PHP Aligning multiple arrays of different lengths - php

Question

I'm probably just overlooking the obvious but I'd like to blame it on the fact that I'm new to PHP.
I have some number of arrays being returned with similar information but differing amounts of it.
I'll put some example arrays below:
(t1-s1-1=1, t1-s1-2=1, t1-s2-1=1, t1-s2-2=1)
(t2-s1-1=1, t2-s2-1=2, t2-s2-2=1)
(t3-s1-1=1, t3-s2-1=1, t3-s3-1=1, t3-s3-2=3)
So I would like to make a table out of this information. Something like this:
test .. s1-1 .. s1-2 .. s2-1 .. s2-2 .. s3-1 .. s3-2
t1 ........1 .....1 ..........1 ....... 1.........1..........1
t2 ........1 .......X..........1..........1........1..........1
t3 ........1 .......X..........1..........X........1..........1
( where x is something that wasn't there. )
So every array has an s1 but could have s1-1, s1-2, s1-3 or simply s1-1. That creates very different sized arrays.
The problem is that each array can have wildly different information and because they are Indexed arrays instead of Associative arrays I'm not sure how to best equalize them. I can't consistently say index 3 is s1-3 or something else.
I can't just loop through manually because I never know where a gap will appear. I can't look for specific indexes because the arrays aren't associative so the titles are built into the value and I don't know how to access them separately.
Any good ideas out there that maybe a newbie is overlooking? I'm open to non-tabular display ideas as well as long as I can easily sort and display the information.
Thanks

Answer 1

I'm assuming your original arrays contain values as string, so for instance, in PHP syntax, they look like:
['t1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1', 't1-s2-2=1']
Basically, you should create a bi-dimensional array:
go through all arrays and by using a regex extract the different parts, that is, for the first element in the array above: t1 (the index for the first level in the bi-dimensional array), s1-1 (the index for the second level in the bi-dimensional array) and the value 1
insert the value in the bi-dimensional array
keep in a separate array, let's call it allColumns every second index above (sx-y), even you will have duplicate values you can, at the end, delete those duplicate and order it alphabetically
After that, you will have all the value in the bi-dimensional array but you still miss the gaps, so what you can do it iterate over the bi-dimensional array, and for every dimension tz (t1, t2,...), go through for all the values stored in allColumns and if you don't find the entry for that sx-y in the bi-dimensional array for that tz, add it with value x (or probably with value = 0)
I think an example can clarify the above:
// arrays of arrays, I don't know how you receive the data
$arrays = [
['t1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1', 't1-s2-2=1'],
['t2-s1-1=1', 't2-s2-1=2', 't2-s2-2=1'],
['t3-s1-1=1', 't3-s2-1=1', 't3-s3-1=1', 't3-s3-2=3']
];
// bi-dimensional array
$output = [];
// it will store all columns you find in the $arrays entry
$allColumns = [];
// iterate for every array you receive, i.e. ['t1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1', 't1-s2-2=1']
foreach ($arrays as $array) {
// iterate over every element in the array: 't1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1' and 't1-s2-2=1'
foreach ($array as $item) {
// extract the parts on every element: $matches is an array containing the different parts
preg_match('/^(t\d+)-(s\d+-\d+)=(\d+)/', $item, $matches);
/**
* $matches[0] would contains the element if matched: 't1-s1-1=1'
* $matches[1] would contains 't1' if matched
* $matches[2] would contains 's1-1' if matched
* $matches[2] would contains 1 (integer) if matched
*/
if (!empty($matches)) {
$output[$matches[1]][$matches[2]] = $matches[3];
$allColumns[] = $matches[2];
}
}
}
// clean duplicates
$allColumns = array_unique($allColumns);
// sort values alphabetically
sort($allColumns);
// iterate over the just created bi-dimensional array
foreach ($output as $row => $columns) {
// iterate for all columns collected before
foreach ($allColumns as $column) {
// if one of column in 'allColumns' doesn't exit in $output you added in the correct place adding a zero value
if (!in_array($column, array_keys($columns))) {
$output[$row][$column] = 0;
}
}
}
To print the output you should only iterate over $ouput
This will be the array internally:
(
[t1] => Array
(
[s1-1] => 1
[s1-2] => 1
[s2-1] => 1
[s2-2] => 1
[s3-1] => 0
[s3-2] => 0
)
[t2] => Array
(
[s1-1] => 1
[s2-1] => 2
[s2-2] => 1
[s1-2] => 0
[s3-1] => 0
[s3-2] => 0
)
[t3] => Array
(
[s1-1] => 1
[s2-1] => 1
[s3-1] => 1
[s3-2] => 3
[s1-2] => 0
[s2-2] => 0
)
)
It exists other ways to implement the above, like skip the step where you fill the gaps and do it on the fly, ...
Updated
The simplest way to display the results in a HTML page is by embedding a php script to iterate over the associative array and compose the HTML table (I encourage you to study and research MVC to separate logic from the view)
<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
// arrays of arrays, I don't know how you receive the data
$arrays = [
['t1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1', 't1-s2-2=1'],
['t2-s1-1=1', 't2-s2-1=2', 't2-s2-2=1'],
['t3-s1-1=1', 't3-s2-1=1', 't3-s3-1=1', 't3-s3-2=3']
];
// bi-dimensional array
$output = [];
// it will store all columns you find in the $arrays entry
$allColumns = [];
// iterate for every array you receive, i.e. ['t1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1', 't1-s2-2=1']
foreach ($arrays as $array) {
// iterate over every element in the array: 't1-s1-1=1', 't1-s1-2=1', 't1-s2-1=1' and 't1-s2-2=1'
foreach ($array as $item) {
// extract the parts on every element: $matches is an array containing the different parts
preg_match('/^(t\d+)-(s\d+-\d+)=(\d+)/', $item, $matches);
/**
* $matches[0] would contains the element if matched: 't1-s1-1=1'
* $matches[1] would contains 't1' if matched
* $matches[2] would contains 's1-1' if matched
* $matches[2] would contains 1 (integer) if matched
*/
if (!empty($matches)) {
$output[$matches[1]][$matches[2]] = $matches[3];
$allColumns[] = $matches[2];
}
}
}
// clean duplicates
$allColumns = array_unique($allColumns);
// sort values alphabetically
sort($allColumns);
// iterate over the just created bi-dimensional array
foreach ($output as $row => $columns) {
// iterate for all columns collected before
foreach ($allColumns as $column) {
// if one of column in 'allColumns' doesn't exit in $output you added in the correct place adding a zero value
if (!in_array($column, array_keys($columns))) {
$output[$row][$column] = 0;
}
}
}
?>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Table Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<thead>
<?php
echo '<tr><th>Test</th>';
foreach ($allColumns as $head) {
echo sprintf('<th>%s</th>', $head);
}
echo '</tr>';
?>
</thead>
<tbody>
<?php
foreach ($output as $key => $columns) {
echo sprintf('<tr><td>%s</td>', $key);
foreach ($columns as $column) {
echo sprintf('<td>%s</td>', $column);
}
echo '</tr>';
}
?>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Answer 2

Try the following:
$final_array = array();
$temp_array = array();
foreach ($t1 as $t) {
$isin = 0;
$expression = substr($t, 0, strpos($t, "="));
$expression = str_replace("t1-", "" , $expression)
$value = substr($t, strpos($t, "=") + 1);
for ($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
foreach ($x = 0; $x < 3; $x++) {
if ($expression == "s{$i}-{$x}") {
$isin = 1;
array_push($temp_array, $value);
}
}
}
if ($isin == 0) { array_push($temp_array, "X"); }
}
array_push($final_array, $temp_array);
It's not a great solution because you're choosing to do this in a really odd way but you should see the gist of what how to get what you want from this example.