Question

I am writing a utility to do some data loading from text files. I have a collection of dictionary files that i am processing into arrays that define the structure of the data files. Yes, i could use classes or otherwise, but using arrays, i have been stumped.

Let’s say i have 3 files that i read and load into arrays. When i read the arrays, the 3rd instance has elements of the second despite trying to use unset and other things. What am I missing? I am on cygwin using php 5.3.16

Following are examples of list, but not the real lists. so, please disregard the substr statements as they are not real

fname c 1 16
lname c 17 30

addr c 1 20
city c 21 30
state c 31 40
zip n 41 45

bday d 1 9
ssn c 10 18

when loading with the code below, the 3rd array has elements from the second, namely bday, ssn, state and zip.

$cnt = 0;
while ($s = fgets($fp, 1024)) {
    $fldprops = array();
    $fldprops[0] = trim(substr($s,0,8));
    $fldprops[1] = trim(substr($s,9,1));
    $fldprops[2] = trim(substr($s,11,3));
    $fldprops[3] = trim(substr($s,15,3));
    $flds[$cnt] = $fldprops;
    $cnt++;
    unset($fldprops);
}

I had thought either one of $fldprops = array(); or unset() would clear the array but it is not working.

Update: I mistook the point of failure. it is not apparently at writing to the outer array, but in reading. As i mentioned in a comment, later in the code, i have a foreach loop and here it is failing:

foreach ($flds as $fldprop) {
     var_dump($fldprop);
}

here, i get bday, ssn, state and zip (the last two entries of the second array merged with the 3rd array).

Answer 1

This is the output I am getting:

<?php
    $flds = array();
    $cnt = 0;
    $s = "HelloWorldNiceToSeeYou";
    $fldprops = array();
    $fldprops[0] = trim(substr($s,0,8));
    $fldprops[1] = trim(substr($s,9,1));
    $fldprops[2] = trim(substr($s,11,3));
    $fldprops[3] = trim(substr($s,15,3));
    $flds[$cnt] = $fldprops;
    $cnt++;
    unset($fldprops);
    var_dump($flds, $cnt, $fldprops);
?>

Output:

<br />
<b>Notice</b>:  Undefined variable: fldprops in <b>/code/MQpnac</b> on line <b>13</b><br />
array(1) {
  [0]=>
  array(4) {
    [0]=>
    string(8) "HelloWor"
    [1]=>
    string(1) "d"
    [2]=>
    string(3) "ice"
    [3]=>
    string(3) "oSe"
  }
}
int(1)
NULL

PHP Notice:  Undefined variable: fldprops in /code/MQpnac on line 13

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