PHP array stringify - php

Question

In a lyrics application I'm coding, I'm using an array to print an artists table. The artists array looks like this:
$artists = [
[ "Avril Lavigne" ],
[ "3 Doors Down" ],
[ "Celine Dion" ],
[ "Evanescence" ],
[ "Shania Twain" ],
[ "Green Day" ],
//...
];
Before printing it, I do some modification to the array. I have a folder for each artist that contains the lyrics files. I add the folder names to the $artists array for later use:
$folder_fix = [
[" ", "_" ],
[".", "" ],
["&", "n" ],
];
for ($i = 0; $i < count($artists); $i++) {
$folder_name = strtolower($artists[$i][0]);
for ($k = 0; $k < count($folder_fix); $k++) {
$folder_name = str_replace($folder_fix[$k][0], $folder_fix[$k][1], $folder_name);
}
array_push($artists[$i], $folder_name);
}
Later, I add the album and track count for each artist to the array:
$lyrics_base = "lyrics/";
for ($i = 0; $i < count($artists); $i++) {
$albums_path = $lyrics_base . $artists[$i][1] . "/*";
$tracks_path = $lyrics_base . $artists[$i][1] . "/*/*";
$albums = count(glob($albums_path));
$tracks = count(glob($tracks_path));
array_push($artists[$i], $albums);
array_push($artists[$i], $tracks);
}
The end result of the array looks like this:
$artists = [
[ "Avril Lavigne", "avril_lavigne", 5, 61 ],
[ "3 Doors Down", "3_doors_down", 5, 13 ],
[ "Celine Dion", "celine_dion", 7, 22 ],
[ "Evanescence", "evanescence", 4, 10 ],
[ "Shania Twain", "shania_twain", 3, 12 ],
[ "Green Day", "green_day", 8, 26 ],
//...
];
Now, my problem is that this process happens every time I visit the page. The 2nd, 3rd, and the 4th columns are created again and again. I think this is redundant.
I want to save the end result of the array and use it on the page. If this was JavaScript I'd use JSON.stringify(), but in PHP I don't know how to get the end result of the array. print_r() doesn't do the job, because it prints it like this:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => Avril Lavigne
[1] => avril_lavigne
[2] => 5
[3] => 61
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 3 Doors Down
[1] => 3_doors_down
[2] => 5
[3] => 13
)
...
I want it like this:
[
[
"Avril Lavigne",
"avril_lavigne",
5,
61
],
[
"3 Doors Down",
"3_doors_down",
5,
13
],
//...
]
Is there a way to print the array the JSON.stringify() way?

Answer 1

Is this what you want?
echo json_encode($artists)
PHP: json_encode

Answer 2

You can use this simple function from my CMS EFFCORE:
function data_stringify($data) {
switch (gettype($data)) {
case 'string' : return '\''.addcslashes($data, "'\\").'\'';
case 'boolean': return $data ? 'true' : 'false';
case 'NULL' : return 'null';
case 'object' :
case 'array' :
$expressions = [];
foreach ($data as $c_key => $c_value) {
$expressions[] = data_stringify($c_key).' => '.
data_stringify($c_value);
}
return gettype($data) === 'object' ?
'(object)['.implode(', ', $expressions).']' :
'['.implode(', ', $expressions).']';
default: return (string)$data;
}
}
TEST
var_dump( data_stringify(-1 ) === '-1' );
var_dump( data_stringify(-1.1 ) === '-1.1' );
var_dump( data_stringify(123e1 ) === '1230' ); # exponential notation
var_dump( data_stringify(0x123 ) === '291' ); # hexadecimal notation
var_dump( data_stringify(01234 ) === '668' ); # octal notation
var_dump( data_stringify(0b101 ) === '5' ); # binary notation
var_dump( data_stringify('а123') === "'а123'" );
var_dump( data_stringify('123а') === "'123а'" );
var_dump( data_stringify(true ) === 'true' );
var_dump( data_stringify(false ) === 'false' );
var_dump( data_stringify(null ) === 'null' );
array
var_dump(
data_stringify([
100,
'200',
'item3' => 300,
'item4' => '400',
'item5' => 'value500'
]) === "[".
"0 => 100, ".
"1 => '200', ".
"'item3' => 300, ".
"'item4' => '400', ".
"'item5' => 'value500']"
);
object
var_dump(
data_stringify((object)[
'prop1' => 100,
'prop2' => '200',
'prop3' => 'value300'
]) === "(object)[".
"'prop1' => 100, ".
"'prop2' => '200', ".
"'prop3' => 'value300']"
);
array with object
var_dump(
data_stringify([
100,
'200',
'item3' => (object)['prop1' => 1, 'prop2' => '2', 'prop3' => 'value3'],
'item4' => '400',
'item5' => 'value500'
]) === "[".
"0 => 100, ".
"1 => '200', ".
"'item3' => (object)['prop1' => 1, 'prop2' => '2', 'prop3' => 'value3'], ".
"'item4' => '400', ".
"'item5' => 'value500']"
);
object with array
var_dump(
data_stringify((object)[
'prop1' => 1,
'prop2' => '2',
'prop3' => [100, '200', 'item3' => '300', 'item4' => 'value400'],
'prop4' => 'value4'
]) === "(object)[".
"'prop1' => 1, ".
"'prop2' => '2', ".
"'prop3' => [0 => 100, 1 => '200', 'item3' => '300', 'item4' => 'value400'], ".
"'prop4' => 'value4']"
);

Answer 3

The print_r have second parameter.
$string=print_r($array, true);