[SOLVED] Array question

[yellowepi]

I'm new to php and have been reading a lot, but I have been going through arrays and have a multidemensional array. When I want to print everything to the screen this is the code I used.

 

To print the array values I used $a from $arrayvals, does php always take the first letter of the variable and use it as a variable?

 

For the key I used $k and for the values I used $v, are these set in stone variables, or can you use any variable name you want for them?

 

$arrayvals = array(
array(
	"name" => "Taylor",
	"age" => "26",
	"occupation" => "Supernurse",
	),
	array(
	"name" => "Rachel",
	"age" => "25",
	"occupation" => "Supernurse",
	)
);

echo  $arrayvals[$a>0]['name'];
foreach ($arrayvals as $a) {
	while (list($k, $v) = each ($a)) {
	echo "$k ... $v <br/>";
	}
}

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Psycho]

I'm not sure what you are doing here.

 

The value in brackets should be the value of one of the array indexes. Instead you are doing a comparrison?

echo  $arrayvals[$a>0]['name'];

 

 

I'm new to php and have been reading a lot, but I have been going through arrays and have a multidemensional array. When I want to print everything to the screen this is the code I used.

 

To print the array values I used $a from $arrayvals, does php always take the first letter of the variable and use it as a variable?

 

No, it gets assigned to whatever variable you choose to assign it to. When using foreach you can either assign just the values to a variable or the values and the keys.

 

foreach ($arrayList as $value)

foreach ($arrayList as $key => $value)

 

Try using this code and it may be more clear:

<?php
$arrayvals = array(
array(
	"name" => "Taylor",
	"age" => "26",
	"occupation" => "Supernurse",
	),
	array(
	"name" => "Rachel",
	"age" => "25",
	"occupation" => "Supernurse",
	)
);


foreach ($arrayvals as $record) {
    foreach ($record as field => $value) {
        echo $field . ': ' . $value . '<br>';
    }
}
?>

[yellowepi]

Okay, yours is much clearer, but wouldn't work when I pasted it in. You left off a $ for the variable $field in the foreach statement.

 

To reiterate to make sure I understand this.

 

foreach($arrayvals as $record)

  This is placing the values of arrayvals into the variable $record, right?

foreach ($record as $field => $value) {
        echo $field . ': ' . $value . '<br>';

  This foreach statement is taking each of the records in the array and assigning them to field and value?

        name, age, and occupation are assigned to the first variable- $field

        and the data for each is assigned to the $value

        and printing them to the page.

 

and for the function I used to start with

foreach ($arrayvals as $a) {
	while (list($k, $v) = each ($a)) {
	echo "$k ... $v <br/>";

The arrayvals data is placed $a.

    list takes the first thing it sees in the array which would be the $key and places it in the first variable $k and then the second variable $v in the list function is the second thing it sees and places it in $v. and repeats do to the while statement for each $a.

And prints.

 

The [a>0] was me messing around to see what would happen. It was working too. I just forgot to erase it before I posted the code.

[Psycho]

foreach($arrayvals as $record)

   This is placing the values of arrayvals into the variable $record, right?

It is placing the value for each element of the array into $record. However, each value is also an array of name, age, occupation - so $record is now an array too.

 

foreach ($record as $field => $value) {
        echo $field . ': ' . $value . '<br>';

   This foreach statement is taking each of the records in the array and assigning them to field and value?

         name, age, and occupation are assigned to the first variable- $field

         and the data for each is assigned to the $value

         and printing them to the page.

Correct. The Keys will be assigned to the first variable and the values to the 2nd.

 

and for the function I used to start with

foreach ($arrayvals as $a) {
	while (list($k, $v) = each ($a)) {
	echo "$k ... $v <br/>";

The arrayvals data is placed $a.

     list takes the first thing it sees in the array which would be the $key and places it in the first variable $k and then the second variable $v in the list function is the second thing it sees and places it in $v. and repeats do to the while statement for each $a.

And prints.

Well, $a would be given the value for each value in the array (so each value of $a would be an array with name, age, occupation.) Then you use list within a loop to assign values to $k & $v from each($a). The each() will return the current key/value pair from the array and move the pointer tot he next record. So, it essentially performs the same as the 2nd foreach I posted, but in a more confusing manner, IMHO.

 

The [a>0] was me messing around to see what would happen. It was working too. I just forgot to erase it before I posted the code.

Well, it would be no different than $arrayvals[0]['name']; since $a was undefined so that comparrison would always resolve to false (or 0).

[Psycho]

If you want to use list, I would do this: (may be typos)

<?php

foreach ($arrayvals as $record) {
    list($name, $age, $occp) = $record;
    echo "Name: $name<br>";
    echo "Age: $age<br>";
    echo "Occupation: $occp<br>";
}

?>

[yellowepi]

Thankyou so much for the help. I think I have a much clearer understanding of these functions with the array now.