change key (name) in associative array?

[Jim from Oakland]

In the array (shown below) I need to change the 'name'
of one of the (first level) keys.

In the example, I'd like to change the key 'Boat' to
'Ship' without changing the order of the array
entries.

['Car']['ID']='445';
['Car']['Color']='blue';
['Car']['Note']='needs work';
['Boat']['ID']='491';
['Boat']['Color']='green';
['Boat']['Note']='for sale';
['Plane']['ID']='420';
['Plane']['Color']='azure';
['Plane']['Note']='ready';

Thanks a billion!

[toplay]

For all intensive purposes, an associative array doesn't have an order. That's why it's referenced by the "key" of the array.

You can do the following:
[code]
<?php

$ary['Car']['ID'] = '445';
$ary['Car']['Color'] = 'blue';
$ary['Car']['Note'] = 'needs work';
$ary['Boat']['ID'] = '491';
$ary['Boat']['Color'] = 'green';
$ary['Boat']['Note'] = 'for sale';
$ary['Plane']['ID'] = '420';
$ary['Plane']['Color'] = 'azure';
$ary['Plane']['Note'] = 'ready';

$ary['Ship']['ID'] = $ary['Boat']['ID'];
$ary['Ship']['Color'] = $ary['Boat']['Color'];
$ary['Ship']['Note'] = $ary['Boat']['Note'];

unset($ary['Boat']['ID']);
unset($ary['Boat']['Color']);
unset($ary['Boat']['Note']);
unset($ary['Boat']);

echo '<pre>', print_r($ary, TRUE), '</pre>';

?>
[/code]

However, the array will look like this:
[quote]
Array
(
    [Car] => Array
        (
            [ID] => 445
            [Color] => blue
            [Note] => needs work
        )

    [Plane] => Array
        (
            [ID] => 420
            [Color] => azure
            [Note] => ready
        )

    [Ship] => Array
        (
            [ID] => 491
            [Color] => green
            [Note] => for sale
        )

)
[/quote]

Which IMO is not wrong, since one can still access it using the 'Ship' key.

You might want to rethink what you're trying to do or how you're accessing the associative array.

[.josh]

just out of curiosity..why do you wanna do this? at face value, all i can suggest (other than toplay's suggestion) is..why not just change it in the code to ship, if you want to use ship instead of boat?