Question

In my application , I have few parameters (zone_id, startdate, enddate, brand, model) which I get from my UI form . Each of these parameters is an array containing 1 or more parameters .

My form parameters looks something like this :

Array
(
[sel_date_option] => today
[startdate] => 2011-09-19
[enddate] => 2011-09-19
[zone_id] => 1576,1562,1561
[model] => Array
    (
        [0] => A300
    )

[brand] => Array
    (
        [0] => ACTS
    )

)

Now , I want to generate keys which are combinations of these parameters . They would be something like :

[zone_id]_[model]_[brand]_[model]_[startdate]_[enddate]

This reflect all the possible arrangements of the above values .
For the above inputs, I should get the following keys :

1576_ACTS_A300_2011-09-19
1562_ACTS_A300_2011-09-19
1561_ACTS_A300_2011-09-19

Inside of giving the same startdate and enddate once can also enter a period like from 2011-09-19 to 2011-09-21.

What I am doing is I am using nested looping through all the parameter array and then creating a complex array of arrays something like the following :

Array
(
[0] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1576_DZ_A300
    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1576_DZ_A300
        [1] => 1562_DZ_A300
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1576_DZ_A300
        [1] => 1562_DZ_A300
        [2] => 1561_DZ_A300
    )

[3] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1576_DZ_A300
        [1] => 1562_DZ_A300
        [2] => 1561_DZ_A300
        [3] => 1563_DZ_A300
    )
 )

What I am doing is first I creating an array of all zones as :

Array
(
[0] => 1576
[1] => 1562
[2] => 1561
[3] => 1563
)

Then I am looping it using a nested loop for all the possible models and brands array like this :

function getInventoryData($criteria)
{

    $index = "";

    if($criteria['zone_id']!='')
    {
        $zone = explode(',', $criteria['zone_id']);
        for($i=0;$i<count($zone);$i++)
        {
            $index[] .= $zone[$i];
        }

        echo '<pre>';print_r($index);exit;
    }

    if(!empty($criteria['model']))
    {
        foreach($index as $key=>$value)
        {
            foreach($criteria['model'] as $model)
            {
                $temparr[] = $index[$key].'_'.$model;
            }
            $index[$key] = $temparr;
        }

    }

Now , is there any other efficient method to achieve this ?

Moreover , there is another overhead associated with the above method :

While reading the generated keys , I have to loop through all the levels and in case of large sequence of data , the complexity can be really a matter of concern.

Answer 1

If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, this the most efficient method I can come up with for doing the above:

function getInventoryData ($arr) {
  // Make sure all required keys are set
  if (!isset($arr['zone_id'],$arr['model'],$arr['brand'],$arr['startdate'],$arr['enddate'])) return FALSE;
  // Make a date string for the end of the keys
  $dateStr = $arr['startdate'].(($arr['startdate'] == $arr['enddate']) ? '' : '_'.$arr['enddate']);
  // Normalise the data
  if (!count($arr['zone_id'] = array_unique(explode(',',$arr['zone_id']))) || !count($arr['brand'] = array_unique($arr['brand'])) || !count($arr['model'] = array_unique($arr['model']))) return FALSE;
  // Get all possible permutations
  $result = array();
  foreach ($arr['zone_id'] as $zone) foreach ($arr['brand'] as $brand) foreach ($arr['model'] as $model) $result[] = "{$zone}_{$brand}_{$model}_{$dateStr}";
  // Return the result
  return $result;
}