Question

I am working with a web service that returns JSON data, which, when I decode with PHP’s json_decode function, gives me an array like the following:

Array
(
 [0] => eBook
 [1] => 27
 [2] => Trade Paperback
 [3] => 24
 [4] => Hardcover
 [5] => 4
)

Is there a PHP function that will take this array and combine it into an associative array where every other element is a key and the following element is its value? What I want to come up with is the following:

Array
(
 [eBook] => 27
 [Trade Paperback] => 24
 [Hardcover] => 4
)

Answer 1

Your own solution is clearer for sure, but this one-liner, made of PHP functions only, does the same job:

$output = call_user_func_array('array_combine', call_user_func_array('array_map', array_merge(array(null), array_chunk($input, 2))));

Your question was “is there a PHP function…”. The answer is no, but for a combination thereof it is yes.

The tricky part here is the transposition of the chunked array, which is achieved by calling array_map with null as the first argument (see the manual where it says “an interesting use of this function…”)