Question about the behavior of string associative array keys

[Joseph_Sliker]

I am trying to use an associative array to pass names and scores to a JPgraph but I believe I may misunderstand something about associative arrays.

Say I have an array called $kidscores where

$kidscores=(Johnny_Jones => 50, Sally_Smith => 100, Tommy_TheCat =>75)

When I pass the $kidscores variable to JPgraph, and try to....

 
Foreach ($kidscores as $key => $value)
{
$data_scores[] = $value;
$data_labels[] = $key;
}

...the $data_scores array works out fine, but the $data_labels array does not. It only works if I change the kid names to ID numbers...which is not what I want.

I also want to asort the $kidscores array so that the scores get ordered from lowest to highest before displaying in the graph, but it appears that that wipes out the string values (the names) and replaces them with a numeric index.

I think I'm not understanding something here....

[bpat1434]

Strings . . . need . . . to . . . be . . . in . . . quotes . . .

Strings need quotes around them. Otherwise, they're not strings. So when you define (or refrence) any associative key, it should be with quotes around the string key:

// Your code:
$kidscores=(Johnny_Jones => 50, Sally_Smith => 100, Tommy_TheCat =>75);

// Proper code:
$kidscores=('Johnny_Jones' => 50, 'Sally_Smith' => 100, 'Tommy_TheCat' =>75);

Understand?

[Joseph_Sliker]

I understand your point and apologize for the shoddy posting. I had stripped the problem to (I think) the bare essentials.

The variable actually gets filled up with it's keys and values during a fairly complex while/mysql fetch operation that does some calculations and also involves serializing and urlencoding like so:

while ($Row = mysql_fetch_array ($ENTERED_RESULT))
{
$kidscores[$Row[NAME]]= round((($SATISFCOUNTS[$Row[MPSID]]/$Row[RATINGCOUNT])*100),0);
$KS=serialize($kidscores);
}
$url_KISDSCORES = urlencode($KS);

I believe I have tried adding all manner of single and double quotes in various positions at the "$kidscores[$Row[NAME]]= " part of the quote in hopes of getting the contents of the variable properly laid out, but I could be wrong.

See any obvious errors above?

[bpat1434]

yes.... strings still require quotes... lol....

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($ENTERED_RESULT))
{
  $kidscores[$row['NAME']] = round((($SATISFCOUNTS[$row['MPSID']]/$row['RATINGCOUNT'])*100), 0);
  $KS = serialize($kidscores);
}

[Joseph_Sliker]

Okay. With the changes you suggested, print_r shows me this:

print_r ($kidscores);

Array ( [Berma_Stuffy] => 88 [Caroll_Joan] => 92 [CASTILLOGARCI_YER] => 82 [Chevez_Mike] => 94 [Day_Dee] => 50 [Duck_Darnold] => 88 [Englemann_Abraham] => 88 [Garganin_Usama] => 88 [Herpert_Al] => 100 [Jones_Filene] => 75 ) 

it looks like all of this survives the serialize/urlencode (pass to next page) urldecode/unserialze process, but it does not include those dang quotes.

[bpat1434]

when you print the array, it won't include the quotes. but when you reference it, you NEED the quotes....

[Joseph_Sliker]

Well, I still don't get it. I've gotta get going on some other projects and since the properly enclosed NAME string does not seem to make it through to the $datax[] I'm using plan B...which sends the studentID number through the process, and on the JPgraph page it uses each of those values in a repetetive query to look up each kid's name again.

FOREACH ($HOMEWORKDATA AS $KEY => $VALUE) 
{
	//this gets the scores out of the array
	$datay[] = $VALUE;
	//this uses each MPSID ($KEY) to get each kid's name and use it as a label
$KIDQuery = "SELECT FIRST, LAST from STUDENTS WHERE MPSID='$KEY' LIMIT 1";
mysql_select_db($DBName);
$Result= mysql_query($KIDQuery, $Link);
	while ($Row=mysql_fetch_array($Result)) {
	$datax[] = "$Row[FIRST] $Row[LAST]";
	} //end of while loop
	} //end of FOREACH

This does seem to work just fine, but I do hope I will eventually figure out how to just pass the values through the url and not have to go through this step.

This is not resolved at this point. The code above is just a temporary work-around.

[laserlight]

Well, if you really do want to pass an array wholesale, [man]serialize/man is an option.

[bpat1434]

Honestly.... the string references need to be strings, and should have quotes around them... like so:

$datax[] = $Row['FIRST'].' '.$Row['LAST'];

Not like:

$datax[] = "$Row[FIRST] $Row[LAST]";

And for passing it via the URL, [man]serialize/man is the proper function to use....