Question

I need help on how i can specify an array name or key using a variable?
I’ve tried countless times and it never works

Before i get to the code, $games is the array, and i show it at the bottom

here is my code (i will show array example at the bottom)

$increment = 0; //increment i use in a while loop +1 per loop starting at 0
$increment2 = increment - 1; // to get the game number i need to minus 1 from $increment, 
//this works since the array starts at 0 and increment will be 1 when the while loop  starts.

$gamestotal = $games[totalGames]; //This number is different everytime, it is always 
//between 1-1000, it counts the number of a games a person has.
$gamesnpcommid = $games[$increment2][npcommid]; //each game has a unique code, i cURL this 
//info from Sony servers and return it in an array (array example below) This is the part 
//that is not working, to help understand please check array first, this variable is used   
//in the while loop and i need it to start at array 0 and keep returning the unique code
//until the loops stops at the final array number.

//Here is the loop

while($increment<$gamestotal)

    if($increment % 2 == 0){
    $increment=$increment+1;
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td style='background-color:#e6e8fa'>";
        echo $gamesnpcommid;
        echo "</td>";
        echo "</tr>";
    }
    else
    {$increment=$increment+1;
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td style='background-color:adeaea'>";
        echo $gamesnpcommid;
        echo "</td>";
        echo "</tr>";
    }

echo "</table>";

Everything is working completely fine but the array reference is not working ($gamesnpcommid), here is an example of what the array $games can look like:

The array is stored in variable $games,

Array
(
    [totalGames] => 110
    [0] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR00507_00
            [platinum] => 0
            [gold] => 1
            [silver] => 11
            [bronze] => 32
            [total] => 44
            [lastupdated] => 1329258539
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR01140_00
            [platinum] => 1
            [gold] => 4
            [silver] => 8
            [bronze] => 29
            [total] => 42
            [lastupdated] => 1328586022
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR01118_00
            [platinum] => 0
            [gold] => 0
            [silver] => 3
            [bronze] => 8
            [total] => 11
            [lastupdated] => 1328067349
        )
    )

Can someone explain to me why, for example, if $increment2 = 2
and then when i try to reference the array by using $games[$increment2][npcommid] it does not return NPWR01118_00 like in the array?
But when i use $games[2][npcommid] it works?
I’ve done thorough debugging and i know the array works but i’m stumped at this point.

Answer 1

try

$games[$increment2]["npcommid"] 

instead of

$games[$increment2][npcommid]

in other words, associative keys always have to be quoted.