Programming style for multidimensional associative arrays

[cyberRobot]

Does anyone have suggestions for formatting the following line:

$projects[$row['phaseNum']]['tasks'][$row['taskNum']] = 'task information';

The code works fine, but it's cumbersome. How would you write the line to improve readability?

 

Note that I don't necessarily need to use arrays. I'm open to other ideas. 

[requinix]

I wouldn't. It looks fine to me: even at a glance I see three distinct array keys being used at the top level, and the first and third only need another half-second to see they're using their own array keys.

[cyberRobot]

Thanks requinix! I might add a space character before and after the $row variables. That should hopefully make those more distinguishable.

 

Note that I would be happy to hear any additional feedback.

Edited November 23, 2016 by cyberRobot

[maxxd]

Personally, I don't find it confusing at all - I'll often write statements in the same manner.

[requinix]

I took a quick look through some a personal project to see if I could find any examples that match the sort of thing you're dealing with. Didn't quite find what I was hoping for, but here's some lines I found:

return call_user_func(self::$instance->data["crypt"]->data[$decryptor], substr($value, $decryptorlen + 2));

info("kernel.cache", ["Cache provider '%s' already registered as %s", $provider, get_class(self::$providers[$provider]["object"])]);

self::$routers[$name]["object"] = instance(self::$routers[$name]["class"], [$name, self::$routers[$name]["config"]]);

It also helps to use an editor with syntax highlighting - makes it easy (easier) to spot arrays when the "array" or []s are colored differently than variables and strings.

[kicken]

I think what you have is fine. Depending on the length of the keys or whether I re-use them sometimes I will store them in separate variables, eg:

$phase = $row['phaseNum'];
$task = $row['taskNum'];

$projects[$phase]['tasks'][$task] = 'task information';

If the array starts getting deep I will alias via references. For example:

 

$stuId = $row['studentId'];
$sprId = $row['programEnrollmentId'];
if (!isset($MasterList[$stuId][$sprId])) continue;

$ses = &$MasterList[$stuId][$sprId]['sessionList'][$row['sessionName']];
if ($ses){
    $ses['enrollments'] += $row['numEnrollments'];
    $ses['isStartSession'] = max($row['isStartSession'], $ses['isStartSession']);
} else {
    $ses = [
       //blah
    ];
}

[cyberRobot]

Thanks for all the feedback! 

 

 

It also helps to use an editor with syntax highlighting - makes it easy (easier) to spot arrays when the "array" or []s are colored differently than variables and strings.

 

Yep, that would be useful. I'll look into switching...at some point...

 

 

If the array starts getting deep I will alias via references.

 

Thanks kicken! I figured something like this would be possible. I've passed variables by reference to functions before. I didn't think to use the technique elsewhere.