Question

I’m busy with sorting the structure of a menu in my application. Once the menu is reorderd by the user, the values (say; Menu item 1, Menu item 2, etc) are still in the same place.

Now I have two arrays, one that holds the way they are sorted (Array 1) and one that holds the values of the menu items. (Array 2)

Example of both arrays;
(Array 1, that holds the keys)

    Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 0
)

The above array’s values are the keys for the new array.

(Array 2, holds the values)

Array
(
    [0] => value_0
    [1] => value_1
    [2] => value_2
)

So I thought it would be best to create a new array which consist out of;

1. The values of Array 1
2. The values of Array 2

However, i’m running into a problem. I want the values in array 2 to stick to their keys. So lets say I change the position of value_0 to the last, the new array would look like this;

Array
(
    [1] => value_1
    [2] => value_2
    [0] => value_0
)

Is there a way to achieve this or am I doing it completely wrong?

Edit

Ok, so multidemensional array it is. However i’m having problems creating one.

Array 1 and Array 2 both come from the database. Array 1 with the sorting order and Array 2 contains the values. Now, the values in array 2 are stored like this; value1,value2,value3. So to be able to work with them I explode on , (comma).

The results on the fetchs are both different;

• For the first array it returns as many as how many values there are.
  (So if there are 3 values, it will return 3 different positions.)
• For the second array it will return 18 records, since this is tied to
  other menu items (sub menu’s etc).

So for the first array I do;

 while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_query_test)) {
       $positions[] = $row['position'];
  }

For the second array I do;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_values)) {
      $array_values = explode(',', $row['values']);
}

From then on i’m having problems creating the multidimensinonal array;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_values)) {
     $array_values = explode(',', $row['values']);
     foreach ($positions as $new_key) {
         foreach ($array_values as $value) {
              $new_array[] = array('key' => $new_key, 'value' => $value);
         }
     }
}

Edit two:

This is what I use now;

(Since $all_values is a multidimensional array because I have to explode on the values beforehand.)

    foreach ($all_values as $values) {
        foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
            $new_array[] = array('key' => $positions[$key], 'value' => $value);
        }
    }

This is what the $new_array returns;

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [key] => 0
            [value] => value_0
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [key] => 2
            [value] => value_2
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [key] => 1
            [value] => value_1
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [key] => 0
            [value] => value_0
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [key] => 2
            [value] => value_2
        )

    [5] => Array
        (
            [key] => 1
            [value] => value_1
        )

Now I need to get the values and implode them with comma’s. However, since not every 3 values (value_0, value_1, value_3) are together I can’t do that now.

In this example there are 3 keys, (0,1,2) which should be a different array along with their values, like you did in your example:

Array (
  [0] = Array (
    [key] = 1,
    [value] = value_1
  ),
  [1] = Array (
    [key] = 2,
    [value] = value_2
  ),
  [2] = Array (
    [key] = 0,
    [value] = value_0
  )
)

Answer 1

Why not make a multidimensional array?

$arrayThree = 
Array (
  [0] = Array (
    [key] = 1,
    [value] = value_1
  ),
  [1] = Array (
    [key] = 2,
    [value] = value_2
  ),
  [2] = Array (
    [key] = 0,
    [value] = value_0
  )
)

No matter what order they’re in, the key and value are always the set.

foreach ($arrayThree as $tempArray)
{
 echo $tempArray['key'];
 echo $tempArray['value'];
}

Create Array

$arrayOne = array();
$arrayTwo = array();
$arrayThree = array();

$query = 'SELECT key FROM table1 ';
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

while($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
  $arrayOne[] = $data['key'];
}

$query = 'SELECT value FROM table2 ';
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

while($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
  $arrayTwo[] = $data['value'];
}

foreach($arrayOne as $key => $value)
{
  $arrayThree[] = array('key' => $value, 'value' => $arrayTwo[$key]);
}

You can always use the mysqli or PDO versions, if you’re using them.

Example Data

    //THESE MIMIC YOUR SELECT RESULTS
$test_keys = array(1,2,3);
$test_values = array('value_1', 'value_2', 'value_3');

    //DEFAULTS
$arrayOne = array();
$arrayTwo = array();
$arrayThree = array();

    //WHILE FIRST SELECT
for($i=0;$i<count($test_keys);$i++)
{
    $arrayOne[] = $test_keys[$i];
}

    //WHILE SECOND SELECT
for($i=0;$i<count($test_values);$i++)
{
    $arrayTwo[] = $test_values[$i];
}

    //MAKE THE FINAL ARRAY
foreach($arrayOne as $key => $value)
{
  $arrayThree[] = array('key' => $value, 'value' => $arrayTwo[$key]);
}

    //CHECK THE OUTPUT FOR THE NEW ARRAY
echo '<pre>'.print_r($arrayThree,true).'</pre>';

Example Output

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [key] => 1
            [value] => value_1
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [key] => 2
            [value] => value_2
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [key] => 3
            [value] => value_3
        )

)

Imploded List

$implodeValues = array_map(function($item) { return $item['value']; }, $arrayThree);
$implodeVariable = implode(',', $implodeValues);

echo $implodeVariable;

Implode Output

value_1,value_2,value_3