[RESOLVED] Renaming variables within an array using loops

[Bilbozilla]

I have an array whose elements needs to have a generic name. I have the code almost working. Right now, the variables I want to use might have something along the lines of this:

_lang1   3
_lang15  4
_lang9   1
_lang33  16

I chose this method as the other method lists some 30 different languages and unless there is a better way, a portable method such as this seems to be the best way as the selections are all over the board.

The numbers at the end of lang are appended on the fly. What I would like to do is strip the numbers off lang and rename them as

_lang1  3
_lang2  4
_lang3  1
_lang4  16

Here's the loop that processes the code. Variables $i, $j, & $k are all defined outside the loop.

       foreach ($arr as $ele) {
 	$samp=$width/$num;
	      $str .= "<td width=$samp><p><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"$ele->subset$j\" value=\"$ele->id\"";
           $j++;
foreach ($checked as $entry) {
    if ($entry == $ele->name) { 
$str= remove_numbers($ele->subset$j, $k);
$k++;
$str .= "checked";
          continue;
        }
      }


function remove_numbers($string,$k) {
	$rmv = array("1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "0", " ");
	$string = str_replace($rmv, '', $string);
	$string .= $k;
	return $string;
}

[dagon]

well i'm confused, i see no actual var, renaming, the variables you say your using are not valid php variables, the array you say your looping through is not shown.

And renaming variables, usually means your doing something wrong in the first place.

[Bilbozilla]

Here's my problem -

The values passed to the subsequent page look like this for now:

Displaying POST Variables: 
result_name	result_val
English	 1
Greek	 56

The problem is going to be that there are several other sets of data that will need to be handled, many of which are going to have the same result_val.

Displaying POST Variables: 
result_name	result_val
English	        1
Greek	        56
Spanish         14
Motorcycle      1
Bus             13
Venezuela       56
Ohio            14

Ideally, it would look like this:

Displaying POST Variables: 
result_name	result_val
_lang1     1
_lang2	   56
_lang3     14
_trans1    1
_trans2    13
_loc1      56
_loc2      14

Each of the language, transportation, and locations are stored in their own tables, and each has a unique identifier (result_val) within that table, but as you can see, taken together when performing a search, the $_POST variable lumps them together and there are duplicate result_val values, but they only refer to 1 item in its respective table.

I have a series of functions to pull out specific items (i.e. if the language module isn't empty, it will search language. If the transportation modules and location modules are not empty, the search will look through both transportation and location, but not language)

[dagon]

sounds like an issue with structuring your form

[Bilbozilla]

Temporary tables are going to save the day.

[johanafm]

how would temp tables make this any easier than just handling it straight off in php?

Besides, I totally agree with dagon. Easy and appropriate as a solution. Why have

<form ...><div>
	<input type="text" name="English" value="1"/>
	<input type="text" name="Greek" value="56"/>
	<input type="text" name="Truck" value="56"/>
	<input type="text" name="Cranberry" value="56"/>
</div></form>

When you might just as well have

<form ...><div>
	<input type="text" name="Language[]" value="1"/>
	<input type="text" name="Language[]" value="56"/>
	<input type="text" name="Transportation[]" value="56"/>
	<input type="text" name="Food[]" value="56"/>
</div></form>

same for checks, radios, selects or whatever you're using.

[Bilbozilla]

Thank you, JohanaFM. I know enough about code, processes, and the like to get myself into trouble. I'll be the first to admit - I'm a hack, tweaking my own code until it works, but never really sure of the outcome. In my defense, this isn't my day job.

I appreciate your solution - I think it's coming together. I'm at a point now, though, where

    foreach (lang[] as $checked) {
                  ...code...
            } 

is giving me grief. I can see that lang[0] and lang[1] have the desired values, but I can't to anything with them. What is the syntax to use each of the lang[] elements in a foreach clause?

[johanafm]

Bilbozilla;10958903 wrote:

    foreach (lang[] as $checked) {
                  ...code...
            } 

If that's the code you're trying to run, it fails due to a parse error (missing $ before lang). If it was just a posting error, then $checked should indeed hold the value of each $lang element as you iterate over the array, and in that case perhaps post the code you have in the foreach-loop as well. And include any error messages as well.

[Bilbozilla]

johanafm;10958922 wrote:

If that's the code you're trying to run, it fails due to a parse error (missing $ before lang). If it was just a posting error, then $checked should indeed hold the value of each $lang element as you iterate over the array, and in that case perhaps post the code you have in the foreach-loop as well. And include any error messages as well.

Yep, the missing $ was a posting error. Thank you for all your help. using $lang[] was exactly what I needed, and it now works like a charm.

I swear, one of these days I'll REALLY learn this stuff, but until then, I'm getting there slowly with the help of the SEARCH function on these pages and the member's willing responses here.

[bradgrafelman]

$lang[] would allow you to add an item to the array - not read the entire array. To do the latter you'd simply reference $lang. Using $lang[] in a foreach() statement should result in another error:

Fatal error: Cannot use [] for reading