Question

I have some logic that builds a multi-dimensional array based on matches found in a regex. I call the explode function,using a delimiter.
Everything works and my array looks like this:

 Array ( 
  [0] => 
    Array ( 
        [0] => A1 
        [1] => 100/1000T 
        [2] => No 
        [3] => Yes 
        [4] => Down 
        [5] => 1000FDx 
        [6] => Auto 
        [7] => off 
        [8] => 0 
    ) 
[1] => Array ( 
        [0] => A2 
        [1] => 100/1000T 
        [2] => No 
        [3] => Yes 
        [4] => Down 
        [5] => 1000FDx 
        [6] => Auto 
        [7] => off 
        [8] => 0 
      ) etc.etc...

In order to keep the code in the front end “dumb”, i want to change the keys from numbers to strings that represent what the values are. These strings will be used as column headings in a table. So for example:

 Array ( 
  [0] => 
    Array ( 
        [port] => A1 
        [Type] => 100/1000T 
        [Alert] => No 
        [Enabled] => Yes 
        [Status] => Down 
        [Mode] => 1000FDx 
        [MDIMode] => Auto 
        [FlowCtrl] => off 
        [BcastLimit] => 0 
    ) 
[1] => Array ( 
        [port] => A2 
        [Type] => 100/1000T 
        [Alert] => No 
        [Enabled] => Yes 
        [Status] => Down 
        [Mode] => 1000FDx 
        [MDIMode] => Auto 
        [FlowCtrl] => off 
        [BcastLimit] => 0         
               ) etc.etc...

Here’s the code that generates this array:

  $portdetailsArray = array();
  foreach ($data as $portdetails) {
    $pattern = '/(\s+)([0-9a-z]*)(\s+)(100\/1000T|10|\s+)(\s*)(\|)(\s+)(\w+)(\s+)(\w+)(\s+)(\w+)(\s+)(1000FDx|\s+)(\s*)(\w+)(\s*)(\w+|\s+)(\s*)(0)/i';

   if (preg_match($pattern, $portdetails, $matches)) {

        $replacement = '$2~$4~$8~$10~$12~$14~$16~$18~$20';
        $portdetails= preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $portdetails);
        array_push($portdetailsArray, explode('~',$portdetails));
   }

}

I guess instead of using the explode function, I can manually loop through my string. Each time I find a “~”, i know it’s the start of a new field so i can add they key /value pair manually.
But I was just wondering if anyone had ideas on other ways to do this.
Thanks.

Answer 1

To reply to your original question, you could use the array_combine function, to replace the keys.

$row = explode('~',$portdetails);
$row = array_combine(array(
       'port',
       'Type',
       'Alert',
       'Enabled',
       'Status',
       'Mode',
       'MDIMode',
       'FlowCtrl',
       'BcastLimit'), $row);

But even better, you should use the clearer (verbose is clearer in this case)

if (preg_match($pattern, $portdetails, $matches)) {
    array_push($portdetailsArray, array(
       'port' => $matches[2],
       'Type' => $matches[4],
       'Alert' => $matches[8],
       'Enabled' => $matches[10],
       'Status' => $matches[12],
       'Mode' => $matches[14],
       'MDIMode' => $matches[16],
       'FlowCtrl' => $matches[18],
       'BcastLimit' => $matches[20]));
}