Don't want Array ito combine values - php

Question

I Have an array in PHP that looks like:
Array ( [2099:360] => 6-3.25 [2130:361] => 4-2.5 [2099:362] => 14-8.75 )
Notice there is Two Keys that are 2099 and one that is 2130. I Have a foreach to remove the everything after the colon. the $drop is my array
$a = array();
foreach ($drop as $part=>$drop_a){
$ex_part = explode(":", $part);
$a[$ex_part[0]] = $drop_a;
}
print_r($a);
but when I print $a it displays only the recent value of the 2099?
Array ( [2099] => 14-8.75 [2130] => 4-2.5 )
Any Successions? How can I get it to display all of the values?
Thank You for Your Help

Answer 1

One solution is to use a multi-dimensional array to store this strategy:
$a = array();
foreach ($drop as $part=>$drop_a){
$ex_part = explode(":", $part);
if (isset($a[$ex_part[0]])) {
$a[$ex_part[0]][] = $drop_a;
} else {
$a[$ex_part[0]] = array($drop_a);
}
}
Your resulting data-set will however be different:
Array ( [2099] => Array ( [0] => 6-3.25 [1] => 14-8.75) [2130] => Array ( [0] => 4-2.5 ) )
It may be beneficial to you to preserve the second portion after the colon :
$a = array();
foreach ($drop as $part=>$drop_a){
$ex_part = explode(":", $part);
if (isset($a[$ex_part[0]])) {
$a[$ex_part[0]][$ex_part[1]] = $drop_a;
} else {
$a[$ex_part[0]] = array($ex_part[1] => $drop_a);
}
}
Now your result is a little more meaningful:
Array ( [2099] => Array ( [360] => 6-3.25 [362] => 14-8.75) [2130] => Array ( [361] => 4-2.5 ) )
Finally you can use alternative key-naming strategy if one is already occupied:
$a = array();
foreach ($drop as $part=>$drop_a){
$ex_part = explode(":", $part);
if (isset($a[$ex_part[0]])) {
$a[altName($ex_part[0], $a)] = $drop_a;
} else {
$a[$ex_part[0]] = $drop_a;
}
}
function altName($key, $array) {
$key++; // Or however you want to do an alternative naming strategy
if (isset($array[$key])) {
return altName($key, $array); // This will eventually resolve - but be careful with the recursion
}
return $key;
}
Returns:
Array
(
[2099] => 6-3.25
[2130] => 4-2.5
[2100] => 14-8.75
)

Answer 2

You basically have a key and a sub key for each entry, so just put them in a multidimensional array:
$a = array();
foreach ($drop as $key => $val) {
list($key, $subKey) = explode(':', $key);
$a[$key][$subKey] = $val;
}
Gives you:
Array
(
[2099] => Array
(
[360] => 6-3.25
[362] => 14-8.75
)
[2130] => Array
(
[361] => 4-2.5
)
)
You can traverse multidimensional arrays by nesting loops:
foreach ($a as $key => $subKeys) {
foreach ($subKeys as $subKey => $val) {
echo "$key contains $subKey (value of $val) <br>";
}
}