Creating a custom multidimensional array - php

Question

I have been stumped on this for awhile and was wondering if there was a way to turn this data into a custom multidimensional array.
I run a query on my table and it spits out an array like this
SELECT id_cms_category, name FROM cms_category_lang ORDER BY id_cms_category ASC
The resulted array looks like this.
array
0=>
array
'id_cms_category'=> 1
'name'=>'Home'
1=>
array
'id_cms_category'=> 2
'name'=>'Test'
So then I run my query on my cms table
SELECT cl.id_cms, c.id_cms_category, cl.meta_title
FROM cms_lang cl
LEFT JOIN cms c ON (c.id_cms = cl.id_cms)
LEFT JOIN cms_link ci ON (ci.id_cms = cl.id_cms)
ORDER BY c.id_cms_category, cl.meta_title ASC
and I get an array like this
array
0 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '4' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'About us' (length=8)
1 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '6' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'Contact Us' (length=10)
2 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '1' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'Delivery' (length=8)
3 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '2' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'Legal Notice' (length=12)
4 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '5' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'Secure payment' (length=14)
5 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '3' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '1' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'Terms and conditions of use' (length=27)
6 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '10' (length=2)
'id_cms_category' => string '2' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'FAQ - UltraTech IBC Spill Pallet Plus' (length=37)
7 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '9' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '2' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'FAQ - UltraTech P2 Plus 2-Drum Hard Top Spill Pallet' (length=52)
8 =>
array
'id_cms' => string '7' (length=1)
'id_cms_category' => string '2' (length=1)
'meta_title' => string 'XR-5, Urethane & Copolymer 2000' (length=31)
I am wanting to try and take all this data and somehow create a multidimensional array like so;
array
0 => 'Home'
array
id_cms => meta_title
1 => 'Test'
array
id_cms => meta_title
that way I should be able to run something like this
foreach($title as $key => $value)
{
<li>$value</li>
foreach($value as $id_cms => $page)
{
<li>$page</li>
}
}
to get the output on the page to look something like this
Home
home 1
home 2
home 3
Test
test 1
test 2
test 3

Answer 1

I wouldn't do two queries for this.
I would alter your second query so you've got both the category and page name in the same result set. It should look something like:
SELECT cl.id_cms, c.id_cms_category, catlang.name, cl.meta_title
FROM cms_lang cl
LEFT JOIN cms c
ON (c.id_cms = cl.id_cms)
LEFT JOIN cms_link ci
ON (ci.id_cms = cl.id_cms)
LEFT JOIN cms_category_lang catlang
ON (catlang.id_cms_category = cl.id_cms_category)
ORDER BY c.id_cms_category, catlang.name, cl.meta_title ASC;
Then you could create a loop that simply checked the category in each iteration. If it finds a new one, end the previous block and start a new one:
$currentCategory = '';
$output = '';
foreach ($rows as $row) {
if ($currentCategory != $row['name']) {
$output .= '</li><li>' . $row['name'];
}
$currentCategory = $row['name'];
$output .= '<li><a href="' . $row['id_cms'] . '">' . $row['meta_title'] . '</li>';
}
// Trim off our unnecessary </li>
$output = substr($output, 4);

Answer 2

If your CMS returns a numerically indexed array (and that's what it sounds like from your post), you can re-index the array using whatever key you want.
$array = array(0 => array('id_cms' => 4, 'id_cms_category' => 1, 'meta_title' => 'About us'));
$newArray = array();
foreach ( $array as $v ) {
$newArray[$v['meta_title']] = $v;
}
var_dump($newArray);
Arrays are vital in PHP programming, so you'd be doing yourself a favor to learn them before going any further.

Answer 3

Create a new empty array: $newArray = array();
Go through your result with a foreach, then as you go, check if the category of the current item already exists in your new array: if (isset($newArray[$row['id_cms_category']))
If it doesn't, create it and initialize it with a new array containing the item as a first element: $newArray[$row['id_cms_category'] = array($row);
If it already existed (i.e. you already went through an item belonging to this category), then add it: $newArray[$row['id_cms_category'] []= $row;
That's it!