Question

I am trying to create an array for years which i will use in the DOB year piece of a form I am building. Currently, I know there are two ways to handle the issue but I don’t really care for either:

1) Range:

I know I can create a year array using the following

<?php 
     $year = range(1910,date("Y"));
     $_SESSION['years_arr'] = $year;
?>

the problem with Point 1 is two fold: a) my function call shows the first year as ‘selected’ instead of “Year” as I have as option=”0″, and b) I want the years reversed so 2010 is the first in the least and shown decreasing.

My function call is:

PHP

<?php
    function showOptionsDrop($array, $active, $echo=true){
        $string = '';

        foreach($array as $k => $v){
            $s = ($active == $k)? ' selected="selected"' : '';
            $string .= '<option value="'.$k.'"'.$s.'>'.$v.'</option>'."\n";     
        }

        if($echo)   echo $string;
        else        return $string;
    }
?>

HTML

<table>
            <tr>
            <td>State:</td>
            <td><select name="F1State"><option value="0">Choose a year</option><?php showOptionsDrop($_SESSION['years_arr'], null, true); ?></select>
            </td>
            </tr>
</table>

---

2) Long Array

I know i can physically create an array with years listed out but this takes up a lot of space and time if I ever want to go back and modify.

ex: PHP

$years = array('1900'=>"1900", '1901'=>"1901", '1902'=>"1902", '1903'=>"1903", '1904'=>"1904", '1905'=>"1905", '1906'=>"1906", '1907'=>"1907", '1908'=>"1908", '1909'=>"1909", '1910'=>"1910", '1911'=>"1911", '1912'=>"1912", '1913'=>"1913", '1914'=>"1914", '1915'=>"1915", '1916'=>"1916", '1917'=>"1917", '1918'=>"1918", '1919'=>"1919", '1920'=>"1920", '1921'=>"1921", '1922'=>"1922", '1923'=>"1923", '1924'=>"1924", '1925'=>"1925", '1926'=>"1926", '1927'=>"1927", '1928'=>"1928", '1929'=>"1929", '1930'=>"1930", '1931'=>"1931", '1932'=>"1932", '1933'=>"1933", '1934'=>"1934", '1935'=>"1935", '1936'=>"1936", '1937'=>"1937", '1938'=>"1938", '1939'=>"1939", '1940'=>"1940", '1941'=>"1941", '1942'=>"1942", '1943'=>"1943", '1944'=>"1944", '1945'=>"1945", '1946'=>"1946", '1947'=>"1947", '1948'=>"1948", '1949'=>"1949", '1950'=>"1950", '1951'=>"1951", '1952'=>"1952", '1953'=>"1953", '1954'=>"1954", '1955'=>"1955", '1956'=>"1956", '1957'=>"1957", '1958'=>"1958", '1959'=>"1959", '1960'=>"1960", '1961'=>"1961", '1962'=>"1962", '1963'=>"1963", '1964'=>"1964", '1965'=>"1965", '1966'=>"1966", '1967'=>"1967", '1968'=>"1968", '1969'=>"1969", '1970'=>"1970", '1971'=>"1971", '1972'=>"1972", '1973'=>"1973", '1974'=>"1974", '1975'=>"1975", '1976'=>"1976", '1977'=>"1977", '1978'=>"1978", '1979'=>"1979", '1980'=>"1980", '1981'=>"1981", '1982'=>"1982", '1983'=>"1983", '1984'=>"1984", '1985'=>"1985", '1986'=>"1986", '1987'=>"1987", '1988'=>"1988", '1989'=>"1989", '1990'=>"1990", '1991'=>"1991", '1992'=>"1992", '1993'=>"1993", '1994'=>"1994", '1995'=>"1995", '1996'=>"1996", '1997'=>"1997", '1998'=>"1998", '1999'=>"1999", '2000'=>"2000", '2001'=>"2001", '2002'=>"2002", '2003'=>"2003", '2004'=>"2004", '2005'=>"2005", '2006'=>"2006", '2007'=>"2007", '2008'=>"2008", '2009'=>"2009", '2010'=>"2010");

$_SESSION['years_arr'] = $years_arr;

Does anybody have a recommended idea how to work – or just how to simply modify my existing code?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Not sure why you’re using the session for this, but generating the array can be done with the array_combine function.

$years = array_combine(range(date("Y"), 1910), range(date("Y"), 1910));

Reversing the parameters to range will give you a descending array and array_combine will use the first array as the keys and the second as the values, giving the array(1910 => 1910, ...); map you’re after.