Multidimensional array not returning the right values

Question

I have a multidimensional array that I am trying to work with, here is what it looks like.

$states = array(
"California" => array(
    "state" => "California",
    "abbr" => "CA",
    "city" => "Sacramento",
    "county" => "Sacramento",
    "zip" => "95632"
),
"Washington" => array(
    "state" => "Washington",
    "abbr" => "WA",
    "city" => "Seattle",
    "county" => "King",
    "zip" => "98101"
),
"Texas" => array(
    "state" => "Texas",
    "abbr" => "TX",
    "city" => "San Antonio",
    "county" => "Bexar",
    "zip" => "78251"
),
"Florida" => array(
    "state" => "Florida",
    "abbr" => "FL",
    "city" => "Orlando",
    "county" => "Orange",
    "zip" => "32801"
),
);

When I run a foreach loop to get the keys from the first level of the arrays I get the expected output of

California Washington Texas Florida

However I need to access the second level of the array. For example I need California['abbr'] so this is the code I run:

foreach (array_keys($states) as $state) {
    echo $state['abbr'];
}

Instead of getting

CA WA TX FL

like I would expect I'm getting

C W T F

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Matt S · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 15:41:13Z

1

array_keys($states) is returning

 array("California", "Washington", "Texas", "Florida")

So the foreach loop is echoing just the first character of each state. Loop through the entire array instead of just the keys:

foreach ($states as $name => $details) {
    echo $details['abbr'];
}

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 15:41

Matt S

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Comments

Gareth Parker · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 15:40:49Z

1

foreach(array_keys($states) as $state) {
    echo $state;
}

Will echo the keys, because you're looping over the keys, not the array. To get the abbreviation, you should do

foreach($states as $state) {
    echo $state['abbr'];
}

If you want to loop over both the key and the value at the same time, try this

foreach($states as $key=>$state) {
    echo "$key: {$state['abbr']}";
}

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 15:40

Gareth Parker

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Comments

Ivan · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 15:43:30Z

1

You can use two foreach in order to access the elements inside each cities (array). That's not the fastest way but it's good to know it.

// access the first layer
foreach($states as $state)
{
  // access the second layer
  foreach($state as $key => $element)
  {
    // if the key is equal to 'abbr', echo it's value
    echo ($key == 'abbr') ? $state[$key] : '';
    echo '  ';
  }
}

This will output:

CA WA TX FL

edited Jul 27, 2016 at 15:43

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 15:37

Ivan

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Comments

Patchesoft · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 15:38:13Z

0

Just:

foreach($states as $state) {
     foreach($state as $v) {
         echo $v['abbr'];
     }
}

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 15:38

Patchesoft

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1 Comment

Blue Over a year ago

While this code snippet may solve the question, including an explanation really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. Please also try not to crowd your code with explanatory comments, as this reduces the readability of both the code and the explanations!

von Oak · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 15:48:02Z

0

Only cut out array_keys. You need whole element of that array, not only keys of array.

foreach ($states as $state)
{
    echo $state['abbr'];
}

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 15:48

von Oak

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