how to get the most current item from an array?

patrick99e99

Hi,

I have a quick question.. I have an include file with many arrays that look like this:

$event[] = array ('stuff' => 'bla');
$times[] = mktime(0,0,0,6,9,2007);

as of right now, I am using asort to sort all of these by date and display them as a list. But what I need now is to know what the easiest way to just pull the most current item (by date) from this list?

thank you!

-patrick

leatherback

Hi,

I presume your array keys have meaning to you then (Or: My question is: Why not sort the array normally, and use array[0] ?)

Anyway.. You could http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.array-slice.php the first (Or last) element of the array. I think you might need to do that on a copy, as it resets the array keys.

Think it would be the one with fewest solutions?

patrick99e99

To answer your question, I am not sure how I can sort the $events array normally and have it be sorted relative to $times..?

This is what I have so far for sorting, and it works.. It goes through the arrays and sorts the $events relative to the $time array... which I am actually not clear on how this is actually working-- could you pelase explain this to me.. I am particularily confused by the $i => $timestamp part since $timestamp is not called anywhere else in the code.

   $my_time = mktime (0,0,0, $date_now['mon'], ($date_now['mday']), $date_now['year']);            

asort ($times);

foreach ($times as $i => $timestamp)
{
$event = $events[$i];
if ($my_time<$times[i])
{
/*...print the array info...*/
}

the array actually looks like this:

  $events[] = array(
      'icon' => 'tticonflow',
      'citystate' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'venue' => 'Details TBD',
      'address1' => '',
      'address2' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'phone'  => '',
      'url' => '',
      'dates' => 'May 3-6, 2007',
      'phasecolor' => '',
      'phase' => '',
      'registration' => '',
      'times' => '12pm-4pm',
   'signup' => 'no'
   );

  $times[] = mktime(0,0,0,5,3,2007);

So.. this works fine, and now I am trying to figure out how can I find the ONE $events that is relative to the $times with the closest date to today's date...

Oh.. and a side question, if I have this:
mktime(0,0,0,6,9,2007)--- is there an easy method to output that in how many days, weeks, months it is from today?

thank you.
-patrick

leatherback

Hey Patrick,

hm.. Have you considered using a database? The things you are doing CAN be done in files. However, they are much EASIER to be done ina relational database.

Anyway.. The way I would go ahead with this:

Structure the arrays as one array for all info:


$events = array();

// fill it for a specific date:
if(!array_key_exists($date, $events))
  {// This date is new in the array
  $events['$date'] = array(
      0 => array(
      'icon' => 'tticonflow',
      'citystate' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'venue' => 'Details TBD',
      'address1' => '',
      'address2' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'phone'  => '',
      'url' => '',
      'dates' => 'May 3-6, 2007',
      'phasecolor' => '',
      'phase' => '',
      'registration' => '',
      'times' => '12pm-4pm',
   'signup' => 'no'));
  }
else
  { // This date already exists, add event
  $events['$date'][] = array(
      'icon' => 'tticonflow',
      'citystate' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'venue' => 'Details TBD',
      'address1' => '',
      'address2' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'phone'  => '',
      'url' => '',
      'dates' => 'May 3-6, 2007',
      'phasecolor' => '',
      'phase' => '',
      'registration' => '',
      'times' => '12pm-4pm',
   'signup' => 'no');
  }

// this is assuming you will fill it using some script. Otherwise you can shorten it:

$events = array();
$events['SOMEDATE'] = array()

$events['SOMEDATE'][] = array(
      'icon' => 'tticonflow',
      'citystate' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'venue' => 'Details TBD',
      'address1' => '',
      'address2' => 'Santa Monica, CA',
      'phone'  => '',
      'url' => '',
      'dates' => 'May 3-6, 2007',
      'phasecolor' => '',
      'phase' => '',
      'registration' => '',
      'times' => '12pm-4pm',
   'signup' => 'no');
  }

This would allow you to sort the array (php.net/sort). To get the number of weeks etc you would have to look at the [man]date[/man] functions. I am sure there is somebody on the board however who has a snippet for this. You could try opening a new thread and ask for it, or better yet, do a search on google.