Difficulty understanding a PHP array structure

Question

I'm looking to manipulate an array that was generated from a MySQL query. The print_r format returns the following:

Array ( [cols] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [label] => time [type] => number ) [1] => Array ( [label] => quantity [type] => number ) ) [rows] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 8.8 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 3 ) ) ) [1] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 8.2 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 4 ) ) ) [2] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 7.3 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 1 ) ) ) [3] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 5.7 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 3 ) ) ) [4] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 4.9 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 2 ) ) ) [5] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 2.9 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 1 ) ) ) [6] => Array ( [c] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [v] => 1.6 ) [1] => Array ( [v] => 1 ) ) ) ) )

I put this output into the array beautifier here in order to better understand the structure: http://phillihp.com/toolz/php-array-beautifier/

However, even with this prettier version, I'm unsure how to access specific elements. For example, how would I return just the pair of "8.2","4" bolded above from this array? Any insight into this structure would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the code that generated this array:

$return_structure = array(
    'cols' => array (
       // array('label' => 'name', 'type' => 'string'),
        array('label' => 'time', 'type' => 'number'),
        array('label' => 'quantity', 'type' => 'number')
    ),
    'rows' => array()
);

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        $return_structure['rows'][] = array('c' => array(
        //array('v' => $row['name']),
        array('v' => $row['time']),
        array('v' => $row['quantity']),
            ));

Thanks in advance for any assistance!! -Daniel

Can we see how you are retrieving your data with the PHP and the SQL Query? — Chitowns24
– Chitowns24, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 21:20
$return_structure = array( 'cols' => array ( // array('label' => 'name', 'type' => 'string'), array('label' => 'time', 'type' => 'number'), array('label' => 'quantity', 'type' => 'number') ), 'rows' => array() ); while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) { $return_structure['rows'][] = array('c' => array( //array('v' => $row['name']), array('v' => $row['time']), array('v' => $row['quantity']), )); — DMBnyc
– DMBnyc, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 21:22
ummmm sorry for the poor format in the comment, I'm not sure how to paste in clean code blocks here thank you for the quick response — DMBnyc
– DMBnyc, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 21:23
Just edit your question, and I am looking for the mysql_query or whatever you used to retrieve the data from the database — Chitowns24
– Chitowns24, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 21:24
try printing inside of a <pre> tag if you're debugging with prints. It should keep whitespace and print_r will have correct formatting. — Leroy
– Leroy, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 21:25

Shanedroid · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01 21:43:34Z

2

A good way to get a "pretty" view quickly is to view it in your web browser using the html "pre" tag:

echo "<pre>";
print_r($array);

When accessing a multi dimensional associative array, you can either:

1) use a loop to go through everything, and you may need nested loops to accomplish this. Even using a bunch of foreach loops this could get quite messy and cumbersome.

something like:

foreach ($arrayDImension as $subArray) {
    foreach($subArray as $row -> $value) {
      //access the rows & values here
    }
}

OR

2) access them directly , assuming you know the names of the indexes, etc. You could access them like this:

print_r($array['rows'][3]['c'][0]['v']); // gives you 8.2

print_r($array['rows'][4]['c'][5]['v']); //gives you 4

edited Apr 1, 2014 at 21:43

answered Apr 1, 2014 at 21:29

Shanedroid

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