Question

I have an table in my database which so far has been great for storing stuff in more than one object. But i want to be able to transform it into a multi-object array thingy.

Here is the data which is related to this new ‘object’ (in mysql):

    uid     field              value
    page:1  shop[2].location    In Shops, Dundas Arcades,Middlesbrough, TS1 1HT
    page:1  shop[1].location    5a High Street, Stockton-on-tees, TS18 1UB
    page:1  name                Enter The Asylum
    page:1  contact.website     http://entertheasylum.co.uk
    page:1  contact.phone       [phone]

Now what i’m looking for is to via PHP transform it into something like (print_r output):

array(
   "name" => "Enter The Asylum",
   "shop" => array(
      array("location" => "In Shops, Dundas Arcades..."),
      array("location" => "5a High Street, Stockton-on-tees...")
   ),
   "contact" => array(
      "website" => "http://entertheasylum.co.uk",
      "phone" => "0800 090 090"
   )
 )

anybody got any ideas?

Answer 1

I’ve managed to do this via regex and php. Here is the magic function (it’s part of my code and stuff):

function fetch_profile_info($id){
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM profile_info WHERE `uid`='".me($id)."'";
    $r = mysql_query($sql);
    $profile = array();
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($r)){
        /* new: process it into objects etc */
        $field = $row['field'];
        $field = preg_replace('/\.([a-zA-Z]*)/i', "['$1']", $field);
        $field = preg_replace('/^([a-zA-Z]*)/', "['$1']", $field);
        eval("\$profile{$field} = \"".addslashes($row['value'])."\";");
    }
    return $profile;
}

it works! yay!