Jagged Edge Arrays in PHP - php

Question

I want to store some data in (I guess a semi-2, semi-3d array) in PHP (5.3)
What I need to do is store data about each floor like this:
Floor Num of Spots Handicap Motorcyle Other
1 100 array(15,16,17) array (47,62) array (99,100)
2 100 array(15,16,17) array (47,62) array (99,100)
and on
The problem is, is if the Handicap+Motorcyle+Other were ints, I could just store the data in a 2d array. However, they aren't. So I was thinking I could make something almost like a 3D array, with the first two columns only being in 2D.
The other thought I had was making a 2D array and for columns 3,4, and 5 instead of saving as
array(15,16)
//save like
1516
And then split at two digits (1 digit array numbers would be prefaced with a 0). However, I am wondering about the limit of the length of a string, because if I decide to move to a 3 digit length number in the array, like array(100, 104), and I need to store alot of numbers, I am thinking I am going to quickly exceed the max.
Edit 1
I like Omar's answer alot, but I'm not sure as to how to pull the data out.

Answer 1

While you could store them as ?D array, there is another approach you might want to consider :
$stuff = array (
'floor1' =>
array (
'NumSpots' => 100,
'handicap' => array (15,16,17),
'motorcycle' => array (47, 62),
'other' => array (99, 100),
),
),
'floor2' =>
'NumSpots' => 100,
'handicap' => array (15,16,17),
'motorcycle' => array (47, 62),
'other' => array (99, 100),
),
)
)
That way, you can access things through mroe meaningful names like
$stuff['floor1']['motorcycle'][2]

Answer 2

In php you can have named keys for your arrays. Each element in your array can have different types so you could have
$floors = array(
1 => array(
'num_spots' => 100,
'handicap' => array(15,16,17)
),
2 => array(
'num_spots' => 100,
'handicap' => array(15,16,17),
'motorcycle' => array (47,62)
)
);
etc...

Answer 3

You can do exactly that. Example:
$a = array();
$a[1] = array(
'spots' => 100,
'handicap' => array(5,3,5)
);
$a[2] = array(
'spots' => 50,
'handicap' => array(1,3,20)
);
var_dump($a);
Output:
array
1 =>
array
'spots' => int 100
'handicap' =>
array
0 => int 5
1 => int 3
2 => int 5
2 =>
array
'spots' => int 50
'handicap' =>
array
0 => int 1
1 => int 3
2 => int 20
You can use the array indices for the floor number or have a separate key/value for that.

Answer 4

Something like...
$floors = array();
$floors[1] => array(
Spaces => 100,
Handicapped => array(15, 16, 17),
Motorcycle => array(47, 62),
Other => array (1, 2, 3, ..., n)
)
You can then retrieve the values as ...
$Floor1Spaces = $floors[1]['Spaces']; //An integer
$Floor1HAndicapped = $floors[1]['Handicapped']; //A 1-dimensional array of integer