Question

I am just learning how to wrap my head around sql and php. I have 4 tables structured as follows

+-----------+    +------------+    +---------+    +----------+
|  Project  |    | Slide      |    | Shape   |    |  Points  |
+-----------+    +------------+    +---------+    +----------+
|    id     |    |  id        |    | id      |    | id       |
+-----------+    | project_id |    | cont_id |    | shape_id |
                 +------------+    +---------+    | x        |
                                                  | y        |
                                                  +----------+

As you can see the tables are linked by id all the way down to points meaning a project will contain a number of slides that contain a number of shapes that contain a number of points.

I have a SQL query

SELECT slide.`id`, shape.`id`, points.`x_point`, points.`y_point` 
FROM `project`, `slide`, `shape`, `points` 
WHERE 1 = slide.`project_id` 
   AND slide.`id` = shape.`slide_id` 
   AND shape.`id` = points.`shape_id`

What I want is to take the results of this query that look like this

[0] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 177
         [y] => 177
     )

 [1] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 178
         [y] => 423
     )

 [2] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 178
         [y] => 419
     )

 [3] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 178
         [y] => 413
     )

 [4] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 181
         [y] => 399
     )

 [5] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 195
         [y] => 387
     )

 [6] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 210
         [y] => 381
     )

 [7] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 231
         [y] => 372
     )

 [8] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 255
         [y] => 368
     )

 [9] => stdClass Object
     (
         [id] => 27
         [x] => 283
         [y] => 368
     )
... AND CONTINUED FOR A LONG TIME

What I want is to convert this beastly array of crap into something that more resembles this

[9] => stdClass Object
         (
             [id] => ID OF LIKE SHAPES
             [x] => Array(ALL THE X POINTS)
             [y] => ARRAY(ALL THE Y Points)
         )

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to convert this to such an array.

If it cannot be done with the query I designed is there a better query. Maybe one that grabs the points then takes that puts it into an array that of the points… I think I just got an Idea…

---

New Info,

So I added an answer to this question, I don’t know if that’s the standard way. To help out other answers if mine is not a good solution I will add my thought process here as well.

Check out my answer bellow for more info.

Also how does an ORM compare to my algorithm bellow?

Answer 1

Using an ORM like Doctrine, you would simply model it like

/**
 * @Entity
 */
class Project
{
    /**
     * @Id @GeneratedValue
     * @Column(type="integer")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @OneToMany(targetEntity="Slide", mappedBy="project")
     */
    private $slides;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->slides = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
    }
}

/**
 * @Entity
 */
class Slide
{
    /**
     * @Id @GeneratedValue
     * @Column(type="integer")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Project", inversedBy="slides")
     * @JoinColumn(name="project_id", referencedColumnName="id")
     */
    private $project;

    /**
     * @OneToMany(targetEntity="Shape", mappedBy="slide")
     */
    private $shapes;
}

And so on…

See http://www.doctrine-project.org/docs/orm/2.0/en/reference/association-mapping.html#one-to-many-bidirectional

Of course, there’s a fair amount of setup and processing overhead involved but you’ll appreciate an ORM as your domain model becomes more complex.