[Resolved] Tricky (for me) array problem

[cbj4074]

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[category] => JDF Editors
[product] => EFI JDF Connector
[page] => 1
)

[1] => Array
    (
        [category] => Ecommerce & web interface tools
        [product] => Synapse InSite
        [page] => 1
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [category] => Ecommerce & web interface tools
        [product] => EFI Exchange
        [page] => 2
    )

[3] => Array
    (
        [category] => Asset transfer tools
        [product] => Delano Publish
        [page] => 2
    )

[4] => Array
    (
        [category] => Asset transfer tools
        [product] => Synapse InSite
        [page] => 3
    )

[5] => Array
    (
        [category] => Asset transfer tools
        [product] => EFI Exchange
        [page] => 3
    )

)

Okay, so I have this multi-d array. I'm trying to create a table of contents with it. Ultimately, I want it to look like this (don't sweat the poorly aligned periods, I'll do that with tables):

JDF Editors ........................................ 1
EFI JDF Connector ........................ 1
Ecommerce & web interface tools ..... 1
Synapse� InSite .......................... 1
EFI Exchange� ............................ 2
Asset transfer tools .......................... 2
Delano Publish ............................. 2
Synapse� InSite ......................... 3
EFI Exchange� ............................ 3

I guess this board trims spaces at the beginning of lines, but I basically had the products just slightly nested below the category names, if you know what I mean.

I'm having a real heck of a time. I can't figure out how to have each category only appear only once (it's first position in the array).

Any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated. I've been trying for about 3 hours to figure this out, so it's not just 'come let the php guys do your work for you'. I'm at my wits end! 😕

[tekky]

I would first try something like [man]array_unique[/man]

[cbj4074]

array_unique only works for one-dimensional arrays. I'm still fairly new at PHP and have no idea how to write my own function to make it work. I read all the user comments on the array_unique page and can't make much sense of most of them, and the functions I've tried aren't what I'm looking for.

I'm still tinkering to find another workaround...

[tekky]

alright then use a "marker" of sorts....

$count = count($myarray);
for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++)
{
  $displayed = array();
  $cat = $myarray['category'];
  $prod = $myarray['product']';
  $page = $myarray['page'];
  if ($displayed[$myarray[$cat])
  {
      echo '...' . $prod . '................' . $page. '<br>';
   }
   else
   {
      echo $cat  . '<br>...' . $prod. '...............' .$page. '<br>';
      $displayed[$cat] = 1;
   }
}

something like that would/should work 😉

[crimaniak]

As I understand you have list of items divided by categories. One category can have unknown count of items so one category can be printed on one or more pages and one page can consist one or more categories.

If your data is sorted:

       $categories=array();
	foreach($data as $item)
		if(!isset($categories[$item['category']]))
			$categories[$item['category']]=$item['page'];

If your data is not sorted:

You can't make right sequence of categories in the case of two short categories on one page.
But in general this task is trivial. Something like this:

// collect min/max pairs for categories
foreach($data as $item)
{
  $current=&$categories[$item['category']];
  $page=&$item['page'];

  if(isset($current->min))
    $current->min=min($current->min,$page);
  else
    $current->min=$page;

  if(isset($current->max))
    $current->max=max($current->max,$page);
  else
    $current->max=$page;
}

// sort categories
uasort($categories,create_function('$a,$b','return
$a->min<$b->min ? -1 : $b->min<$a->min ? 1 : ($a->max-$b->max);'));

// output categories
foreach($categories as $name=>$data)
 echo $name.'   '.$data->min."\n";

[cbj4074]

Thanks guys! Tekky, you pretty much nailed it 😃 And I learned a SWEET new trick, thanks to you, Crimaniak.

I had to make a few modifications, but you definitely laid the basic groundwork for me to figure it out the rest of the way. If you're interested in the solution, here it is!

$displayed = array();
for($i=0;$i < count($toc);$i++) {

  $cat = $toc[$i]['category'];
  $prod = $toc[$i]['product'];
  $page = $toc[$i]['page'];

if (!in_array ($cat, $displayed)) {
print $cat . '<br>';
print '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;' . $prod . ' ' . $page . '<br>';
$displayed[] = $cat;
}
else {
print '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;' . $prod . ' ' . $page . '<br>';
}
}

For as much as I love PHP, I always hate how dumb I feel when the answer is revealed. Keep it simple.

[tekky]

hehe, no problem, dont forget to mark as resolved 😉