[SOLVED] Changing an array name.

[NoobNewbie]

Hello!

 

I'm really new to php and I was wondering if you could help in the following situation.

 

If I have an array called my_array1, how do I call it within a for cycle? Something like this:

 

for($a=1;$a<=5;++$a){
$my_array = 'my_array'.$a;
          //prints $my_array
}

 

I know that doesnt work, so, I tried something like the following:

 

for($a=1;$a<=5;++$a){
$my_array = 'my_array'.$a;
          //prints $$my_array
}

 

That does work with variables, but doesnt work with arrays. I know that in Java and ActionScript what I'm trying to acomplish is pretty simple, but I cant seem to find the correct syntax for php. Help?

 

 

[Yesideez]

First, surround code with [code] and [/code] tags to make it easier to read.

 

What exactly are you wanting to do with your array?

 

You can cycle through it with a foreach() loop like this:

<?php
  foreach ($array as $myvar) {
    echo 'Array contents is '.$myvar.'<br />';
  }
?>

[NoobNewbie]

Hi Yesideez. Thanks for answering.

 

What I want is to be able to call arrays from within a for cycle. For example:

 

my_array1 = array("something","something");
my_array2 = array("something","something");
my_array3 = array("something","something");

for($a=1;$a<=3;++$a){
    //does something with the array that corresponds to $a
}

 

[Yesideez]

If you want to specifically use a for() loop this would do it:

<?php
  $my_array=array('something','something');
  for ($a=0;$a<count($my_array);$a++) {
    echo $my_array[$a].'<br />';
  }
?>

[NoobNewbie]

But that will just write the array, right? But what I wanted was to be able to call a specific array and do whatever I want with him. In other languages I do something like this:

 

my_array1 = array("something","something");
my_array2 = array("something","something");

for ($a=0;$a<2;$a++) {
     print eval('my_array' + $a)[0];
}

 

..and it will print the first element of my_array1 and the first element of my_array2. I'm not really seing how to do that in php.

[Yesideez]

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what it is you want to do with your array - are yuo storing code inside it?

[GingerRobot]

Well, you can use variable variables:

 

<?php
$var1 = 'foo';
$var2= 'bar';

for($x=1;$x<=2;$x++){
$var_name = 'var'.$x;
echo $$var_name.'<br />';
}
?>

 

However, you are probably better off using multidimensional arrays. For example, this:

 

<?php
$arrays = array(array('something','somethingelse'),array('anothersomething','somethingmore'));
echo '<pre>';
print_r($arrays);
echo '</pre>';
?>

 

Would produce:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => something
            [1] => somethingelse
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => anothersomething
            [1] => somethingmore
        )

)

 

As you can hopefully see, you could cycle through the various "dimensions" of the array.

[NoobNewbie]

Well that may be a good option, GingerRobot! And, then, to adress a specific element from within the multidimensional array I call it like a matrix, something like this...

 

$arrays = array(array('something','somethingelse'),array('anothersomething','somethingmore'));
echo $arrays[0][1];

 

..and it prints 'somethingelse'. Thanks! It's a great way!