How to specify an array using a variable in php?

Question

I need help on how i can specify an array name or key using a variable? I've tried countless times and it never works

Before i get to the code, $games is the array, and i show it at the bottom

here is my code (i will show array example at the bottom)

$increment = 0; //increment i use in a while loop +1 per loop starting at 0
$increment2 = increment - 1; // to get the game number i need to minus 1 from $increment, 
//this works since the array starts at 0 and increment will be 1 when the while loop  starts.

$gamestotal = $games[totalGames]; //This number is different everytime, it is always 
//between 1-1000, it counts the number of a games a person has.
$gamesnpcommid = $games[$increment2][npcommid]; //each game has a unique code, i cURL this 
//info from Sony servers and return it in an array (array example below) This is the part 
//that is not working, to help understand please check array first, this variable is used   
//in the while loop and i need it to start at array 0 and keep returning the unique code
//until the loops stops at the final array number.

//Here is the loop

while($increment<$gamestotal)

    if($increment % 2 == 0){
    $increment=$increment+1;
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td style='background-color:#e6e8fa'>";
        echo $gamesnpcommid;
        echo "</td>";
        echo "</tr>";
    }
    else
    {$increment=$increment+1;
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td style='background-color:adeaea'>";
        echo $gamesnpcommid;
        echo "</td>";
        echo "</tr>";
    }

echo "</table>";

Everything is working completely fine but the array reference is not working ($gamesnpcommid), here is an example of what the array $games can look like:

The array is stored in variable $games,

Array
(
    [totalGames] => 110
    [0] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR00507_00
            [platinum] => 0
            [gold] => 1
            [silver] => 11
            [bronze] => 32
            [total] => 44
            [lastupdated] => 1329258539
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR01140_00
            [platinum] => 1
            [gold] => 4
            [silver] => 8
            [bronze] => 29
            [total] => 42
            [lastupdated] => 1328586022
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [npcommid] => NPWR01118_00
            [platinum] => 0
            [gold] => 0
            [silver] => 3
            [bronze] => 8
            [total] => 11
            [lastupdated] => 1328067349
        )
    )

Can someone explain to me why, for example, if $increment2 = 2 and then when i try to reference the array by using $games[$increment2][npcommid] it does not return NPWR01118_00 like in the array? But when i use $games[2][npcommid] it works? I've done thorough debugging and i know the array works but i'm stumped at this point.

Please format your code. Clicking the orange question mark icon above the edit box will give you instructions. I'm not even going to attempt to read what you've got right now. — Quentin
– Quentin, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 12:09
increment2 is -1 and never changed in your code... so maybe it isn't changed at your position in code? — Neysor
– Neysor, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 12:12
Why don't you use a foreach loop instead to loop over this array? — Svish
– Svish, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 12:22
Fix the second line $increment2 = $increment - 1; (missing $) and check the results. — Furgas
– Furgas, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 12:30

OsaMa Hasan · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-09 13:00:21Z

1

You always can add error_reporting(E_ALL); to know which error you had, am working now on the same project

answered Oct 9, 2012 at 13:00

OsaMa Hasan

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Comments

Avanche · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-22 12:10:51Z

0

try

$games[$increment2]["npcommid"]

instead of

$games[$increment2][npcommid]

in other words, associative keys always have to be quoted.

answered Feb 22, 2012 at 12:10

Avanche

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2 Comments

Furgas Over a year ago

Quoting from documentation "It works because PHP automatically converts a bare string (an unquoted string which does not correspond to any known symbol) into a string which contains the bare string.". So it's not the case here, but yes, it should be fixed anyway.

Shadow rider Over a year ago

Thankyou so much Ricardo and @Neysor! I made a few changes and it worked: first i quoted npcommid like you suggested, then i added the $ sign to increment in $increment2 since i forgot that as Neysor mentioned. Although it didn't work yet, i figured if i put the variables inside the loop it might work so the variable was actually mentioned each time it did the loop and it's finally showing :D Quentin, i'm sorry, i just signed up today to this community and i've yet to learn everything, thanks for letting me know on how to edit though :) Sorry i can't vote up :(

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