php: creating variables from array

Question

I have a multi-part array that I want to grab a piece of and create a variable for it. Below is a sample of the array:

array(17) { 
  [0]=> array(2) { 
      [0]=> int(1325003844) [1]=> array(2) { 
          [0]=> int(31) [1]=> string(19) "ONBOARD TEMPERATURE" } 
      }

There are 32 different parts like this where the value I want (like the text in quotes above) can be found at $foo[x][1] with x being a value from 0-31. So I am wondering if I can use foreach or for to create a loop that will go through each iteration of the variable and pull that text and add it to a variable.

So the current code I have is:

if(isset($result[1][10])) { // If index 10 of $result exists
    $json_a =  $result[1][10];
    var_dump ($json_a);

To get the value I want in a single variable, I need to assing $foo_01 to $json_a[0][1] right now, and then do that 32 times. ($json_a[1][1], $json_a[2][1], $json_a[3][1], etc.) I would rather just have one statement taht assigns them all at once.

Let me know if you need additional information. Thanks again!

Do you want to accumulate all the text into a single variable, or create a new variable for each instance extracted from the array? — Michael Berkowski
– Michael Berkowski, Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 21:34

Dutchie432 · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-04 21:53:41Z

3

Of course you can.

//Initialize an array variable to hold the names
$names= array();

//Creates an array of 32 strings (the names)
foreach ($items as $item){
    $names[]=$item[1]; 
}
//If you want to display all of the name at once, you can easily
//Implode the array to echo all of the items with a linebreak in between
echo implode('<br />', $names); 

//or you can cycle through the results and do something for each name
//although this can be done in the original loop.
foreach ($names as $name){
    echo $name.'<br />';
}

On a side note, the array architecture you show seems a little weird to me. Knowing not much at all about what you're trying to do, do you think a format like this would be better?

array(31) { 
    [0]=> array(2) { 
        [id]=> int(1325003844),
        [name]=> "ONBOARD TEMPERATURE"
    }, 
    [1]=> array(2) { 
        [id]=> int(1325003845), 
        [name]=> "NAME 2"
    }, 
    etc...
}

This way you already have your finished array, ready to loop through?

UPDATE

foreach($results as $result){
    if(isset($result[1][10])) { // If index 10 of $result exists
        $foo[] =  $result[1][10];
    }
}

//Then you can access each one when needed
echo $foo[1];

edited Jan 4, 2012 at 21:53

answered Jan 4, 2012 at 21:35

Dutchie432

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3 Comments

prosborne Over a year ago

I tried working with these and I was not able to get it to work.I udpated my question to see fi I could make it a little clearer...

Dutchie432 Over a year ago

You wont be able to assign 32 different variables with a single statement. That's why arrays exist. Instead of $foo_01 thru $foo_32 you would use $foo[0] thru $foo[31] See Update

prosborne Over a year ago

Thank you so much! The array structure is unfortunately what I am fed from a JSON object. But your comment actually showed me that I already can do what I want to do. I have been adding the step of creating a variable to print the data I want, but I can just use $foo[1][10][0][1] as the actual variable. Thanks so much!

Stephen Walcher · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-04 21:49:17Z

0

If you use two consecutive '$', PHP will actually use the value of a variable to create a new variable of that name. Example:

$var1 = 'variable2'
$$var1 = 'hello';

echo $var1;
echo $variable2;

Will output:

variable2
hello

From your above examples, though, your naming conventions dont seem to support that (there's a space in "ONBOARD TEMPERATURE") so, you might be better using an array with associative id keys. Example:

$values[$foo[x][1]] = $foo[x][0];

Would get you a variable of $values['ONBOARD TEMPERATURE'] that would output 31.

answered Jan 4, 2012 at 21:49

Stephen Walcher

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