Add Array to Existing PHP Array Element

Question

I have the following array (called $available_dates) in PHP:

Array
(
    [0] => 2017-11-28
    [1] => 2017-11-29
    [2] => 2017-11-30
)

This array is passed to a function that queries an API to get tour times associated with these dates:

for($a=0;$a<count($available_dates);$a++) {

    $url = "HTTP API END POINT";
    $json = json_decode(get_JSON($url),true);
    $total_records = intval($json['total']);

    $tour_times = array();

    for($b=0;$b<$total_records;$b++) {

       //$tour_time is a string e.g. 11:30 AM
       $tour_time = $json['item'][$b]['time'];

       //Keep track, add to my time array
       $tour_times[] = $tour_time;
    }

    //Issue is here
    $available_dates[$a][] = $tour_times;


}

This produces the following error, at the line indicated above:

[] operator not supported for strings in

What I want to create is, and please excuse my bad formatting and representation:

Array
    (
        [0] => 2017-11-28
               array(0 => '12:00 PM', 1 => '2:00 PM')
        [1] => 2017-11-29
               array(0 => '11:00 PM', 1 => '10:00 PM')
        [2] => 2017-11-30
               array(0 => '9:00 AM', 1 => '2:00 PM')
    )

Your desired format doesn't look like a valid data structure - you're trying to put a date string and an array of times in the same element. Do you maybe want to use the yyyy-mm-dd strings as the key instead? — iainn
– iainn, Commented Nov 28, 2017 at 13:09

shushu304 · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-28 13:20:09Z

1

You need to change your base $available_dates structure to one of those 2:

$available_dates = array(
    '2017-11-28'=>array(),
    '2017-11-29'=>array(),
    '2017-11-30'=>array(),
);

or

$available_dates = Array
(
    [0] => array('date'=>'2017-11-28' , 'times'=>array())
    [1] => array('date'=>'2017-11-29' , 'times'=>array())
    [2] => array('date'=>'2017-11-30' , 'times'=>array())
)

the purpuse is to save the "times" in inner array.

and then when you are iterate $available_dates take the date from the key (option 1) or take the date from the inner "date" new key (option 2), and for every json result from API ... enter to "times" array

foreach($available_dates AS $k=>$date) {

    $url = "HTTP API END POINT";
    $json = json_decode(get_JSON($url),true);
    $total_records = intval($json['total']);

    $tour_times = array();

    for($b=0;$b<$total_records;$b++) {
         //$tour_time is a string e.g. 11:30 AM
         $tour_time = $json['item'][$b]['time'];

         //Keep track, add to my time array
         $tour_times[] = $tour_time;
    }

    //option 1
    $available_dates[$k] = $tour_times;

    // option 2
    $available_dates[$k]['times'] = $tour_times;
}

answered Nov 28, 2017 at 13:20

shushu304

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1 Comment

Colin Over a year ago

Thank you for the insight and contrasting options. I'll take a look as I feel my understanding needs to be broadened here!

Lolipopcoder · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-28 13:10:20Z

0

You can add things like this:

$previous_date = $available_dates[$a];

$available_dates[$a] = array();

$available_dates[$a][] = $previous_date;

$merge = array_merge($available_dates[$a], $tour_times);

answered Nov 28, 2017 at 13:10

Lolipopcoder

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