Question

Here is what my object looks like with print_r (this is an object returned by the PHP SDK for the Amazon Web Services Simple DB.

[GetAttributesResult] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Attribute] => Array
                    (
                        [0] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_datein
                                [Value] => 2011-04-23
                            )

                        [1] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_estatus
                                [Value] => 0
                            )

                        [2] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_status
                                [Value] => 1
                            )

                        [3] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_title
                                [Value] => Company Info
                            )

                        [4] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_tags
                                [Value] => firsttag
                            )

                        [5] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_tags
                                [Value] => secondtag
                            )

                        [6] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_tags
                                [Value] => thirdtag
                            )

                        [7] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_files
                                [Value] => company_info.flv
                            )

                        [8] => CFSimpleXML Object
                            (
                                [Name] => data_id
                                [Value] => 8993
                            )

                    )

            )

I have a function that iterates over the GetAttributesResult Object and creates an associative array that makes it easy to reference my fields by their names. One of my Names is data_tags, which is repeated an unknown number of times. I would like to return data_tags as a simple indexed array of those values. Here’s my function, which doesn’t work.

function attrToArray($select) { 
$results = array(); 
$x = 0; 
foreach($select->body->GetAttributesResult as $result) { 
    foreach ($result as $field) { 
        if (array_key_exists($field,$results[$x])) {
            $results[$x][ (string) $field->Name ][] = (string) $field->Value;
        } else {
            $results[$x][ (string) $field->Name ] = (string) $field->Value; 
        }
    } 
    $x++; 
} 
return $results; 
}

I don’t know if this is the most elegant solution, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. array_key_exists doesn’t return true. By mistake I was able to test as in_array($field-Name,$results[$x]) and that built the array of my repeated $field->Name values… but it also converted all of the other values into single item nested array… so it would seem that it returned true more than I thought it would have. Although the hyphen in there was by mistake I meant to use -> which doesn’t return true… so I’m very confused by what is going on there. Here’s the print_r to show what came back.

Array ( [0] => Array ( 
[data_datein] => 2011-04-23 
[data_estatus] => 0 
[data_status] => Array ( [0] => 1 ) 
[data_title] => Array ( [0] => Company Info ) 
[data_tags] => Array ( 
    [0] => firsttag
    [1] => secondtag 
    [2] => thirdtag ) 
[data_files] => Array ( [0] => company_info.flv ) 
[data_id] => Array ( [0] => 8993 ) ) ) 

Any pointers, suggestions or instruction on how I might handle this better… and at very least if someone can figure out how I can get to the above array without the nested arrays on the other non-redundant fields. Very much appreciated!

Here is the print_r() of $result
CFSimpleXML Object
(
[Attribute] => Array
(
[0] => CFSimpleXML Object
(
[Name] => data_datein
[Value] => 2011-04-23
)

        [1] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_estatus
                [Value] => 0
            )

        [2] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_title
                [Value] => 0001 01 Company Name
            )

        [3] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_status
                [Value] => 1
            )

        [4] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_tags
                [Value] => good stuff
            )

        [5] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_tags
                [Value] => save tags
            )

        [6] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_tags
                [Value] => tagger works
            )

        [7] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_files
                [Value] => 0001_01_company_name.flv
            )

        [8] => CFSimpleXML Object
            (
                [Name] => data_id
                [Value] => yFKwIxjIhH
            )

    )

)

and here is a print_r() of $field (iterated and separated by <hr> tags.)

  CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_datein
      [Value] => 2011-04-23
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_estatus
      [Value] => 0
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_title
      [Value] => 0001 01 Company Name
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_status
      [Value] => 1
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_tags
      [Value] => good stuff
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_tags
      [Value] => save tags
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_tags
      [Value] => tagger works
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_files
      [Value] => 0001_01_company_name.flv
  )
  <hr>CFSimpleXML Object
  (
      [Name] => data_id
      [Value] => yFKwIxjIhH
  )

Answer 1

function attrToArray($select) { 
$results = array(); 
$x = 0;
foreach ( $select->body->GetAttributesResult as $result ) {
    foreach ( $result as $field ) {
        $check = (string) $field->Name;
        if (isset($field) && array_key_exists($check, $results[$x] ) ) {
            if ( ! is_array( $results[ $x ][$check] ) ) {
                $val = (string) $results[ $x ][$check];
                $results[ $x ][ $check ] = array();
                $results[ $x ][ $check ][] = $val;
            }
        $results[ $x ][ $check ][] = (string) $field->Value;
        } else {
            $results[ $x ][ $check ] = (string) $field->Value;
        }
    }
    $x++; 
}
return $results; 
}