Looping into a multidimensional array with PHP - php

Question

I've got this array:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => System
[order] => 1
[icon] => stats.svg
[0] => Array
(
[title] => Multilingual
)
[1] => Array
(
[title] => Coloring
)
[2] => Array
(
[title] => Team work
)
[3] => Array
(
[title] => Tutorials
)
)
)
I want to loop into this to show the section name and after all the features containing in the following array.
So, this is what I made:
foreach ($features as $feature => $info) {
echo '
'.$info['name'].'
<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">
';
foreach (array_values($info) as $i => $key) {
echo '
<li>'.$key['title'].'</li>
';
}
echo '
</ul>
';
}
It works except for the first third <li> where I have the first char of name, order and icon value.
Do you know why ?
Thanks.

Answer 1

array_values return value of array so for info values is name, order, icon, 0, 1, ...
Your values foreach is wrong if you just want print title you can use:
foreach ($features as $feature => $info) {
echo '
'.$info['name'].'
<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">
';
//Remove some keys from info array
$removeKeys = array('name', 'order', 'icon');
$arr = $info;
foreach($removeKeys as $key) {
unset($arr[$key]);
}
foreach (array_values($arr) as $i => $key) {
echo '
<li>'.$key['title'].'</li>
';
}
echo '
</ul>
';
}

Answer 2

In php, array_values means all the values of the array. So array_values($info) is array($info['name'], $info['order'], $info['icon'], $info[0], $info[1], $info[2], $info[3])
in your example, you can skip the non-integer keys of the $info to get your titles:
<?php
$features = array();
$info = array();
$info['name'] = 'System';
$info['order'] = 1;
$info['icon'] = 'stats.svg';
$info[] = array('title'=>'Multilingual');
$info[] = array('title'=>'Coloring');
$features[] = $info;
foreach ($features as $feature => $info) {
echo $info['name'] . PHP_EOL;
echo '<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($info as $k => $item) {
if(!is_int($k)) continue;
echo '<li>' . $item['title'] . '</li>' . PHP_EOL;
}
echo '</ul>' . PHP_EOL;
}
BUT, your original data structure is not well designed and hard to use. For a better design, you can consider the following code, move your items to a sub array of $info:
<?php
$features = array();
$info = array();
$info['name'] = 'System';
$info['order'] = 1;
$info['icon'] = 'stats.svg';
$info['items'] = array();
$info['items'][] = array('title'=>'Multilingual');
$info['items'][] = array('title'=>'Coloring');
$features[] = $info;
foreach ($features as $feature => $info) {
echo $info['name'] . PHP_EOL;
echo '<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($info['items'] as $item) {
echo '<li>' . $item['title'] . '</li>' . PHP_EOL;
}
echo '</ul>' . PHP_EOL;
}
Sample output of the two demos:
System
<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">
<li>Multilingual</li>
<li>Coloring</li>
</ul>
It works except for the first third li where I have the first char of name, order and icon value. Do you know why ?
Why you see first chars of the values of 'name', 'order', 'icon'? Let see how PHP works.
Take the first loop as an example: foreach (array_values($info) as $i => $key)
Then $i == 0, $key == 'System'
We know that $key[0] == 'S', $key[1] == 'y', $key[2] == 's', etc.
Then you try to access $key['title'], but the string 'title' is not valid as a string offset, so it is converted to an integer by PHP: intval('title') == 0.
Then $key['title'] == $key[intval('title')] == 'S'
That's what you see.

Answer 3

array_value() returns the values of the array, here you will get the value of the array $info and what I understand is that is not what you need. See details for array_value().
You can check if the key for the $info is an integer. if yes, echo the title. Give this a try.
foreach ($features as $feature => $info) {
echo $info['name'].'<ul class="menu-vertical bullets">';
foreach ($info as $key => $value) {
if (is_int($key)) {
echo '<li>'.$key['title'].'</li>';
}
}
echo '</ul>';
}