How do I format the output array in CakePHP

Question

Let's say I have an index action where I want to get a list of projects:

$this->Project->find('all', array('order' => 'Project.modified DESC', 'conditions' => array('Project.user_id' => 1)));

It works well and returns the following array:

Array ( [0] => Array ( [Project] => Array ( [id] => 2 [title] => test project ) ) [1] => Array ( [Project] => Array ( [id] => 1 [title] => first project ) ) )

How do I modify the find function, so it returns the array in the following format:

Array ( [projects] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 2 [title] => test project ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1 [title] => first project ) ) )

Thank you!

Answer 1

You could use the Set::combine() utility method to do this. I've used it for similar means as so:

public function groupByMenu() {
  return Set::combine (
    $this->find ( 
      'all', 
      array (
        'conditions' => array ( 'NavItem.active' => 1 ),
        'order'      => 'NavMenuItem.display_order'
      )
    ),
    '{n}.NavItem.title',
    '{n}',
    '{n}.NavMenu.id'
  );
}

The code above takes a set of navigation items and reorganizes them so that they're grouped by the menu(s) they are displayed within.

Answer 2

It's not really clear if it's the fact that the result is under 'Project' rather than 'projects', but if you don't like that it's under [0] I believe you could use PHPs array_shift:

$result = $this->Project->find('all', array('order' => 'Project.modified DESC', 'conditions' => array('Project.user_id' => 1)));
$result = array_shift($result);

The result will be:

Array ( [Project] => Array ( [id] => 2 [title] => test project ) ) [1] => Array ( [Project] => Array ( [id] => 1 [title] => first project ) )