How to Initialize an Associative Array in a While Loop?

Question

I am now doing a simple thing, I am going to read from a CSV file, that column A contains code such as "EN", column B contains specific name "English"..etc., and I want to read them into an associate array.

My current doing is like this:

  $handle = fopen("Languages.csv","r") or die("EPIC FAIL!");

  $languageArray = array(
  while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) 
  {
              $row[0] => $row[1],
  }
  )

But it actually complains about my syntax, so I am just wondering if there is a way to initialize my associate array by getting all the rows of my csv file, and put the first string(from column A) as the key, the second string(from column B)as the value?

Thanks.

BoltClock · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-10 18:49:52Z

16

Initialize it as empty first:

$languageArray = array();

Then populate it using a separate while loop like this:

while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) 
{
    $languageArray[$row[0]] = $row[1];
}

PHP arrays/hashes have no fixed size and are thus mutable in all kinds of ways, so even if you initialize them as empty you can populate them however you want later.

answered Mar 10, 2011 at 18:49

BoltClock

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Comments

ChrisJ · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-10 18:51:11Z

4

First create the array:

$myArray = array();

Then to add a key => value binding:

$myArray[$key] = $value;

In your case, this should be something like (in the loop):

$myArray[$row[0]] = $row[1];

answered Mar 10, 2011 at 18:51

ChrisJ

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linepogl · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-10 18:50:52Z

3

Do it more conventionally:

$languageArray = array();
while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) 
{
          $languageArray[$row[0]] = $row[1];
}

answered Mar 10, 2011 at 18:50

linepogl

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Comments

Pascal MARTIN · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-10 18:52:13Z

2

What about first initializing an empty array, that will later be populated with your data :

$languageArray = array();

Then, going through the CVS file line by line, using each row to put data into that array :

$handle = fopen("Languages.csv","r") or die("EPIC FAIL!");
while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    // $row[0] is the first column,
    // $row[1] is the second one.
    $languageArray[$row[0]] = $row[1];
}

You cannot declare an array, using code inside it's initialization : you have to act in two steps.

answered Mar 10, 2011 at 18:52

Pascal MARTIN

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