pair will have the key 0; the second key-value pair will have the key 1; the third key-value pair will have the key 2; etc

Maurice Kherlakian · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 22:09:04Z

-1

php arrays work like hash lookup tables, so in order to achieve the desired result, you can initialize 2 keys, one with the actual value and the other one with a reference pointing to the first. For instance you could do:

$a = array('m' => 'value');
$a['mike'] = &$a['m']; //notice the end to pass by reference

if you try:

$a = array('m' => 'value');
$a['mike'] = &$a['m'];

print_r($a);

$a['m'] = 'new_value';
print_r($a);

$a['mike'] = 'new_value_2';
print_r($a);

the output will be:

Array
(
    [m] => value
    [mike] => value
)
Array
(
    [m] => new_value
    [mike] => new_value
)
Array
(
    [m] => new_value_2
    [mike] => new_value_2
)

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 22:09

Maurice Kherlakian

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Comments

Jake Kalstad · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-17 21:55:17Z

-3

have to set the same value to both Mike and M for keys.

answered Jun 17, 2010 at 21:55

Jake Kalstad

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