Creating new key in associative array and adding values to it

Question

I have and associated array looking like this:

array(225) {
  [0]=>
  array(3) {
    ["id"]=>
    string(1) "1"
    ["firstname"]=>
    string(2) "me"
    ["lastname"]=>
    string(2) "ab"
  [1]=>
  array(3) {
    ["id"]=>
    string(1) "2"
    ["firstname"]=>
    string(3) "you"
    ["lastname"]=>
    string(2) "bc"

As you may the structure of all elements is identical. What I want to do is to create dynamiclly new key in the nested arrays, something like this :

array(225) {
      [0]=>
      array(4) {
        ["id"]=>
        string(1) "1"
        ["firstname"]=>
        string(2) "me"
        ["lastname"]=>
        string(2) "ab"
        ["newKey"]=>
        string() "1,2,3,....n" 
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["id"]=>
        string(1) "2"
        ["firstname"]=>
        string(3) "you"
        ["lastname"]=>
        string(2) "bc"
        ["newKey"]=>
        string() "1,2,3,....x"

and I want to add new records to the value with key ["newKey"] but in a way that the old value is not deleted but as shown above - we separate every new value with comma from the others.

I tried array_push and some other things but can't get the exact result I want.

quickshiftin · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-31 05:05:37Z

3

I don't know if it's quite what you want, but seems like something like this might do the trick:

function addField(array &$aData, $newVal)
{
    foreach($aData as $aUnit)
        if(array_key_exists('newKey', $aUnit))
            $aUnit['newKey'] .= ",$newVal";
        else
            $aUnit['newKey'] = '1';
}

Let me know if you'd like that expanded upon if it isn't enough of a base to get you rolling.

answered Mar 31, 2012 at 5:05

quickshiftin

70.4k12 gold badges72 silver badges99 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Leron Over a year ago

That's exactly what I needed, althoug I don't quite understand the need from reference but it's more like a theoretical question.

quickshiftin Over a year ago

The reference will prevent a copy of the array from being made. The alternative would be to not have a pass-by-reference, in which case calls to the function would look like $aData = addField($aData, 5);. You see there, you're creating a new array and replacing the old one instead of just modifying the existing array.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Creating new key in associative array and adding values to it

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related