very complicated multiple array

[expert_21]

hello I'm trying to convert this array:

$info = array('color' => array('yellow','blue'), 'font' => array('bold', 'italic', 'underline'), 'num' => array(1,2,3)

into this:

array(
[0] => "test-yellow-bold-1",
[1] => "test-yellow-bold-2",
[2] => "test-yellow-bold-3",
[3] => "test-yellow-italic-1",
[4] => "test-yellow-italic-2",
[5] => "test-yellow-italic-3",
[6] => "test-yellow-underline-1",
[7] => "test-yellow-underline-2",
[8] => "test-yellow-underline-3",
[9] => "test-blue-bold-1",
[10] => "test-blue-bold-2",
[11] => "test-blue-bold-3",
[12] => "test-blue-italic-1",
[13] => "test-blue-italic-2",
[14] => "test-blue-italic-3",
[15] => "test-blue-underline-1",
[16] => "test-blue-underline-2",
[17] => "test-blue-underline-3",
)

any ideas of how to best achieve this?

[Installer]

foreach ($info['color'] as $color) {
    foreach ($info['font'] as $font) {
        foreach ($info['num'] as $num) {
            $new_info[] = 'test-' . $color . '-' . $font . '-' . $num;
        }
    }
}
print_r($new_info);

[expert_21]

The problem is they could give something else like:

$info = array('ext' => array('yellow','blue'), 'ext2' => array('bold', 'italic', 'underline'), 'ext3' => array(1,2,3)

Then my fuction would have to take that as input and process to something like what I paste below.

Thanks.

[Installer]

$keys = array_keys($info);
foreach ($info[$keys[0]] as $color) {
    foreach ($info[$keys[1]] as $font) {
        foreach ($info[$keys[2]] as $num) {
            $new_info[] = 'test-' . $color . '-' . $font . '-' . $num;
        }
    }
}
print_r($new_info);

[expert_21]

Thanks for the update! what if we do not know how many inputs the user would give? For instance they may just give ext and ext2.

[expert_21]

Here's what I came up with:

function stupid_loop($format, $data = array()) {
global $globali, $globalreplace, $todelete;

$keys = array_keys($data); // 0 => replace, 1 => me
if (!isset($globali)) {
	$globali = 0;
}

if (!empty($data[$keys[$globali + 1]])) { // if !

empty($data[me]) {
foreach ($data[$keys[$globali]] AS $GLOBALS

['k' . $globali] => $GLOBALS['v' . $globali]) { // foreach

$data[replace] AS $GLOBALS[k0] => $GLOBALS[k1]
$GLOBALS[replace][] = $GLOBALS['v' .

$globali];
print 'outerreplace ';print $globali;

print_r($GLOBALS[replace]);
$globali += 1;
stupid_loop($format, $data);
array_pop($GLOBALS[replace]);
}
} else {
foreach ($data[$keys[$globali]] AS $GLOBALS

['k' . $globali] => $GLOBALS['v' . $globali]) { // $globali =

1, foreach $data[me] as $GLOBALS[k1] => $GLOBALS[k2]
$GLOBALS[replace][] = $GLOBALS['v' .

$globali];
print 'innerreplace ';print $globali;

;print_r($GLOBALS[replace]);
$todelete[] = str_replace($keys,

$GLOBALS[replace], $format);
array_pop($GLOBALS[replace]);
}
$globali -= 1;
}
}

$format = '**** replace me total'; $data = array('replace' =>

array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K', 'C'),

'total' => array(1,2,3));
stupid_loop($format, $data);
print_r($todelete);

It works if there's 2 keys, but doesn't when there's more than 2. Any help please?

[stevesweetland]

oops

[laserlight]

I would suggest this as a more general solution:

<?php
$info = array(
    'color' => array('yellow','blue'),
    'font' => array('bold', 'italic', 'underline'),
    'num' => array(1,2,3));

$results = array('test');
foreach ($info as $info_set) {
    $temp_results = array();
    foreach ($results as $result) {
        foreach ($info_set as $info_value) {
            $temp_results[] = $result . '-' . $info_value;
        }
    }
    $results = $temp_results;
}

print_r($results);
?>

[stevesweetland]

$keys = array_keys($info);
foreach ($info[$keys[0]] as $var1) {
	foreach ($info[$keys[1]] as $var2) {
		if (is_array($info[$keys[2]]){
			foreach ($info[$keys[2]] as $var3) {
				$new_info[] = 'test-' . $var1 . '-' . $var2 . '-' . $var3;
			}
		} else {
			$new_info[] = 'test-' . $var1 . '-' . $var2;
		}
	}
}
print_r($new_info);

[laserlight]

stevesweetland, your solution is only designed to work with exactly three inner arrays.

[stevesweetland]

..... two or three, unless iv missed something glaringly obvious.

when i posted mine i didnt realise you had posted a solution... my apologies if it seemed i was offering a conflicting view.

[laserlight]

stevesweetland wrote:

..... two or three.

No, it is not designed to work with two inner arrays, though it may work with warnings from the PHP interpreter.

EDIT:
Oh, I blindly misinterpreted the warnings: yes, it is indeed designed to work with two inner arrays, but you should change is_array($info[$keys[2]]) to isset($keys[2]) && is_array($info[$keys[2]])

EDIT #2:

stevesweetland wrote:

when i posted mine i didnt realise you had posted a solution... my apologies if it seemed i was offering a conflicting view.

No, it is not that you are "offering a conflicting view", but that your solution is not sufficient since expert_21 is asking for help to deal with the situation where the number of inner arrays is variable, not just fixed to two or three.

[stevesweetland]

edit, seen ya edit

laserlight;10895264 wrote:

No, it is not that you are "offering a conflicting view", but that your solution is not sufficient since expert_21 is asking for help to deal with the situation where the number of inner arrays is variable, not just fixed to two or three.

oh yeah.... doh.... i read into his post that the user might give one, two or three... anyway > expert_21, use laserlights solution.

thats pretty much rule of thumb here anyway 🙂

[expert_21]

I'm still not sure how to apply it. Spent whole day thinking and this is just beyond me.

Here's what I need. The input will be a pattern text eg:
$format = 'just replace me total';

and a variable array eg:
$data = array('just' => array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K'));

From that I need to get a list of probabilities like:
apple replace O total
apple replace K total
orange replace O total
orange replace K total

Can you shred some light on this?

[stevesweetland]

hmm.. interesting...

[laserlight]

expert_21 wrote:

Hi Laser, in reply to your solution in http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?p=10895265#post10895265

I'm still not sure how to apply it. Spent whole day thinking and this is just beyond me.

Here's what I need. The input will be a pattern text eg:
$format = 'just replace me total';

and a variable array eg:
$data = array('just' => array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K'));

From that I need to get a list of probabilities like:
apple replace O total
apple replace K total
orange replace O total
orange replace K total

Can you shred some light on this?

The above was sent to me via private messaging. I believe that such questions should be out in the open where answers can be reviewed by a wide audience.

The solution that I propose is to make use of format specifiers from the printf family of functions. If we can somehow adapt my previous example such that it generated a list of arguments instead, then we just need to replace the given format string with a corresponding format string suited to printf and then apply the arguments to the placeholders. Since this argument list would be an array, we would specifically choose [man]vsprintf/man.

The code that I came up with is shown below:

<?php
$format = 'just replace me total';

$data = array('just' => array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K'));

// Prepare the vsprintf format string.
$i = 1;
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
    $format = str_replace($key, '%' . $i . '$s', $format);
    ++$i;
}

// Prepare the vsprintf arguments.
$args_list = array(array());
foreach ($data as $data_set) {
    $temp_args_list = array();
    foreach ($args_list as $args) {
        foreach ($data_set as $data_value) {
            $temp = $args;
            $temp[] = $data_value;
            $temp_args_list[] = $temp;
        }
    }
    $args_list = $temp_args_list;
}

// Substitute the placeholders with the arguments to get the results.
$results = array();
foreach ($args_list as $args) {
    $results[] = vsprintf($format, $args);
}

// Print the results for checking.
print_r($results);
?>

Note the use of numbered placeholders as described in the PHP manual entry for [man]sprintf/man. This is necessary since the ordering of inner arrays in $data might not match the placement of the keys in $format. Nonetheless, the final order of $results does depend on the ordering of the inner arrays in $data.

[laserlight]

expert_21 wrote:

Hi Laser, in reply to your solution in http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?p=10895265#post10895265

I'm still not sure how to apply it. Spent whole day thinking and this is just beyond me.

Here's what I need. The input will be a pattern text eg:
$format = 'just replace me total';

and a variable array eg:
$data = array('just' => array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K'));

From that I need to get a list of probabilities like:
apple replace O total
apple replace K total
orange replace O total
orange replace K total

Can you shred some light on this?

The above was sent to me via private messaging. I believe that such questions should be out in the open where answers can be reviewed by a wide audience.

The solution that I propose is to make use of format specifiers from the printf family of functions. If we can somehow adapt my previous example such that it generated a list of arguments instead, then we just need to replace the given format string with a corresponding format string suited to printf and then apply the arguments to the placeholders. Since this argument list would be an array, we would specifically choose [man]vsprintf/man.

The code that I came up with is shown below:

<?php
$format = 'just replace me total';

$data = array('just' => array('apple', 'orange'), 'me' => array('O', 'K'));

$i = 1;
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
    $format = str_replace($key, '%' . $i . '$s', $format);
    ++$i;
}

$args_list = array(array());
foreach ($data as $data_set) {
    $temp_args_list = array();
    foreach ($args_list as $args) {
        foreach ($data_set as $data_value) {
            $temp = $args;
            $temp[] = $data_value;
            $temp_args_list[] = $temp;
        }
    }
    $args_list = $temp_args_list;
}

$results = array();
foreach ($args_list as $args) {
    $results[] = vsprintf($format, $args);
}
print_r($results);
?>

Note the use of numbered placeholders as described in the PHP manual entry for [man]sprintf/man. This is necessary since the ordering of inner arrays in $data might not match the placement of the keys in $format. Nonetheless, the final order of $results does depend on the ordering of the inner arrays in $data.

[stevesweetland]

laserlight;10895274 wrote:

Note the use of numbered placeholders as described in the PHP manual entry for [man]sprintf/man. This is necessary since the ordering of inner arrays in $data might not match the placement of the keys in $format. Nonetheless, the final order of $results does depend on the ordering of the inner arrays in $data.

damn it ya beat me to it.

you're good.