Question

I’ve come across an old app that uses an id to name type array, for example…

array(1) {
  [280]=>
  string(3) "abc"
}

Now I need to reorder these, and a var_dump() would make it appear that that isn’t going to happen while the keys are integers.

If I add an a to every index, var_dump() will show double quotes around the key, my guess to show it is now a string…

array(1) {
  ["280a"]=>
  string(3) "abc"
}

This would let me easily reorder them, without having to touch more code.

This does not work.

$newArray = array();
foreach($array as $key => $value) {
   $newArray[(string) $key] = $value;
}

A var_dump() still shows them as integer array indexes.

Is there a way to force the keys to be strings, so I can reorder them without ruining the array?

Answer 1

EDIT:

I assumed that if they are integers, I
can’t reorder them without changing
the key (which is significant in this
example). However, if they were
strings, I can reorder them how they
like as the index shouldn’t be
interpreted to have any special
meaning. Anyway, see my question
update for how I did it (I went down a
different route).

Actually they dont have to be in numeric order…

array(208=>'a', 0=> 'b', 99=>'c');

Is perfectly valid if youre assigning them manually. Though i agree the integer keys might be misinterpreted as having a sequential meaning by someone although you would think if they were in a non-numeric order it would be evident they werent. That said i think since you had the leeway to change the code as you updated that is the better approach.

---

Probably not the most efficient way but easy as pie:

$keys = array_keys($data);

$values = array_values($data);
$stringKeys = array_map('strval', $keys);

$data = array_combine($stringKeys, $values);

//sort your data