Retrieving data in unidimensional array in Cakephp 1.3 - php

Question

I am using cakephp 1.3 to extract data from a table with Cities and Postal Codes and I would like to extract these two columns to populate drop down menu with postal codes as menu 'id' and town names as menu 'values'.
The “find( 'list')” method is out of option because some of the towns have the same postcodes and the class is picking only unique value so instead of getting :
Array
(
[800] => Darwin
[801] => Darwin
[810] => Allawa
)
I am getting
Array
(
[800] => Darwin
[810] => Allawa
)
The method find('all') is returning a multidimensional array
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[GeoPostcode] => Array
(
[state_id] => 26
[region] => Acton
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[GeoPostcode] => Array
(
[state_id] => 26
[region] => Ainslie
)
)
)
What is the best work around to get the desired data in unidimensional array without reducing the output to unique array keys? Something like :
Array ( [800] => Darwin [801] => Darwin [810] => Allawa )

Answer 1

You should still be able to do this with $Model->find('list').
$this->Model->find(
'list',
array(
'fields' => array(
'postal_code',
'city_name'
),
'contain' => false
)
);
This should return a list resultset using the two fields that you selected (postal code and city name).
Your alternate option, is to do a find('all'):
$results = $this->Model->find(
'all',
array(
'conditions' => array( ... )
)
);
Now, you have this format in your data results:
$results = Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[ModelName] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[postal_code] => 800,
[city_name] => 'Darwin'
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[ModelName] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[postal_code] => 801,
[city_name] => 'Darwin'
)
)
[2] => Array
(
[ModelName] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[postal_code] => 810,
[city_name] => 'Allawa'
)
)
)
Then use the Set class within Cake to extract some data:
$keys = Set::extract('/ModelName/postal_code', $results);
$values = Set::extract('/ModelName/city_name', $results);
/* Then some array_combine magic */
$list = array_combine($keys, $values);
Now you have an array that is what you want. Albeit a longer way, but it works. You can then pass this variable to your Form::select() helper to create your dropdown.
Hope this helps!