How to write two colums table as an array? - php

Question

I have a simple table with 2 colums: ID and Name. It looks like this:
License_ID License_Name
5 xxx
8 yyy
13 zzz
I want to write this table as an array, and I want to be able to find the license_id when license_name is provided. How can I write this array?
Edit: I can write the array the same as the answer nickb provided,
$array = array(
'xxx' => 5,
'yyy' => 8,
'zzz' => 13
);
but I want to have the license_id and license_name as key instead of using value of license_name as key.

Answer 1

Form an array with keys corresponding to the license name and values corresponding to the license ID, like so:
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM table'; // Optionally add a WHERE clause
$result = mysql_query( $sql);
$array = array();
while( $row = mysql_fetch_array( $result))
{
// Form the array
$array[ $row['License_Name'] ] = $row['License_ID'];
}
mysql_free_result( $result);
To omit the table and use a global variable, use the same technique:
$array = array(
'xxx' => 5,
'yyy' => 8,
'zzz' => 13
);
Now, to lookup the license ID, all you need is:
$license_id = 8;
$id = $array[ $license_id ]; // $id = 'yyy';
Edit: Here's an alternative way to represent the way in a more clear manner:
$array = array(
array(
'license_id' => 5,
'license_name' => 'xxx'
),
array(
'license_id' => 8,
'license_name' => 'yyy'
),
array(
'license_id' => 13,
'license_name' => 'zzz'
)
);
Then, to find the license_id when license_name is provided, loop to find your result:
$license_name = 'zzz';
foreach( $array as $entry)
{
if( $entry['license_name'] == $license_name)
{
echo 'Found ID of ' . $license_name . ' - ' . $entry['license_id'];
break;
}
}
OR, and even more direct way to prevent looping is to modify the above technique to have each sub-array contain the license_name as its key, like so:
$array = array(
'xxx' => array(
'license_id' => 5,
'license_name' => 'xxx'
),
'yyy' => array(
'license_id' => 8,
'license_name' => 'yyy'
),
'zzz' => array(
'license_id' => 13,
'license_name' => 'zzz'
)
);
Now, to find the license_id, you can do it directly once you know the license_name:
$license_name = 'zzz';
$license_id = $array[ $license_name ]['license_id'];

Answer 2

You know there is array_search out there,don't you? Personally I like to keep array keys as ids or numeric value.. so in your example $key=array_search('xxx',$myArr); (where id is the key and name is the value) http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php