Exploding A List

[btray77]

I have gone brain dead..   in the last day..

 

I've got a list of categories, that I need to figure out the hierarchy for.

 

They are in this format:

 

one

one::sub

one::sub::subsub

two

two::sub

two::sub::subsub

etc....

 

It's multiple levels deep. 

I need to be able to figure out what is the parent, child of each level so i can add it to the database. 

 

Any ideas on this?  I'm guessing using Explode, but I'm lost on how to do this.

 

Thanks

 

-Brad

 

[shamuraq]

Do u have a more clearer example on what you're trying to do?

[Zyx]

It's quite easy in this format. Create a class named node which contains the information about the node:

- Node value

- Node parent

- The list of node children

 

Furthermore, create an assotiative array of such nodes ($nodes). Now, you take a single category, explode it against '::' and take a look at the last two elements. Let $cnt be the number of elements in the exploded category. Then $category[$elements-1] represents the category name, and $category[$elements-2] - the parent name. You create a new node object and fill in the fields:

 

- To node parent, you put $nodes[$category[$elements-2]] - so, the reference to the parent object.

- To node value, you put $category[$elements-1] - the category value.

- To node children, you put an empty array (actually, this can be done automatically with the constructor).

 

You still have two things to to: the parent must know that it has a new children, and the new node must be registered in $nodes. The first thing can be solved by taking the parent node and appending the new node to its list of children. The last thing - you simply put the new node into the array under the category name: $nodes[$category[$elements-1]] = $newNode;. That's it. If you remember the root node in a separate variable, you will get a fully functionable tree in the memory.

[btray77]

@shamuraq 

 

I need to be able to populate a database (which I can do)

but I need to be able to find out the parent categories from the text file that I'm given.

 

So like before:

 

Cars

Cars::4 Door

Cars::4 Door::economy

Trucks

Trucks::4x4

Trucks::4x4::Leather

 

so I need to be able to parse out Cars as a parent, then 4 Door as a child of Cars, and Economy as a child of 4 Door.

 

so the database table would look something like this:

 

catid:int autoinc

parent:int default null

Name:varchar(100)

 

catid, parent, name

1, null, Cars

2, 1, 4 Door

3, 2, economy

4, null, Truck

5, 4, 4x4

6, 5, Leather

 

I'm having a problem with the logic of exploding the categories out into there parent categories.

I think once I sleep on it I will figure it out, but I need to get it done asap.  I know it's relatively easy.

 

 

 

-Brad

[btray77]

@Zyx 

 

That sounds like a great idea except I'm not so good with classes, i'm trying to get away from procedural programming and do the oop but I've yet to figure out everything I need to do.

 

Do you think you could spare the time to put something together on this?  I'd appreciate it.

 

-Thanks Brad

 

 

[Zyx]

Then use an array instead of a class - all you need to save the data about a certain node somehow and objects are very convenient here. If you are using arrays, beware on assigning the nodes to something else. Objects are passed by reference, but arrays - by values, which we do not want here. You must either store the reference to other array or simply the name of the node and look for it in the $nodes array every time you need the data from this node.