Values on both sides of a predefined character

[Infect]

I have a database field with this in it:"3:1,4:2,1:3" without the quotes.
I retrieved the field and exploded the commas, so now I have an array with the values:

[0] => 3:1 [1] => 4:2 [2] => 1:3 

Now what I want to do, is basically 'explode' the ':' and put each number on either side of the colon into two separate variables, for every element in the array, but I can't figure out how to do it.

Basically what I want is $var1=3, $var2=1, $var3=4, etc..

Any suggestions/solutions?

Thanks

[poyzn]

$var = "3:1,4:2,1:3"; // get string from db
$arr = preg_split('/[\:\,]+/', $var); // split string with regexp rule and get array( [0] => 3, [1] => 1, [2] => 4, [3] => 2 ...)
for($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++)
{
    $var_name = 'var' . ($i + 1); // assign a name to variable 
    $$var_name = $arr[$i]; // assign a value to variable
}

/* checking with output */
for($i = 1; $i <= 6; $i++)
{
    $var_name = 'var' . $i;
    echo $var_name . ' = ' . $$var_name . "\r\n";
} 

[BluePanther]

$var = "3:1,4:2,1:3"; // get string from db
$arr = preg_split('/[\:\,]+/', $var); // split string with regexp rule and get array( [0] => 3, [1] => 1, [2] => 4, [3] => 2 ...)
for($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++)
{
    $var_name = 'var' . ($i + 1); // assign a name to variable 
    $$var_name = $arr[$i]; // assign a value to variable
}

/* checking with output */
for($i = 1; $i <= 6; $i++)
{
    $var_name = 'var' . $i;
    echo $var_name . ' = ' . $$var_name . "\r\n";
} 

If you don't mind me saying so, I don't think that's an efficient way of getting the result. Plus, in your second loop you're only gonna loop 6 values ever.

Also, I don't see the value of separating them into individual variables. This is how I would achieve a similar result:

$var = array();
$raw = array();
$raw2 = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
    // Populate the raw array with all the formatted information from every row
    $raw = explode(',', $row['field_in_question']);
    foreach($raw as $value){
        $raw2 = explode(':', $value);
        $var[$raw2[0]] = $raw2[1];
    }
} 

This way, $var[left of :] = right of :. You can run a foreach on this loop to get every value easily, making it completely dynamic. Be careful with this though - left of : will have to be unique.

Also, this method doesn't require the regex engine, making it a bit faster I think. Obviously for large amounts of information regex will overtake it, but this method should be fine and faster for now.

In your method, you can only refer to the variables by using another variable, which makes it quite impractical. By using an array like this, you can output the result simply like this:

foreach($var as $key => $value){
    echo 'var '.$key.' has value '.$value.'\n';
} 

Untested, but should work.

Edit: Optimised further.

[BluePanther]

I posted the edit later on, and dont think it alerts peoploe after edit. So posted in an attempt to alert to the edit

[poyzn]

I posted the edit later on, and dont think it alerts peoploe after edit. So posted in an attempt to alert to the edit

Check what Infect wants:

Basically what I want is $var1=3, $var2=1, $var3=4, etc..

1. He'll receive an array with wrong values with your script.

2. Part for checking with output is for just checking cause I've tested the script.

2. Agree that explode() will be faster

[BluePanther]

Check what Infect wants:



1. He'll receive an array with wrong values with your script.

2. Part for checking with output is for just checking cause I've tested the script.

2. Agree that explode() will be faster

I know that $var1, $var2 etc is what he asked for, but how will he reference a theoretical infinite amount with no way of knowing how many var's there are? It's not a practical way of achieving his result so I suggested a better method for him.

There is nothing wrong with my value assignment. Just tested it - works as expected. The 'output checking' is exactly my point with assigning an incrementing variable instead of an associative array - you used $i<6 because you needed to know how many of these variables there are. With an array, you don't need to do that. count() will give the number of values, if you so wish, with count()-1 giving the top index of the array. A foreach loop will give a complete output of the array. He could use array_key_exists($var['number left of :']) to check for a value in his array.

In other words, it is possible to have an incrementing variable, but the impracticalities make the feature useless imo. An associative array will give an easier to use result.

[>ssp-cdr<]

Here you go

$data = '3:1,4:2,1:3';

$data = explode(',', $data);

$i = 0;

foreach ($data as $d) {

	$name1 = 'var'.++$i;
	$name2 = 'var'.++$i;

	list($$name1, $$name2) = explode(':', $d);
}

echo ("\$var1 = $var1<br />\$var2 = $var2<br />\$var3 = $var3<br />\$var4 = $var4<br />\$var5 = $var5<br />\$var6 = $var6<br />");

Output

$var1 = 3
$var2 = 1
$var3 = 4
$var4 = 2
$var5 = 1
$var6 = 3