Question

I have a string ($c) that contains a comma-separated list of settings. Some settings are stand-alone, while others require a sub-setting that is separated by an equal sign.

Example:

$c = "title,author,tax=taxonomy_A,tax=taxonomy_B,date";

I need to parse this string into a multidimensional array ($columns) that outputs like this:

$columns = array(
    [0] => array( 'title', '' ),
    [1] => array( 'author', '' ),
    [2] => array( 'tax', 'taxonomy_A' ),
    [3] => array( 'tax', 'taxonomy_B' ),
    [4] => array( 'date', '' )
)

I have tried this:

        $c = "title,author,tax=taxonomy_A,tax=taxonomy_B,meta=custom_field_key";
    $c = explode( ',', $c );
    $columns = array( explode( '=', $c ) );

But that just returns this:

$columns = array(
    [0] => array( 'Array' )
)

What am I missing here? Should the second explode be replaced with a different function?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

foreach(explode(',', "title,author,tax=taxonomy_A,tax=taxonomy_B,date") as $item)
        $items[] = array_pad(explode('=', $item), 2, '');