editing a multidimensional array with [index]es, not only [name]s

Question

public $form = array (  
    array(  
        'field' => 'email',  
        'params' => array(  
            array(  
                'rule' => 'email',  
                'on' => 'create',  
                'required' => true,  
                'error' => 'The email is invalid!'  
            ),  
            array(  
                'rule' => 'email',  
                'on' => 'update',  
                'required' => false,  
                'error' => 'The email is invalid!'  
            )  
        )  
    )  
);


public function onlyNeeded($action) {
    $form = $this->form;
    $action = $this->action;

    foreach ($form as $formelement) {
        $field = $formelement['field'];
        $paramsgroup = $formelement['params'];
        if ($paramsgroup['on'] != $action) {
            form = removeparamsgroup($form, $action);
            }
        }
    return $form;
}

How do I do the removeparamsgroup() function?

There are [index]es, not only [name]s!

Do you know what I mean?

array(array( twice!

Answer 1

unset($form['params']) ? What do you mean by remove?

Answer 2

If you get the array key in the foreach loop, you can unset the correct array index using using that. You also need to loop over each param of each form element, which you weren't doing in your example.

public function onlyNeeded($action) {
    $form = $this->form;

    //get $formelement by reference so it can be modified
    foreach ($form as & $formelement) {

        //$key becomes the index of current $param in $formelement['params']
        foreach ($formelement['params'] as $key => $param) {
           if ($param['on'] != $action) {
               unset($formelement['params'][$key]);
           }
        }
    }
    return $form;
}

Answer 3

Try this.

function onlyNeeded($action) {
    $form = $this->form;

    foreach ($form as &$formelement) {
        foreach ($formelement['params'] as $key => $paramsgroup)
        {
            if ($paramsgroup['on'] != $action)
                unset($formelement['params'][$key]);
        }
    }
    return $form;
}

Don't forget the & sign in the first foreach loop or it won't work. Without the & sign foreach copies each element instead of returning a reference.