build multidimensional array from string php - php

Question

EDIT: Here is a portion of $preparedstring:
555555,Jones,Brian,NYC,1000,2011-10-21 00:00:00,Check,1542,0, ,Check, ,0, ,Check, ,; 6666666,Miler,Christopher,Chicago,1000,2011-10-26 00:00:00,Check,6406,0, ,Check, ,0, ,Check, ,;
I am trying to convert a HTML table to a multidimensional array. I have converted the table into a long string, each cell being delimited with a comma and each row being delimited with a semicolon.
I am not exactly sure how to build the multidimensional array from this string. This is what I have tried so far:
<?php
$outerARR = explode(";", $preparedstring);
$arr = array
(
foreach ($outerARR as $arrvalue) {
$innerarr = explode(",", $arrvalue);
$innerarr[0]=>array
(
$innerarr[];
)
}
);
?>
this gives me a syntax error near the
$arr = array
(
opening parenthesis.

Answer 1

Your approach to solving the problem is sadly very wrong, though there are many solutions to your problem, I would use something like the below.
How does the code work?
First we use explode to split our string up in smaller chunks, ; is our delimiter.
We pass this newly created array to array_map as it's second parameter.
array_map takes two parameters, the first one is a function that will be called for every member of the second paramater (which should be an array).
Inside our callback to array_map we use explode to once again split out the values, now with , as our delimiter.
$data = "1,2,3;4,5,6;7,8,9";
$ret = array_map (
function ($_) {return explode (',', $_);},
explode (';', $data)
);
print_r ($ret);
output
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 4
[1] => 5
[2] => 6
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 7
[1] => 8
[2] => 9
)
)
It doesn't work, why?
Probably because you are using a version of PHP prior to 5.3, if so you can use this snippet instead:
function explode_by_comma ($_) {
return explode (',', $_);
}
$ret = array_map ('explode_by_comma', explode (';', $data));

Answer 2

<?php
//explode first dimension of the array to create an array of rows
$outerARR = explode(";", $preparedstring);
$arr = array();
//iterate through the newly created array
foreach ($outerARR as $arrvalue) {
//explode this row into columns
$innerarr = explode(",", $arrvalue);
//add the newly created array of columns to the output array as a new index
$arr[] = $innerarr;
}
?>

Answer 3

You're close, but arrays don't work that way. You can't put a foreach inside an array constructor like that. It should look like this:
$outerARR = explode(";", $preparedstring);
$arr = array();
foreach ($outerARR as $arrvalue){
$innerarr = explode(",", $arrvalue);
$arr[] = $innerarr;
}
Demo: http://codepad.org/I5wFFczR

Answer 4

$outerARR = explode(";", $preparedstring);
$a = array();
$y=0;
foreach ($outerARR as $arrvalue){
$x=0;
$innerarr = explode(",", $arrvalue);
foreach($innerarr as $v){
$a[$y][$x++] = $v;
}
$y++;
}
print_r($a);
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => 555555
[1] => Jones
[2] => Brian
[3] => NYC
[4] => 1000
[5] => 2011-10-21 00:00:00
[6] => Check
[7] => 1542
[8] => 0
[9] =>
[10] => Check
[11] =>
[12] => 0
[13] =>
[14] => Check
[15] =>
[16] =>
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => 6666666
[1] => Miler
[2] => Christopher
[3] => Chicago
[4] => 1000
[5] => 2011-10-26 00:00:00
[6] => Check
[7] => 6406
[8] => 0
[9] =>
[10] => Check
[11] =>
[12] => 0
[13] =>
[14] => Check
[15] =>
[16] =>
)
)