PHP convert columns to query - php

Question

I have a table on the frontend, where the user can choose what types of columns he wants.
After submitting the form I get the array with selected columns.
For instance the user select following columns:
$columns = ["campaign_start_time", "campiagn_end_time", "campaign_id", "campaign_budget", "adset_name", "ad_name"]
Now I have to make the request to the facebook api, but facebook api only request query in form:
$query = "campaign{start_time, end_time, id, budget}, adset{name}, ad{name}"
Here is my question, what is the best way to convert $columns to $query in PHP language?

Answer 1

If you can construct your submitted data to be in this form:
Array
(
[campaign] => Array
(
[0] => start_time
[1] => end_time
[2] => id
[3] => budget
)
[adset] => Array
(
[0] => name
)
[ad] => Array
(
[0] => name
)
)
Maybe using inputs or other constructs such as:
name="campaign[]" value="start_time"
name="campaign[]" value="end_time"
Then looping and building the query with the keys and values will do it:
foreach($columns as $key => $val) {
$query[] = $key . '{' . implode(',', $val) . '}';
}
$query = implode(',', $query);
Otherwise you'll need to parse it to get what you need first, then execute the loop above using $result instead:
foreach($columns as $val) {
preg_match('/^([^_]+)_(.*)/', $val, $match);
$result[$match[1]][] = $match[2];
}

Answer 2

This solution splits apart the values based on underscores and then joins them back together as nested values based on the category/key. Note that this doesn't check for items that don't have a "prefix".
<?php
$columns = ["campaign_start_time", "campaign_end_time", "campaign_id", "campaign_budget", "adset_name", "ad_name"];
$criteria = [];
foreach( $columns as $column ){
$pieces = explode('_',$column);
$category = array_shift($pieces);
if( !isset($criteria[$category]) ){
$criteria[$category] = [];
}
$criteria[$category][] = implode('_', $pieces);
}
$queryPieces = [];
foreach($criteria as $category => $values){
$queryPieces[] = $category.'{'.implode(', ', $values).'}';
}
$query = implode(', ', $queryPieces);