Grouping Array Items Based on Common String

Question

I have the following code which grabs two separate arrays, flips the surname and firstname (also removes the comma) and outputs this:

Director: Bert & Bertie

Writer: Bert & Bertie

Producer: Louise Knight

Producer: Miles Wilkes

Producer: Andy Welch

Actor: Craig Parkinson

Actor: Camilla Rutherford

Actor: Paul Bhattarcharjee

Actor: Ford Kieman

Actor: Maurren the Pug

Actor: Hannah Walters

DP: Lynda Hall

Cut: Matt Chodan

What I need to do is to group similar groups to output something like this:

Director: Bert & Bertie

Writer: Bert & Bertie

Producer: Louise Knight, Miles Wilkes, Andy Welch

Actors: Craig Parkinson, Camilla Rutherford, Paul Bhattarcharjee, Ford Kieman, Maurren the Pug, Hannah Walters

DP: Lynda Hall

Cut: Matt Chodan

Current PHP Code:

<?php 
$arrayname=explode(":::",$dwzXmlRec_1->GetFieldValue("PERSON_NAME"));
$arraynamel=count($arrayname);
$arrayrole=explode(":::",$dwzXmlRec_1->GetFieldValue("PERSON_FUNCTION"));   
$arrayrolel=count($arrayrole);

$name = "Lastname, Firstname"; 
$names = explode(", ", $name); 
$name = $names[1] . " " . $names[0]; 

for($i=0;$i<$arrayrolel;$i++) 
    { 
        $names = explode(", ", $arrayname[$i]); 
        $name = $names[1] . " " . $names[0];
        echo $arrayrole[$i].': '.$name.'<br />';
    } 
?>

UPDATE: Just one question, the data is set from an xml node, and since it's in array "as" is One role comes before another. For Example, 'Actor' comes first, then 'Director'. Is there any easy method to reverse it, so that Director comes first then Cast? I have added code to hide the unwanted roles/peoples see below:

// print out the list of people in each role
foreach($roles as $rolename => $people) {
    if ($rolename!="Cut" && $rolename!="Producer" && $rolename!="DP" && $rolename!="Writer"){
        if($rolename=="Actor") { $rolename="Cast";};
        echo $rolename . ": " . implode(", ", $people) . "<br />";
    }
}

If the role names are known ahead of time, you could put the role names in a numeric array and iterate over that, pulling out only the role names you want to display, in the order you want to display them. Something like $displayRoles = array("Director", "Producer", "Actor", ...); — Joe Day
– Joe Day, Commented Oct 17, 2012 at 4:26

Joe Day · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-17 02:06:57Z

3

I would build an array that maps role names to an array of people who filled that role. Possibly something like this:

$roles = array();
for($i = 0; $i < $arrayrole1; $i++) {
    $names = explode(", ", $arrayname[$i]);
    $name = $names[1] . " " . $names[0];
    // append the name to the array of people filling the role
    $roles[$arrayrole[$i]][] = $name; 
}

// print out the list of people in each role
foreach($roles as $rolename => $people) {
    echo $rolename . ": " . implode(", ", $people) . "<br />";
}

edited Oct 17, 2012 at 2:06

answered Oct 17, 2012 at 1:49

Joe Day

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