Dealing with contents of an Array

Question

I have an comma seperated list of values held as a string:

blue, left-right-middle, panther.png

I then have three functions:

1. Sets background colour

2. Sets order of columns for layout

3. Sets a profile image

At the moment I use a for each loop to explode the values into seperate strings, but how can I better control the results.

E.g

First result of array = Sets background colour
    Second result of array = Sets order of columns
    Third results of array = profile image

Can I write the results of the array to 3 seperate variables in anyway, so I can assign the variable to each function?

Like so:

    First result of array = $backgroundColour
    Second result of array = $orderColumns
    Third results of array = $profileImage

Any ideas how I might go about this?

Answer 1

As of PHP5.3 You could use str_getcsv() to parse a CSV string into an array.
Also, have a look at list to assign variables as if they were an array.

list( $color, $order, $image ) = str_getcsv($csvString);

Prior to PHP5.3, you'd use explode instead of str_getcsv. See example by @poke below.

The advantage of str_getcsv over explode is that you can specify delimiter, enclosure and escape character to give you more control over the result.

str_getcsv is smart enough to trim whitespace automatically. The listed values would contain

string(4) "blue", string(17) "left-right-middle", string(11) "panther.png"`

However, added control does cost speed. explode is substantially (~6 to 8 times on my machine) faster for the given example string.

Answer 2

Use list:

$line = 'blue, left-right-middle, panther.png';
list( $bkgColor, $columnOrder, $profileImage ) = explode( ', ', $line );

echo 'Background color: ' . $bkgColor . "<br />\n";
echo 'Column order: ' . $columnOrder. "<br />\n";
echo 'Profile image: ' . $profileImage . "<br />\n";

Answer 3

You could make use of explode and list:

$string = 'blue, left-right-middle, panther.png';
list($backgroundColour, $orderColumns, $profileImage) = explode(', ', $string);

Answer 4

$array = explode(', ', 'blue, left-right-middle, panther.png');
list($color, $position, $image) = $array;
echo $color; // blue
echo $position; //left-right-middle
echo $image; //panther.png

Answer 5

May you use the str_getcsv function of php.

See in manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.str-getcsv.php

Answer 6

Use this following code.

$string = 'blue, left-right-middle, panther.png';

list($color, $position, $image) = split (', ',$string);

echo 'Background color: ' . $color ."
\n";

echo 'Column order: ' . $postion. "
\n";

echo 'Profile image: ' . $image . "
\n"

Answer 7

Just to be different, you could use sscanf

$string = 'blue, left-right-middle, panther.png';

sscanf( $string, '%s, %s, %s', $backgroundColour, $orderColumns, $profileImage );