Question

In php, I would like to have the ability to re-order an associative array by moving elements to certain positions in the array. Not necessary a sort, just a re-ordering of my choosing.

As an example, say i have an associative array as follows:

array(
 'a' => 'Element A',
 'b' => 'Element B',
 'c' => 'Element C',
);

and in one case i may want to move C before B and have the following result:

array(
 'a' => 'Element A',
 'c' => 'Element C',
 'b' => 'Element B',
);

or in another case i may want to move C before A and have the following result:

array(
 'c' => 'Element C',
 'a' => 'Element A',
 'b' => 'Element B',
);

What i am trying to show, is simply a method for saying “Hey, i want to move this array element before this other array element” or “Hey, id like to move this array element to make sure that it comes after this other array element’

Hopefully this makes sense!

Thank you to anyone in advance who cares to help me with this

Answer 1

If you mean to swap two values you could make a function like this:

function array_swap($key1, $key2, $array) {
        $newArray = array ();
        foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
            if ($key == $key1) {
                $newArray[$key2] = $array[$key2];
            } elseif ($key == $key2) {
                $newArray[$key1] = $array[$key1];
            } else {
                $newArray[$key] = $value;
            }
        }
        return $newArray;
    }