Converting a string into a multi-dimensional array with commas and pipes

Question

Tried searching but nothing was exactly what I was looking for.

I have a string that looks like this:

$string = "sku1,2|sku2,5";

I would like to convert it into a multi-dimensional array that would end up looking like this:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [sku] => sku1
            [qty] => 2
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [sku] => sku2
            [qty] => 5
        )

)

So far I've tried using:

explode(',',$string);

Which is the right idea but it doesn't account for the pipe delimiter to know when to go to the next array group.

Are the keys just given or do they come from anywhere? (`sku`, `qty`) — Rizier123, Jul 24 '15 at 21:18
If you mean the [sku] and [qty] I purposely named it. So your example before you deleted it was right on point just needed an extra to name those keys and should be perfect. However, even if I don't I can access it by [0] and [1]. I just named it to make it more readable friendly. — dmotors, Jul 24 '15 at 21:21

Rizier123 · Answer 1 · 2015-07-24T21:22:42.703

You are on the right way, but you have to start with the pipe. So first explode() your sting by the pipe, then go through each element with array_map() and explode it by the comma.

To get the associative keys, just array_combine() your exploded array with the keys, which you want, e.g.

$array = array_map(function($v){
    return array_combine(["sku", "qty"], explode(",", $v));
}, explode("|", $string));

print_r($array);

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 24 '15 at 21:24

1

I wouldn't even bother with looking for | or manually traversing anything. You can generate the desired array already with preg_match_all containing just a few fillers:

preg_match_all(
    "/(?<sku>\w+),(?<qty>\d+)\K/",
    $string, $array, PREG_SET_ORDER
);

This simply extracts any combination of alphanumeric \w+ and numeric \d+ entries delimited by , comma.

answered Jul 24 '15 at 21:24

mario

144,265
20
237
291

The output seems to show more than it's supposed to: [0] => [sku] => sku1 [1] => sku1 [qty] => 2 [2] => 2 – dmotors Jul 24 '15 at 21:31
@dmotors: Yes, it doubles the keys numerically ("a few fillers"). A regex-approach mostly makes sense to constrain/assert the input further. For other/simpler approaches (such as `parse_str`) see [PHP Split Delimited String into Key/Value Pairs (Associative Array)](http://stackoverflow.com/q/5290342) – mario Jul 24 '15 at 21:34
Understood. That is not a problem I guess I overlooked what you meant by "a few fillers". – dmotors Jul 24 '15 at 21:37

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 24 '15 at 21:27

Not the most elegant solution but this should work for you:

$string = "sku1,2|sku2,5";

$explodePipe = explode('|', $string);

$resultArray = array();

foreach ($explodePipe as $explodedPipe) {
    $explodeSku = explode(',', $explodedPipe);
    $resultArray[]['sku'] = $explodeSku[0];
    $resultArray[]['qty'] = $explodeSku[1];
}

Converting a string into a multi-dimensional array with commas and pipes

3 Answers3

Linked