PHP: Plot Data Points From MySQL on Graph (Google Graphs) - php

Question

I'm trying to query our database to get all records that match the user defined query, and store the data in a formatted array. The problem is, I'm getting all of the records, but not really sure how to process the data appropriately. I've been working on this for a few days now and haven't made much head way after trying a variety of ideas. Hopefully, someone here will have some insight to share.
The code below executes the query and starts processing the returned data into the array:
$msg_vol = array();
$xy_coords = array();
$tweet_count = 1;
$query = "SELECT created_at, tweet_id FROM `tweets` WHERE tweet_text LIKE '%{$safe_q}%' AND created_at < now() - 300";
$tweets = mysqli_query($db, $query);
confirm_query($tweets);
while ($tweet = mysqli_fetch_assoc($tweets)) {
$created_at = $tweet['created_at'];
$timestamp = strtotime($created_at);
$created_at_no_seconds = date('Y-m-d H:i', $timestamp);
if(!in_array($created_at_no_seconds, $xy_coords)) {
$created_at = $tweet['created_at'];
$timestamp = strtotime($created_at);
$created_at_no_seconds = date('Y-m-d H:i', $timestamp);
if(!in_array($created_at_no_seconds, $xy_coords)) {
$xy_coords = array(0 => $created_at_no_seconds, array('tweet_count' => $tweet_count, 'retweets' => 0));
} else {
// $created_at_no_seconds exists in array
// update array
$msg_vol[$created_at_no_seconds] = array('tweet_count' => $tweet_count++, 'retweets' => 0);
}
}
return $msg_vol;
I'm reformatting the $created_at to the minute as, for the time being, I'm only interested in the data for the last 5 minutes (300 seconds) and want each minute separated out into it's own associative array. The $created_at_no_seconds variable can potentially contain duplicate entries to be added in the array. So, I've toyed with in_array() to try and check if it exists and only add it to the array if it does not. I didn't have much luck with this yet.
A print_r($msg_vol) provides the following output (which is slowly getting closer to the desired output):
[0] => Array
(
[created_at] => 2013-12-15 19:09
[tweet_count] => 1
[retweets] => 0
)
[2013-12-15 19:09] => Array
(
[tweet_count] => 11
[retweets] => 0
)
[1] => Array
(
[created_at] => 2013-12-15 19:09
[tweet_count] => 1
[retweets] => 0
...
[12] => Array
(
[created_at] => 2013-12-15 19:10
[0] => Array
(
[tweet_count] => 12
[retweets] => 0
)
)
[2013-12-15 19:10] => Array
(
[tweet_count] => 20
[retweets] => 0
)
[13] => Array
(
[created_at] => 2013-12-15 19:10
[0] => Array
(
[tweet_count] => 12
[retweets] => 0
)
)
...
(I'm not processing the retweets at the moment, so I'm simply adding a 0 to the retweets array as a placeholder).
I'm trying to format it so that in one array, it contains the unique date (down to the minute) where the values for tweet_count is stored within it. The above example with the date as the associative key, and the $k => $v inside is what I'm trying to achieve. But, when I keep getting the array populated with [0], [1]. [12], [13], etc.
Am I even close? This has been quite the rabbit hole... And, it's starting to become a dark and lonely place. :(

Answer 1

instead of using array push like this
array_push($msg_vol, $xy_coords);
why not try
$array[] = $xy_coords;
With regards the duplicates why not use SELECT DISTINCT in your mysql query?

Answer 2

I was able to solve the problem by optimizing the query (Thank you #php)!
$query = "SELECT DATE_FORMAT(created_at, '%Y-%d-%m %H:%i'),";
$query .= " COUNT(tweet_id), 0 FROM `tweets`";
$query .= " WHERE tweet_text LIKE '%{$safe_q}%'" ;
$query .= " AND created_at < now() - 300";
$query .= " GROUP BY DATE_FORMAT(created_at, '%Y-%d-%m %H:%i')";
$tweets = mysqli_query($db, $query);
confirm_query($tweets);
while ($tweet = mysqli_fetch_assoc($tweets)) {
echo '<pre>';
print_r($tweet); exit;
echo '</pre>';
}
Make use of MySQL functions. They are a life (and, hair) saver!