php array comperation, complete missing array locations

Question

I have two arrays:

 $array1 = array('name', 'email', 'phone');
 $array2 = array('name' => 'John', 'phone' => '55-555-555');

I have created a HTML table from this two arrays, array1 is the table heads, and array2 is the td contents.

what happens now is that becouse array2 is missing a value (email in this case) I will get the phone data under the mail column. i would like to get this result:

 $array2 = array('name' => 'John', 'email' => ' ', 'phone' => '55-555-555');

I tried to follow this answer, but it has two main problems:

the array keys desapear.
the 0 values are added at the end of the array and not in their original location.

"I have created a table ..." -- do you mean an HTML <table>? — axiac
– axiac, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 11:55

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-10 18:14:01Z

3

Your source array is wrong. You need to have something like this:

$array1 = array('name' => '', 'email' => '', 'phone' => '');

And if you want to extend with the empty values, you can use:

$array2 = array('name' => 'John', 'phone' => '55-555-555');

The final array can be made by using array_merge:

Merges the elements of one or more arrays together so that the values of one are appended to the end of the previous one. It returns the resulting array.

$array2 = array_merge($array1, $array2);

You will get this as output:

array('name' => 'John', 'email' => '', 'phone' => '55-555-555');

Full Code

$array1 = array('name' => '', 'email' => '', 'phone' => '');
$array2 = array('name' => 'John', 'phone' => '55-555-555');
$array2 = array_merge($array1, $array2);
var_export($array2);

Output

array (
  'name' => 'John',
  'email' => '',
  'phone' => '55-555-555',
)

Demo: http://ideone.com/7zlab7

Better Explanation

// Have a base array that has all the required fields.
$baseArr = array('name', 'email', 'phone', 'password');
// Get your array with the initial values, (without a few fields).
$myArray = array('name' => 'david', 'email' => '[email protected]', 'phone'=> '123456789');
// Now make a new array on the fly with array_fill_keys using the baseArr
// and merge with the original user array.
$myArray = array_merge(array_fill_keys($baseArr, ''), $myArray);
// The resultant array will have all the fields.
print_r($myArray);

Output

Array
(
    [name] => david
    [email] => [email protected]
    [phone] => 123456789
    [password] => 
)

Demo: http://ideone.com/XLCMN9

edited Nov 10, 2016 at 18:14

answered Nov 10, 2016 at 11:57

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman

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7 Comments

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Over a year ago

Any pointers on why this is downvoted will be helpful. Well I am happy to learn.

DavSev Over a year ago

I cant get to empty the values in the $array1 array, How can i do it so i will get the result you have published above?

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Over a year ago

@DavSev How can you do what?

DavSev Over a year ago

Set all values to ' ' like you explaind on the second row. now i manage to get an assocciative array but all the keys have date. i tried to use array_fill_keys but it converts the array values into array keys!

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Over a year ago

@DavSev Yes, you should use array_fill_keys. That should work for you. And send the original array. What's wrong is happening in it?

|

axiac · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-10 12:02:51Z

You can use the PHP function array_key_exists() to find out if the data array contains a value for the column you want to print.

Something like this:

$array1 = array('name', 'email', 'phone');
$array2 = array('name' => 'John', 'phone' => '55-555-555');

// Echo <table>, table header row etc here

// Print the data row
echo('<tr>');
foreach ($array1 as $key) {
    if (array_key_exists($key, $array2)) {
        echo('<td>'.$array2[$key].'</td>');
    } else {
        echo('<td></td>');
    }
}
echo('</tr>');

You can use the same technique to fill the missing values in $array2 (and keep the rendering code unchanged):

foreach ($array1 as $key) {
    if (! array_key_exists($key, $array2) {
        $array1[$key] = '';
    }
}

Jeroen Bellemans · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-10 12:03:47Z

1

Praveen Kumar's answer should be the accepted one, but here's another approach which also works:

$array_1 = array('name', 'phone', 'address');
$array_2 = array('name' => 'john', 'address' => 'street number');

foreach ($array_1 as $key) {
    if (!array_key_exists($key, $array_2)) {
        $array_2[$key] = '';
    }
}

var_export($array_2);

This will output the following result:

array ( 'name' => 'john', 'address' => 'street number', 'phone' => '' )

answered Nov 10, 2016 at 12:03

Jeroen Bellemans

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