Question

I have 2 associative arrays: $arr1 & $arr2. I’d like to create $arr3, which would combine ‘name’ and ‘character’ if the dates match…if the dates don’t match, then just the character:

Here’s $arr1:

Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/01
        [name] => Mario Lopez
    )

[1] => stdClass Object
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/02
        [name] => Lark Voorhies
    )

)

Here’s $arr2:

Array
(
[0] => Array
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/01
        [character] => AC Slater
    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/02
        [character] => Lisa Turtle
    )
[2] => Array
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/03
        [character] => Kelly Kapowski
    )
)

Using array_intersect gives the following error: “Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string”.

Here’s what I’d like to get, if it’s possible (ie $arr3):

Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/01
        [name] => Mario Lopez
        [character] => AC Slater
    )

[1] => stdClass Object
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/02
        [name] => Lark Voorhies
        [character] => Lisa Turtle
    )

[2] => stdClass Object
    (
        [date] => 2010/01/03
        [character] => Kelly Kapowski
    )

)

Answer 1

This function was posted on php.net and I’ve been using it for quite a while. It should do what you are asking for

function array_extend($a, $b) {
    foreach($b as $k=>$v) {
        if( is_array($v) ) {
            if( !isset($a[$k]) OR isset($v[0])) {
                $a[$k] = $v;
            } else {
                $a[$k] = array_extend($a[$k], $v);
            }
        } else {
            $a[$k] = $v;
        }
    }
    return $a;
}

Usage:

$array = array_extend($orig_array,$new_array);

Note that you will either have to convert your objects to arrays or modify the function to convert the object to an array on the fly ($a = (array) $a);

Edit:

Original source http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-merge.php#95294

Note that I made a small modification to resolve an issue with the given function where it would not properly extend an array with numeric keys