Syntax for reading an array in php - php

Question

I have an array, stored in $array, that with
print "<pre>";
print_r($array);
print "</pre>";
gives an output like this:
Array
(
[device] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[name] => Low volt light
[id] => 10
[type] => Z-Wave Switch Multilevel
[value] => 0
[address] => 00016922-018
[code] =>
[canDim] => True
[lastChange] => 26-07-2014 17:31:33
[firstLocation] => Kitchen
[secondLocation] => Main
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[name] => Light
[id] => 11
[type] => Z-Wave Switch Multilevel
[value] => 99
[address] => 00016922-019
[code] =>
[canDim] => True
[lastChange] => 31-07-2014 20:01:05
[firstLocation] => Bedroom
[secondLocation] => Main
)
)
I cannot find my way to access/display for example the value (in this case 0) of device with [id]=>10. What syntax would be the right one in php?

Answer 1

There's not an easy way to do this, without looping through the array.
e.g.
foreach ($array['devices'] as $device) {
if ($device['#attributes']['id'] === $idBeingSearchedFor) {
// Do something with $device.
}
}
Due to the #attributes array key, I'm guessing that this came from XML at some point: You might consider using Simple XML to parse it instead, as you could potentially use XPath then, which does support this type of access.
Alternatively again, you could reformat the array so it could be easily accessed by ID.
For example:
$formattedArray = array();
foreach ($array['devices'] as $device) {
$id = $device['#attributes']['id'];
$formattedArray[$id] = $device;
}
You could then access the device by its ID as follows:
$device = $formattedArray[$idBeingSearchedFor];

Answer 2

You could do it like that:
$id = 10;
$device = array();
foreach($array['device'] as $devices) {
if($devices['#attributes']['id'] == $id) {
$device = $devices['#attributes'];
break;
}
}
echo $device['value'];

Answer 3

Looks like SimpleXML, and if that is the case then those arrays are actually objects that, when put through print_r, look just like arrays. To access them, do the following:
Get straight to the data:
$name = $array->device[0]->attributes()->name;
Or loop through each of the attributes in the first device:
foreach ($array->device[0]->attributes() as $key => $value) {
// Do something with the data. $key is the name of the
// attribute, and then you have the $value.
}
Or you could loop through all the devices:
foreach ($array->device as $device) {
foreach ($device->attributes() as $key => $value) {
// Do something
}
}

Answer 4

It's simple ... try below...
print $array['device'][0]['#attributes']['id'];
or
print $array['device']['0']['#attributes']['id'];