Question

Thanks in advance for looking.

I am trying to build some HTML using a foreach loop with a few layers of arrays.

Groups of data and groups of titles for that data are stored in sets of arrays.
In turn, those arrays of data are stored in an array ($titlegroups and datagroups).

The aim being to set up a nested loop, where each group of data and titles populate the relevant fields in some html.

Here is a full set of code (structure) of my attempt.

$a=1;
$b=2;
$c=3;
$d=4;


$titlesA=array('string1','string2');
$titlesB=array('string3','string4');

$dataA=array($a,$b);
$dataB=array($c,$d);

$titlegroups=array($titlesA,$titlesB);
$datagroups=array($dataA,$dataB);
$groups=array(array_combine($titlegroups, $datagroups));

$j=0;   
foreach($groups as $titlesX => $dataX)
    {
        $j++;
        echo'<div class="something">';

        $i=0;
        foreach(array_combine($titlesX, $dataX) as $title => $var)
            {
            $i++;
            echo '
                    <li>'.$title.'</li><input name="'.$j.'x'.$i.'" value="'.$var.'" />
                ';
            }
        echo '</div>';
    }

Checking it in ideone I get the error:

Warning: array_combine() expects parameter 1 to be array, integer
given in /home/0zw0mb/prog.php on line 26

Line 26 is:

foreach(array_combine($titlesX, $dataX) as $title => $var)

but $titlesX and $dataX should both be arrays?

If anyone can set me straight I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can’t have arrays as keys, they are converted to strings. You logic required some changes and an additional sentinel variable ($idx), to tell when the code crosses one group to another.

array_merge was necessary due to the key requirements of arrays.

Check the below code:

$a=1;
$b=2;
$c=3;
$d=4;


$titlesA=array('string1','string2');
$titlesB=array('string3','string4');

$dataA=array($a,$b);
$dataB=array($c,$d);

$titlegroups=array_merge($titlesA,$titlesB);
$datagroups=array_merge($dataA,$dataB);

$items=array_combine($titlegroups, $datagroups);

$indexes = array(count($dataA), count($dataB));

$i = 0;
$j = 0;
$idx = $indexes[$j];

echo '<div class="something">';

foreach($items as $title => $var)
    {
            echo '
                    <li>'.$title.'</li><input name="'.$j.'x'.($i++).'" value="'.$var.'" />
                ';
        $idx--;

        if ($idx == 0) {
            /* End of a group */
            echo '</div>';
            $idx = $indexes[++$j];

            /* If there is another group, create new container */
            if ($idx != null) {
                echo '<div class="something">';
            }
        }
    }