array within an array

[patrick99e99]

Hi everyone! I am loving php.. but am a little stuck, could someone please point me in the right direction?

I have several arrays-- here is an example of a few:

   $magazine[0] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/self.jpg',
      'title' => 'Self Magazine',
      'alt' => 'Self Magazine Cover',
      'content' => array ('pages' => '1.jpg',
      'alt' => 'Page one',
      'width' => '400',
      'height' => '600'); 
   );
   $magazine[1] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
      'title' => 'Us Today',
      'alt' => 'Us Today Magazine Cover',
      'content' => array ('pages' => '2.jpg','3.jpg','4.jpg',
      'alt' => 'Page one','Page two','Page three',
      'width' => '400',
      'height' => '600'); 
   );

then my php code goes through and creates html links with the various imagesource, title, and alt keys.. depending on which is selected a varaible $magazineselect is defined... (This part works fine)

Next, (this is the part I am stuck on)...

I am trying to then display (depending on which link is clicked) the 'content', Some of these magazine articles have multiple pages, so that is why I made the 'content' key another array. (I am not sure if this is valid or even the right way to go)...

So, I would want something like this:

   if (!empty($magazineselect))
   {
      foreach ($magazine[$magazineselect['content'['pages']]] as $i)
      {
         echo "<img src='$i[pages]' alt='$i[alt]' width='$i[width]' height='$i[height]' />";
      }
   }

However, I am completely unsure of the syntax and how to do this.. So if anyone could help out, that would be wonderful.

Thank you in advance,

-patrick

[leatherback]

Guessing ths is the line that is causing you a headache:
foreach ($magazine[$magazineselect['content'['pages']]] as $i)

foreach($magazine[$magazineselect]['content']['pages'] as $i)

assuming $magazineselect is not an array too.

[patrick99e99]

Somehow it's still not working.. I'm actually having difficulty even figuring out how to output values within deeper levels of an array...

$magazineselect is not an array btw.. It's just a number defined by which link is clicked...

So my logic is this:

after various arrays are defined like this..

   $magazine[1] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
      'title' => 'Us Today',
      'alt' => 'Us Today Magazine Cover',
      'content' => array (
                  'pages' => '2.jpg','3.jpg',
                  'alt2' => 'USdeit'
                  )

   );

when you click on a link, $magazineselect is defined, and then I simply want to be able to have php go through and look only at the content key of that particular array ($magazine[$magazineselect]) -- if we say for this example they clicked on the 1st link and therefore they get $magazine[1]...

So I need to know how I can then say,

for the number of values found in 'pages' (in this case 2),

create the html to display that particular image with alt2 as it's alt tag..

I'm at a loss for how to do this though...

-patrick

[leatherback]

First of all, I do not think you are creating the arrays you want? I just looked at the first, which seems ok, now I checked the second too

The following is based on the idea you like to use the basic structure as you defined it.

     $magazine[1] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
      'title' => 'Us Today',
      'alt' => 'Us Today Magazine Cover',
      'content' => array (
         'pages' => array(
            0=> '2.jpg',
            1=> '3.jpg',
            2=>'4.jpg'),
         'alt' => array(
            0=>'Page one',
            1=>'Page two',
            2=>'Page three'),
         'width' => '400',
         'height' => '600');
   ); 

better would be to swap some things around:

     $magazine[1] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
      'title' => 'Us Today',
      'alt' => 'Us Today Magazine Cover',
      'content' => array (
         0=> array(
           'pages'=> '2.jpg',
           'alt'     =>'Page one',
           'width' => '400',
           'height' => '600')
         );
   ); 

When deadling with output & array, I like to keep it as stupid and simple as possible, because it gives you overview. So I would do a bit of subsetting for the time being, when that works, you can always remove the added steps:

if(isset($magazineselect) && is_array($magazine[$magazineselect]))
  {
  $current =  $magazine[$magazineselect];
  echo $current['imagesource'];  // Just to show something, as a errortrapping help, remote later
  if(is_array($current['content']))
    {
    foreach($current['content'] as $id=> $content)
       {
        if(is_array($content[page]))
              {
                 etc
              }
       }

The exact processing of the array depends on the structure you choose for it, but you get the drift?

[Installer]

I think you're making it overly complicated and should simplify. Here's a "first draft" idea:

$magazines['Self'] = array('cover' => 'images/pressphotos/self.jpg', 
                           'pages' => array('one' => 'Self_1.jpg')); 

$magazines['Us Today'] = array('cover' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
                               'pages' => array('one'   => 'Us_Today_1.jpg',
                                                'two'   => 'Us_Today_2.jpg',
                                                'three' => 'Us_Today_3.jpg'));

$page_width  = '400'; 
$page_height = '600'; 

$magazineselect = 'Us Today';
if (!empty($magazineselect)) {
    $str = '<img src="' . $magazines[$magazineselect]['cover'] . 
              '" alt="' . $magazineselect . ' Magazine Cover" />' . "\n";
    foreach ($magazines[$magazineselect]['pages'] as $page_num => $page_img) { 
        $str .= '<img src="'      . $page_img . 
                   '" alt="Page ' . $page_num . 
                   '" width="'    . $page_width . 
                   '" height="'   . $page_height . '" />' . "\n"; 
    } 
}

[patrick99e99]

Thanks.. That actually makes a lot of sense... One more question.. If I also want to add in the array page width and height parameters for each page, how would I best do that?

I guess my real question is:

if I am doing this:

 foreach ($magazine[$magazineselect]['pages'] as $page_num => $page_img)

how can I request multiple keys / definitions in one foreach statement?

thanks in advance.

-patrick

[Installer]

One way would be something like this:

$magazines['Us Today'] = array('cover' => 'images/pressphotos/usdietthumb.jpg',
                               'pages' => array('one'   => array('src' => 'Us_Today_1.jpg',
                                                                 'w'   => '350',
                                                                 'h'   => '500'),
                                                'two'   => array('src' => 'Us_Today_2.jpg',
                                                                 'w'   => '600',
                                                                 'h'   => '400'),
                                                'three' => array('src' => 'Us_Today_3.jpg',
                                                                 'w'   => '300',
                                                                 'h'   => '250')));

$magazineselect = 'Us Today';
if (!empty($magazineselect)) {
    $str = '<img src="' . $magazines[$magazineselect]['cover'] . 
              '" alt="' . $magazineselect . ' Magazine Cover" />' . "\n";
    foreach ($magazines[$magazineselect]['pages'] as $page_num => $data) { 
        $str .= '<img src="'      . $data['src'] . 
                   '" alt="Page ' . $page_num . 
                   '" width="'    . $data['w'] . 
                   '" height="'   . $data['h'] . '" />' . "\n"; 
    } 
} 

echo nl2br(htmlentities($str));

[patrick99e99]

thank you so much for your help with this... I see the light!

[patrick99e99]

Hello again,

I have one more question regarding this whole array thing..

If I am not in a foreach loop, how can I call the individual components of my array?

if I have:

   $magazine[3] = array (
      'imagesource' => 'images/pressphotos/thumbnails/volleyballthumb.jpg',
      'title' => 'Volleyball',
      'pages' => array (
                  'One' => array ('img' => 'images/pressphotos/volleyarticle1.jpg',
                                  'w' => '680',
                                  'h' => '986'),
                  'Two' => array ('img' => 'images/pressphotos/volleyarticle2.jpg',
                                  'w' => '647',
                                  'h' => '900'),
                  'Three' => array ('img' => 'images/pressphotos/volleyarticle3.jpg',
                                  'w' => '645',
                                  'h' => '900'))
         );

How can I say

$magazineselect="3";
echo "$magazine[$magazineselect]['pages']['One']['img']";

Because that outputs to my browser:

Array['pages'][One]['img']

thanks in advance

[Installer]

echo $magazine[$magazineselect]['pages']['One']['img'];

[patrick99e99]

aha. quotes!!!

ok.. two more questions..

Question #1:

what does this mean:
echo nl2br(htmlentities($str));

converting /n to <br>??

Question #2:

How can I count the number of arrays within an array? In other words, how can I say:

if $magazine[$magazineselect]['pages']>1
{
do some php stuff
}

?

Thanks!
-patrick

[Installer]

That's just a debugging line. It will echo the html, tags and all so we can see what the exact output of the code is.

nl2br()
htmlentities()

Use sizeof().

[patrick99e99]

ah ok, thank you very very very much for your time helping me...