Adding values to a multidimensional array PHP

Question

I have tried this now about 20 different ways, set it down and picked it back up several times and I am at a loss for what I am doing wrong. I am trying to create an array of arrays from three separate arrays. The first array I iterate through is a list of dates. Then I iterate through a list of cabins (this is a simple camp scheduling program), and then I randomly assign an activity to each of the cabins from a third array.

The three arrays are $cabins, $activities, and $checkeddates

//swaps key-value so cabin names are keys
$cabins = array_flip( $cabins );  
//sets each key value pair to be cabinname=> null
erase_val( $cabins );

foreach ( $checkeddates as $dates ) {
    $uberarray[] = $dates;
}
$uberarray = array_flip( $uberarray );
foreach ( $uberarray as $k => $v ) {
    $uberarray[$k] = $cabins;
}

At this point, a var_dump shows that I have an array of dates each containing an array of cabins names with null values, from this point I have tried a dozen things and this is just where I left it, trying a process of elimination to figure out what it isn't.

foreach ( $uberarray as $k => $v ) {
    shuffle( $activities );
    $s = $activities[0]; 
    $uberarray[] = $s;
}

In the end, I was thinking to build the large array (with some additional rules not yet written in to prevent multiple assignments of the same thing and such. And then as one function I would iterate through the established combinations in the array to write it to the database.

Edit: Request for how I want it to look in the end:

array
  'ThuJan1st' =>
     array 
       'cabin 1' => randomactivity1
       'cabin 2' => randomactivity2
       'cabin 3' => randomactivity3

Currently I have 2 out of 3, but I can not seem to randomly add the activities as values.

Edit: This is what @kunal 's suggestion produced:

array
  'ThuJan1st' =>
     array 
       'cabin 1' => randomactivity1
       'cabin 2' => randomactivity2
       'cabin 3' => randomactivity3
    array
  'FriJan2nd' =>
     array 
       'cabin 1' => randomactivity4
       'cabin 2' => Null
       'cabin 3' => Null

Once it iterated through activities a single time, nothing else was assigned a value.

It may help you to visualise this if you throw a couple of classes in here, so you can group not only like data (cabin -> date -> activity) but also like logic. Allocate each object its possible variants, then you can randomise locally, rather than trying to do everything in one huge lump. Also, it would be helpful if you could show a definite set of input data and some example output that would produce (you current examples do not show input...) — DaveRandom
– DaveRandom, Commented Sep 26, 2013 at 23:49
I replied with this to a comment below: pastie.org/8356206 And I don't know how much more detailed the output could be, I have showed the desired var_dump result and the actual var_dump result. Is there something else that would help? — red6
– red6, Commented Sep 27, 2013 at 0:04

kunal · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-26 03:38:23Z

2

~~foreach ($checkeddates as $date) { shuffle( $activities ); foreach ($cabins as $cabin) { foreach ($activities as $activity) { $uberarray[$date][$cabin] = $activity; } } }~~

EDIT: The above answer is incorrect. It assigns the same activity to each date/cabin pair. The below answer should give you what you are looking for.

$checkeddates = array('ThuJan1st');
$cabins = array('cabin 1','cabin 2','cabin 3');

foreach ($checkeddates as $date) {
    $activities = array('randomactvitiy1','randomactivity2','randomactivity3');
    shuffle( $activities );

    foreach ($cabins as $cabin) {
        $uberarray[$date][$cabin] = array_pop($activities);
    }
}

var_dump($uberarray);

edited Sep 26, 2013 at 3:38

answered Sep 26, 2013 at 3:19

kunal

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9 Comments

red6 Over a year ago

I tried some variation on this (or several variations on this) - error message "Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array"

siva.k Over a year ago

@red6 this should work, on what line does it throw that error? If you try to perform a foreach on a non-array you'll get that, but since you only have three arrays it should be fine.

red6 Over a year ago

OK, I might have kept a weird line in there. I reran it and instead of the error, it's just adding an extra line with one key and a blank value: pastie.org/8356193

Mark Parnell Over a year ago

What do your 3 arrays look like before you combine them?

red6 Over a year ago

pastie.org/8356206 -- I just kept some simple, shorter versions of them until I get this working.

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