[Resolved] making a list

MaxD

My script goes line-by-line through a file, explodes the line and looks at one or more of the variables there, makes note of it, and continue on. In all of those lines there is a specific variable that I'll call "category".

Of the 100 some odd "entries" in this flat database, there are only about 5 or 6 different categories.

I need the script to go through and look at the categories and make a list of them.

I can't figure out how to take my output of 15 "category A"s, 12 "Category B"s, 19 "Category C"s, and so on, and turn it into "Category A, Category B, Category C".

I don't want to hard code the categories into the script I want to be able to add more or get rid of some.

I've thought about putting each into an array and then checking the array versus the next line's variable and if it exists, skip it, if it's a new value, add it to the array.

This seems a little inefficient. Any thoughts?

BuzzLY

Loop through your list. In each one, set the array key to the value of the category, and set the array value to 1.

For example, let's say your first category is "A":

$catval = "A"; // you get this using your method of extraction...
$cat[$catval] = 1;

When you are done, you will have a $cat array that contains 1's, the keys of which represent each unique category. For example:

$cat[A] = 1
$cat = 1
$cat[C] = 1
$cat[D] = 1
$cat[E] = 1

HTH!

MaxD

This is a very good idea, but it is one that I've already discounted. The reason being: I'd still have to hard-code the category names into the script, which I want to be able to expand upon at will with an administration tool I'm creating.

I need to be able to somehow list the category values, and extract from that list one of each. Perhaps if I were to grab the name of the category, and assign it to $cat_name[$x]; then on each line, search through my array (forgive my "thinking-code":

while (x < count($cat_name);
  if ($cat_name[x] == $cat_from_line){
    // category exists!
  }
    // otherwise, increment and loop
  x++
endwhile;
    // Nothing found at all, increment and add a new key
x++; 
$cat_name[x] = $cat_from_line;
    // At the end of it all, I should have an array with all the categories as listed in the database.
    // I should add a few lines to correct case and such

)

Correct my "worked-all-day-just-wanna-go-to-sleep" logic if it is flawed. But this still seems a little inefficient.

Thoughts?

BuzzLY

Who says it has to be hard coded? I was giving you an example, and I specifically stated "// you get this using your method of extraction... "

In other words, work through your file line by line. On each line, extract the category, put it in the $catval variable, then use $cat[$catval] = 1 to create a new array element using that category as the key. If the category already exists, nothing happens (technically, the array element is recreated), and you move on to the next line in your file. No hard coding needed.

Then, all you have to do is use array_keys($cat) to extract all of the category array keys into a numerical array, with which you can do about anything you want.

MaxD

wow, I'm sorry, I didn't even see that. My apologies. I tried it out and it works pretty well, heres what I've gotten...

function display_menu(){

  $gal_idx = file("gal_idx.php");

  foreach($gal_idx as $gal_idx_line){
    if(!eregi("<\?",$gal_idx_line)){
      $gal_idx = explode("|",$gal_idx_line);
      $menu_list[$gal_idx[2]] = "$gal_idx[2]";
    }
  }
  foreach ($menu_list as $menu_item) {
    echo "$menu_item<br>\n";
  }
}


display_menu();

that pretty much resolved my issue, thanks. And closing thoughts?

BuzzLY

Glad to see it worked for you. I like your method a little better -- putting the category name in the key as well as the value negates the need to do array_keys(). However, you do not need to use the double quotes. They don't hurt, of course, but they are redundant, since the value in $gal_idx[2] is already a string.