Question

I have the following array:

Array
(
[0] => Array
    (
        [User] => Array
            (
                [firstname] => Chris
                [lastname] => Willis
            )

    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [User] => Array
            (
                [firstname] => Test
                [lastname] => Willis
            )

    )
   ...

I need it to be transformed into a structure similar to this:

Array
{
   'Chris-Willis' => 0
   'Test-Willis' => 1
   ....

What are some array functions to help to do this?

So it needs to be:

  firstname-lastname => id

Answer 1

CakePHP has the Set::combine() method to help with such situations.

I’m assuming that you want the array values to be the database ID of the user, rather than the array index.

$users = $this->User->find('all', array(
  'fields' => array('id', 'firstname', 'lastname'),
));
$usersMap = Set::combine(
  $users,
  array('%1$s-%2$s', '{n}.User.firstname', '{n}.User.lastname') // sprintf() formatting
  '{n}.User.id',
);