help with setting up assoociative array values and displaying on web page

webguync

I believe an associative array is what I need here. I have a column in an html table pulling from a MySQL DB via PHP which displays values from a questions/application so they may look something like 4,8,9,12,17 etc. I wanted to set up an associative array to correspond with those numbers such as 4=>I-A,8=>I-B,9=>I-C,12=>I-D,17=>II-C etc. and then have another column which displays the associative values.

Would http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-fetch-assoc.php be what I am looking for?

big_nerd

webguync,

mysql_fetch_assoc() will get the row names from the MySQL database and place them in an associative array.

For instance if you have a database with the following rows: id, name, answer
The array may look like:

Array (id => 1,
          name => 'big.nerd',
          answer => 'php')

$assocArray = array('id' => 1, 'name' => 'big.nerd', 'answer' => 'php');
echo "Hey, The Question ID ".$assocArray['id']." was answered by ".$assocArray['name']." and they said ".$assocArray['answer']."!";

That would be information pulled from the database.

Associative array just means that the array is being called by a string (name), verses a number (starting at 0).

you can assign those numbers to a string, but an associative array isn't really what you're looking for, i.e.

[code=php]
$answerKeys = array(4 => 'I-A', 8 => 'I-B'); // etc
echo $answerKeys[4]; //; output: I-A

Think of an array as the first two columns of a spreadsheet (visually) when A translates to B (columns)

webguync

ok, thanks. Makes more sense now. I am kind of looking for something like 1 (I-A), 2(I-A),3(II-A),4(II-😎 etc.

the only problem is I don't know what to echo. In my col A it is pulling from a MySQL database field so it may be (1,4,6,7,10) or it may be (1,9,22,30) each record will be unique, therefore how would I determine what to echo?

niroshan

hi webguync,

Since you don`t the array index you can use list and each functions.

Weedpacket

If you have an array {4, 8, ...} and another array {"I-A", "I-A", ...} (either or both obtained via db queries, it doesn't matter where they actually come from), you can combine them into an associative array {4=>"I-A", 8=>"I-A", ...} by using [man]array_combine[/man].

webguync

when I am setting up the array though how will I know what to list for $a or how can I extract the info from the DB field into an array?

<?php
$a = array('1', '12', '25');
$b = array('I-A', 'I-D', 'III-C');
$c = array_combine($a, $b);

echo($c);
?>

Weedpacket

webguync wrote:
when I am setting up the array though how will I know what to list for $a

It's your application, you should know where it's getting its data from.

or how can I extract the info from the DB field into an array?

The usual way: query the database and loop through the results; you can have any code you like inside that loop, including some that puts values into an array.

webguync

ha, yes. I definitely know how where the application is getting the data from.

The result in the MySQL would look like this.

field name 'incorrect_resp', data[6,12,20,32,33,35] etc.

each record will have different data.

Would I need to use mysql_fetch_array to turn that data into an array?

$a = array('6','12','20','32','33','35');

bradgrafelman

Well, you would need to use any of the mysql_fetch_*() functions to retrieve the data in the first place, yes.

Once you got the string of comma-delimited values, you could use [man]explode/man to turn that string into an array.

webguync

I am already getting the data ok, from MySQL using mysql_fetch_assoc so that part is taken care of. I have been doing some research on explode(), but not sure how get the values I want into an array. It look like explode works like this.

<?php
$str = "1 7 9 10 15";
print_r (explode(" ",$str));
?>

which outputs:
Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 7 [2] => 9 [3] => 01 [4] => 15 )

and I am trying to get to something like this.

<?php
$a = array('1', '7', '9','10,'15');
$b = array('I-A', 'I-D', 'III-C',IV-A,'VI');
$c = array_combine($a, $b);

echo($c);
?>

sorry if I am being slow to get this. Never dealt mush with arrays and explode(). Just need to know how to get from point A to Point B to Point C.

bradgrafelman

Well using [man]explode/man, you already have $a's array. Where does the array for $b come from?

webguync

would have to associate with $a somehow, I know how $b should match up with $a,but $a will be variable, so not sure on that. Anyway the association would always be the same 1(I-A),6(I-😎,12(I-D),20(II-D) etc.

bradgrafelman

I guess I'm not understanding what your question is. You already have the array for $a, so do you not know how to get the array for $b or... ?

webguync

I don't know how to establish the array for $b since the array values for $a will always be different. The information for $b won't be in a MySQL field so need to establish the relationship strictly with PHP if that can be done.

bradgrafelman

But that's what I asked before.. where does that data come from??

webguync

the values for $a are xtracted from a MySQL table field called 'incorrect_resp'. The values for $b, not sure. I do know how $a and $b should correlate when we get to this point.

<?php
$a = array('1', '7', '9','10,'15');
$b = array('I-A', 'I-D', 'III-C',IV-A,'VI');
$c = array_combine($a, $b);

echo($c);
?>

but $b is not being pulled from MySQL. I would just need to enter that info myself since I know how it associates from a matrix key.

webguync

does this make sense? Any ideas??