PHP Can't get the right format for array - php

Question

I got stuck somehow on the following problem:
What I want to achieve is to merge the following arrays based on key :
{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Parents","submenu_label":"parents"}}
{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Insurers","submenu_label":"insurers"}}
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"New roles","submenu_label":"newrole"}}
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"User - roles","submenu_label":"user_roles"}}
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"Roles - permissions","submenu_label":"roles_permissions"}}
{"Accounting":{"submenu_id":"Input accounting data","submenu_label":"new_accounting"}}
Which needs to output like this:
[{"item_header":"Entities"},
{"list_items" :
[{"submenu_id":"Parents","submenu_label":"parents"},
{"submenu_id":"Insurers","submenu_label":"insurers"}]
}]
[{"item_header":"Users"},
{"list_items" :
[{"submenu_id":"New roles","submenu_label":"newrole"}
{"submenu_id":"User - roles","submenu_label":"user_roles"}
{"submenu_id":"Roles - permissions","submenu_label":"roles_permissions"}]
}]
[{"item_header":"Accounting"},
{"list_items" :
[{"submenu_id":"Input accounting data","submenu_label":"new_accounting"}]
}]
I have been trying all kinds of things for the last two hours, but each attempt returned a different format as the one required and thus failed miserably. Somehow, I couldn't figure it out.
Do you have a construction in mind to get this job done?
I would be very interested to hear your approach on the matter.
Thanks.

Answer 1

$input = array(
'{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Parents","submenu_label":"parents"}}',
'{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Insurers","submenu_label":"insurers"}}',
'{"Users":{"submenu_id":"New roles","submenu_label":"newrole"}}',
'{"Users":{"submenu_id":"User - roles","submenu_label":"user_roles"}}',
'{"Users":{"submenu_id":"Roles - permissions","submenu_label":"roles_permissions"}}',
'{"Accounting":{"submenu_id":"Input accounting data","submenu_label":"new_accounting"}}',
);
$input = array_map(function ($e) { return json_decode($e, true); }, $input);
$result = array();
$indexMap = array();
foreach ($input as $index => $values) {
foreach ($values as $k => $value) {
$index = isset($indexMap[$k]) ? $indexMap[$k] : $index;
if (!isset($result[$index]['item_header'])) {
$result[$index]['item_header'] = $k;
$indexMap[$k] = $index;
}
$result[$index]['list_items'][] = $value;
}
}
echo json_encode($result);

Answer 2

Here you are!
In this case, first I added all arrays into one array for processing.
I thought they are in same array first, but now I realize they aren't.
Just make an empty $array=[] then and then add them all in $array[]=$a1, $array[]=$a2, etc...
$array = '[{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Parents","submenu_label":"parents"}},
{"Entities":{"submenu_id":"Insurers","submenu_label":"insurers"}},
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"New roles","submenu_label":"newrole"}},
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"User - roles","submenu_label":"user_roles"}},
{"Users":{"submenu_id":"Roles - permissions","submenu_label":"roles_permissions"}},
{"Accounting":{"submenu_id":"Input accounting data","submenu_label":"new_accounting"}}]';
$array = json_decode($array, true);
$intermediate = []; // 1st step
foreach($array as $a)
{
$keys = array_keys($a);
$key = $keys[0]; // say, "Entities" or "Users"
$intermediate[$key] []= $a[$key];
}
$result = []; // 2nd step
foreach($intermediate as $key=>$a)
{
$entry = ["item_header" => $key, "list_items" => [] ];
foreach($a as $item) $entry["list_items"] []= $item;
$result []= $entry;
}
print_r($result);

Answer 3

I would prefer an OO approach for that.
First an object for the list_item:
{"submenu_id":"Parents","submenu_label":"parents"}
Second an object for the item_header:
{"item_header":"Entities", "list_items" : <array of list_item> }
Last an object or an array for all:
{ "Menus: <array of item_header> }
And the according getter/setter etc.

Answer 4

The following code will give you the requisite array over which you can iterate to get the desired output.
$final_array = array();
foreach($array as $value) { //assuming that the original arrays are stored inside another array. You can replace the iterator over the array to an iterator over input from file
$key = /*Extract the key from the string ($value)*/
$existing_array_for_key = $final_array[$key];
if(!array_key_exists ($key , $final_array)) {
$existing_array_for_key = array();
}
$existing_array_for_key[count($existing_array_for_key)+1] = /*Extract value from the String ($value)*/
$final_array[$key] = $existing_array_for_key;
}