how to navigate inside of an array

[polemios]

Hi all,

 

I would like to know how to move the pointer to a specific value in an array. I know how to use prev() and next() to navigate once I set the pointer, but don't know how to set the pointer.

 

Basically, I'm using readdir() to make an array out of a folder of images. That populates an index page with thumbnails. Each thumbnail is linked to a viewing page (view.php) that uses a get variable (the image's filename) to pull in the main image. Once I'm in the view page, I want to be able to use the get variable (the image filename) to search through the readdir() array, using in_array(), and set the pointer position. From that point I could use the prev() and next() function to populate variables for my "prev" and "next" links in my viewer.

 

I know this is trying to reinvent the wheel (i.e. gallery page), but I don't know how else to do it, without using session variables, which I'd prefer not to do.

 

-Thanks.

[Lashiec]

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php

 

Try the array_search() function instead. It finds the item in the array and returns it's index.

[polemios]

Great! Thanks. I assume that the key that is found using array_search is then pointed to by the array pointer? If not, is there some way to set the pointer, like set_pointer(2, $array)?

 

(dumb example, but you get the drift)

[Lashiec]

It just returns the pointers value. I read over the array functions and didn't see anything to be able to set the internal counter of an array to a specific value. I just saw reset, end, next, prev and so on. But you could do something like $key = array_search('value', $array) and then do echo $array[$key], but that may not be what you're looking for since you're using the internal pointers...

[cooldude832]

array position movement is sorta an outdated method (with the exception of foreach loops)

the more practical idea is to get a key and then go to it by saying

$arrayname[$key];

[polemios]

Thank you very much. I am now finding the current key with array_search, then assigning $prev and $next variables by adding and subtracting 1 from the current key, and working from there. Thanks.

 

Solved.