Question

I have a list of csv files which I need php to convert to one large multidimensional array, testing with just 2 php exceeds the max execution time when conduction the second conversion.

1st conversion being from csv to numerical multidimensional array

2nd conversion being from numerical multidimensional array to string and numerical multidimensional array, which is where php produces the error.

My code is as follows:

function parse($data) {
    $i = 0;
    while (isset($data[$i])) {
      $row = 0;
      while (isset($data[$i][$row])) {
        switch ($row) {
          case 0:
            //General Item details
            $fOv = 0;
            while (isset($data[$i][$row][$fOv])) {
              $array['Item'][$i][$data[$i][row][$fOv]] = $data[$i][$row + 1][$fOv];
              $fOv++; // THIS IS THE PLACE OF THE ERROR
            }
            break;
          case 2:
            //General Transaction details
            $fOv = 0;
            while (isset($data[$i][$row][$fOv])) {
              $array['Transaction'][$i][$data[$i][$row][$fOv]] = $data[$i][$row + 1][$fOv];
              $fOv++;
            }
            break;
          case 4:
            //Buyer details
            $fOv = 0;
            while (isset($data[$i][$row][$fOv])) {
              $array['Transaction']['Buyer'][$i][$data[$i][$row][$fOv]] = $data[$i][$row + 1][$fOv];
              $fOv++;
            }
            break;
          case 6:
            //Shipping details
            $fOv = 0;
            while (isset($data[$i][$row][$fOv])) {
              $array['Transaction']['Shipping'][$i][$data[$i][$row][$fOv]] = $data[$i][$row + 1][$fOv];
              $fOv++;
            }
            break;
          case 8:
            //Status details
            $fOv = 0;
            while (isset($data[$i][$row][$fOv])) {
              $array['Transaction']['Status'][$i][$data[$i][$row][$fOv]] = $data[$i][$row + 1][$fOv];
              $fOv++;
            }
            break;
        }
      $row + 2;
      }
      $i++;
    }
    return $array;
  }

This is how the numerical array looks like:

array (
  0 => array (
    0 => array (
      0 => 'field 1', 1 => 'field 2', 2 => 'field 3' //continues to field 17
    )
    1 => array (
      0 => 'value 1', 1 => 'value 2', 2 => 'value 3' //continues to value 17
      //these values are for the fields in array[0][0]
    )
    2 => array ( //same as array[0][0] )
    3 => array ( //same as array[0][1], values for array[0][2] )
    4 => array ( //same as array[0][0] )
    5 => array ( //same as array[0][1], values for array[0][4] )
    6 => array ( //same as array[0][0] )
    7 => array ( //same as array[0][1], values for array[0][6] )
    8 => array ( //same as array[0][0] )
    9 => array ( //same as array[0][1], values for array[0][8] )
  )
  1 => array (
    //same structure as array[0], different details
  )
)

what I’m trying to get for the string and numerical array:

array (
  0 => array (
    'Item' => array (
      0 => array ( 
        'field 1' => 'value 1'
        'field 2' => 'value 2'
        //continues to field 17
      )
    )
    'Transaction' => array (
       0 => array (
        'field n' => 'value n' //repeated until field 17
        'Buyer' => array (
          //same as above in array[0]['Item'][0]
        )
        'Shipping' => array (
          //same as above in array[0]['Item'][0]
        )
        'Status' => array (
          //same as above in array[0]['Item'][0]
        )
      )
    )
  )
  1 => array (
    //same structure as array[0], different values
  )
)

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

EDIT:
I don’t want to increase the max execution time, the script should take less than 30 seconds, the same as the working script I have which stores the data in the csv files in the first place.

Answer 1

The quick and dirty approach:

ini_set('max_execution_time', 0);

Although be aware that if your script goes into an infinite loop, it’ll never end 🙂 More likely is that removing the time limit will cause you to hit a memory limit, so you may do well to run this via the command line to avoid crashing apache.

Edit:
Try altering your code not to use variable names like $iii as this is very hard to read. You may find that this alone will make the solution obvious.

Edit:
$row + 2;
ought to be
$row += 2;