How to programmatically create a multidimensional array using a while loop

Question

I'm trying to use PHP to read through a CSV file and build arrays based on matches of a specific row. The CSV file contents look like this:

id, name, qty, price
1,Jeff,2,59,
2,Tom,3,36,
3,Lenny,2,25,
4,Tom,5,69,
5,Jeff,3,19,
6,Tom,2,75,

I'm using a 'while' loop to read through the CSV file:

while (($row = fgetcsv($h, 10000, ",")) !== FALSE) {

The idea is: If, while reading through the CSV file, a match is found with $row[1] like this...

if($row[1] == 'Tom') {

...an array is created that would look like this when the 'while loop' completes:

array(
'item_1' => array('id' => 2, 'name' => 'Tom', 'qty' => 3, 'price' => 36),
'item_2' => array('id' => 4, 'name' => 'Tom', 'qty' => 5, 'price' => 69),
'item_3' => array('id' => 6, 'name' => 'Tom', 'qty' => 2, 'price' => 75)
);

(The "item number" for the first element would need to start with "item_1" and increment by 1 as a new element is added).

If this is possible, what logic would need to be used?

Why? item_1 or item_2 is no more descriptive than 0 or 1. — AbraCadaver
– AbraCadaver, Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 0:00

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-23 00:03:32Z

2

Just assign an element to the result array.

$result = [];
$index = 1;
$cols = fgetcsv($h, ","); // get header row
while (($row = fgetcsv($h, 10000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    if ($row[1] == 'Tom') {
        $result['item_' . $index++] = array_combine($cols, $row);
    }
}

edited Jun 23, 2020 at 0:03

answered Jun 23, 2020 at 0:00

Barmar

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6 Comments

AbraCadaver Over a year ago

Or get the first row before the loop and array_combine with the following rows.

Barmar Over a year ago

@AbraCadaver I was thinking of using array_combine, but didn't feel like writing it out. Didn't notice the header row.

Barmar Over a year ago

@Aedan No, because post-increment returns the old value. You would be correct if I wrote ++$index

beetlejuice Over a year ago

@Barmar What if I didn't have the header row in the CSV file? What would I use in place of array_combine?

Barmar Over a year ago

You can just assign a variable like $cols = ["id", "name", "qty", "price"];

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