Creating a multidimensional array and accessing fields - php

Question

I have been running around in circles over this for days ... please help.
I am trying to create a multidimensional array based on the number of files in a directory and the parsed filename ...
foreach ($files as $file) {
echo "$file[0] $file[1] <br>\n" ; #file[0]=Unix timestamp; file[1]=filename
$pn = explode('.', $file[1]);
$ndt = explode('_',array_shift($pn)) ;
foreach ($ndt as $arndt) {
$items[$arndt] = $ndt ; //this part does not work
echo "$ndt[0] $ndt[1] $ndt[2] $ndt[3] $ndt[4]" ;
}
print_r($items[$arndt]) ;
}
The output of my array is this:
Array ( [0] => OLPH [1] => Barbecue [2] => 03132013 [3] => 11am [4] => 2pm )
Note: I just have 1 file in the directory for testing purposes, but there will be more, hence the need for a multidimensional array ...
I then try to access the array in my html using this:
<h4><?php echo "$items[$arndt]. $ndt[1]" ?></h4>
.... naturally, this output does not print the results that I want .... For every file[1] I want to be able to print $arndt[] and access it using $items[][] notation.... however it just prints Array[]Array[] .... Please help ?
Thanks in advance,
Carlos

Answer 1

echoing/printing an array in string context just gives you Array. If you're dealing with multi-dimensional arrays, each dimension has to have its own loop to print out its contents.
e.g.
$arr1d = array('foo' => 'bar'); // 1D array
echo $arr1d; // outputs "Array"
$arr2d = array('foo' => array('bar' => 'baz')); // 2D array
echo $arr2d; // outputs 'Array';
echo $arr2d['foo']; // outputs 'Array'
echo $arr2d['foo']['bar']; // outputs 'baz'
foreach($arr2d as $key1 => $val1) {
echo $val1; // outputs 'Array';
foreach($val1 as $key2 => $val2) {
echo $val; // outputs 'Baz'
}
}