Create new multidimensional array from flat array - directory paths - PHP - php

Question

Hope someone can point me in the right direction here...
I've got directory paths and partial file outputs form a unix grep. I have a flat array from these outputs. Now I'd like to do a bit of PHP magic to turn this flat array into a more hierarchical multidimensional array for more refined user output
Current array;
array(7) {
[0]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120107/filename.txt:random text after the colon"
[1]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
[2]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
[3]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
[4]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
[5]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120106/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
[6]=>
string(160) "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon"
}
What i would really like
array(1) {
array(3) {
["dir"]=>
string(4) "dir1"
["date"]=>
string(8) "20120107"
["text"]=>
array (2) {
[0]=>
string(160) "random text after the colon"
[1]=>
string(160) "More random text after the colon"
}
}
array(3) {
["dir"]=>
string(4) "dir1"
["date"]=>
string(8) "20120108"
["text"]=>
array (2) {
[0]=>
string(160) "More random text after the colon"
[1]=>
string(160) "More random text after the colon"
}
}
array(3) {
["dir"]=>
string(4) "dir2"
["date"]=>
string(8) "20120107"
["text"]=>
array (2) {
[0]=>
string(160) "More random text after the colon"
[1]=>
string(160) "More random text after the colon"
}
}
}
I have tried a lot of foreach's, SPL iterator methods, but i'm just not coming out trumps. Looking for any guidance.
Thanks all

Answer 1

This code (using a for loop):
<?php
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120107/filename.txt:random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120106/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
for($i = 0; $i < count($data); $i++) {
$data[$i] = str_replace('/home/user/data/section1/','',$data[$i]);
$tmp = explode('/', $data[$i]);
$newData[$i] = array(
'dir' => $tmp[0],
'date' => $tmp[1]
);
$tmp = explode(':', $tmp[2]);
$newData[$i]['fileName'] = $tmp[0];
$newData[$i]['text'] = $tmp[1];
}
print_r($newData);
?>
Or this code (using a foreach loop):
<?php
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120107/filename.txt:random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120107/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120106/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
$data[] = "/home/user/data/section1/dir3/20120108/filename.txt: More random text after the colon";
foreach($data as $d) {
$tmp = explode('/', str_replace('/home/user/data/section1/','',$d));
$tmp2 = explode(':', $tmp[2]);
$newData[] = array(
'dir' => $tmp[0],
'date' => $tmp[1],
'filename' => $tmp2[0],
'text' => $tmp2[1]
);
}
print_r($newData);
?>
Outputs:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[dir] => dir1
[date] => 20120107
[fileName] => filename.txt
[text] => random text after the colon
)
[1] => Array
(
[dir] => dir1
[date] => 20120108
[fileName] => filename.txt
[text] => More random text after the colon
)
============ more data here ============
[6] => Array
(
[dir] => dir3
[date] => 20120108
[fileName] => filename.txt
[text] => More random text after the colon
)
)

Answer 2

Explode each string of path with "/".You will get an array after that.Then push required element in the array.

Answer 3

Make a foreach over the first array and preg_match() the elements for the informations you want to extract from each string.
foreach( $firstArray => $strElement )
{
$newArray[] = array();
if( preg_match( "~(?<=section1/)[.-\w]*~i", $strElement, $astrMatches) >= 1 )
$newArray['dir'] = $astrMatches[0];
...etc...
}

Answer 4

function magic($array_of_strings)
{
define('REGEX','_^/home/user/data/section1/(dir\d+)/(\d+)/filename.txt:(.*)$_');
$ret_array = array();
foreach($array_of_strings as $string) {
if (preg_match(REGEX, $string, $matches)) {
$ret_array []= array(
'dir'=>$matches[1],
'date'=>$matches[2],
'text'=>$matches[3],
);
}
}
return $ret_array;
}

Answer 5

Ok this will do the job, you can change the directory structure as much as you like as long as the the last two directories keep the same order /dir/date.
You can add as many strings as you like to the text section of the array by seperating them with multiple colons after the URL. e.g. /blah/dir/date/filename.txt : string 1 : string 2.
Your original array must be called $array.
Enjoy:
foreach ($array as $string) {
$temp = array();
$temp["strings"] = explode(':', $string); //Convert the string into an array using `:` as a seperator
$temp["path"] = explode('/', $temp["strings"][0]); //Convert the url into an array using `/` as a seperator (each directory is it's own entry)
$path_count = count($temp["path"]); //Count number of directories in the url
$output = array(
"dir" => $temp["path"][$path_count - 3],
"date" => $temp["path"][$path_count - 2],
"text" => array()
);
foreach ($temp["strings"] as $index => $value) { //Loop through and add any additional text to array
if ($index) {
array_push($output["text"], trim($value));
}
}
print_r($output);
}

Answer 6

Thanks all for the input and scripts. I have actually learned quite a bit about massaging data into multidimensional arrays from these scripts. Unfortunately, none of them worked out exactly as i wanted. One thing i've learned researching this issue, is, 'is there another way to present the data?' and in this case i found it. A shell script, to search all files, output the filename, and then the relevant text.
find /home/user/data/section1 -name 'filename.txt' | xargs grep -il texttxet |
while read file
do
echo "$file"
grep -i -A 4 texttxet "$file"
done
File:/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120107/filename.txt
line1
line2
line3
File:/home/user/data/section1/dir1/20120108/filename.txt
line1
line2
File:/home/user/data/section1/dir2/20120108/filename.txt
line1
line2
I can easily get this info in an array from this point. Thanks all again