Send associative array from a multiple select - php

Question

I need to send an associative array from a multiple select.
I have this code:
<select name="frontend_footer_menu_pages[]" id="frontend_footer_menu_pages" class="form-control" multiple>
<?php foreach($pages as $page): ?>
<option value="<?php echo $page->url; ?>">
<?php echo $page->page; ?>
</option>
<?php endforeach; ?>
And this is producing:
Array(
[0] => first/page,
[1] => second/page
)
I need to obtain something like this:
Array(
['first/page'] => 'First Page',
['second/page'] => 'Second Page']
);
I am not able to produce name/value in associative way and not in numeric way because I can't retrieve the content of option ($page->page)
Thank you in advance
G

Answer 1

When the form is submitted you will indeed get something like this array in PHP:
Array(
[0] => first/page,
[1] => second/page
)
This is how it works, and I would not suggest to try to change this behaviour. However, you can convert this to the associative array of your liking.
First create an associative array for your pages, so you can quickly find the page name for a given url:
// Create hash for the pages, keyed by their page name:
foreach ($pages as $page) {
$pageHash[$page->page] = $page->url;
}
You already have your submitted list of selected items. Your existing code will have something like this:
$selected = $_POST['frontend_footer_menu_pages'];
Now, to convert this to the associative array you are looking for, just use array_intersect with the hash we created above, and then swap keys and values with array_flip:
$selected = array_flip(array_intersect($pageHash, $selected));
The outcome will be something like this:
Array
(
[first/page] => First Page
[second/page] => Second Page
)