building a two-dimensional array dynamically

[bibiki]

hey there,

in Java, I can take a text file and build a two dimensional array out of it. I hope I can do that in PHP as well but I can't seem to be able to do it.

these are the specifics of my problem:

I have an xml file. for simplicity:

<person>
   <name>john</name>
   <last>smith</last>
</person>
<person>
   <name>ana</name>
   <last>smith</last>
</person>

I want to generate a two dimensional array, such that it's first row contains the array (<person>, <name>john</name>,<last>smith</last>, </person>) and it's second row contains (<person>, <name>ana</name>,<last>smith</last>, </person>)

what I tried is this:

//I use $end_delimit to know when to move to the next row of my two-dimensional array
	function xmlToAray($file, $end_delimit){
		$rez = array();
		$lines = file($file);
		$k = 0;//
		$rows = array();
		for($i = 0; $i < sizeOf($lines); $i++){
			array_push($rows[$k], $lines[$i]);
			if(strrpos($lines[$i],$end_delimit) === 0 || strrpos($lines[$i], $end_delimit) === 0){
				$rez[$k] = $rows;
				$k++;
			}
		}
		return $rez;
	}

what I get is a complaint: array_push() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given... I understand what this means, but I don't know how to avoid it. can you please tell me. thank you!

[Insensus]

Just add

$rows[$k] = array();

in between lines 7 and 8.

[bibiki]

thank you for your reply Insensus. I am sorry to say that that won't work either because $rows in that case will be null. however, I solved my problem. this is how:

function xmlToAray($file, $end_delimit){
		$s = sizeOf(file("elementet.txt"));
		for($t = 0; $t < $s; $t++){
			$rez[$t] = array("<anetari>");
		}
		$lines = file($file);//array; hold file
		$k = 0;//counts rows for $rows
		$rows;
		$count = 0;//counts rows for $rez
		for($i = 0; $i < sizeOf($lines); $i++){
				$rows[$k] = $lines[$i];
				$k++;
				if(strrpos($lines[$i], $end_delimit) === 0){//once the end of the xml element is reached
					$k = 0;//start a new row
					$rez[$count] = $rows;//save current row on the two-dimensional array
					$count++;//prepare next row of the (main) two-dimensional array
				}
		}
		return $rez;
	}

[Insensus]

In your original code $rows wasn't null because of line 6:

$rows = array();

But good you fixed it yourself.