create array from string of values

[oconndav]

Hi, hopefully this is an easy one for somone.. i've been pulling my hair out though..

I am creating an array of values which needs to be then passed to a function.

Everything works when I create it like this:

$myarray = array('value1'=>2,'value1'=>1,'value1'=>2,'value1'=>1);

However as i don't know how many elements there will be I, I am building a text string comtaining the values first inside a loop. so for each iteration of the loop I do this:

$arraystring = $arraystring."'".$field1name."'".'=>'.$field2name.',';

Then I remove the last comma and add a prefix:

$finalarraystring = 'array('.substr($arraystringstring,'',-1).')';

So effectivly I end up with a string called $finalarraystring which equals something like:

array('value1'=>2,'value1'=>1,'value1'=>2,'value1'=>1);

So what I am trying to do is to then create my array using this text string, but of course it is not working as it thinks I am trying to assign a string to my array.

I am trying

$array  = $finalarraystring;
$array  = '$finalarraystring';
$array  = "$finalarraystring";

but nothings works. help!

[darkagn]

Something like this might be simpler if it is possible for your code:

// $elements is your list of elements that you are adding to your string array
$arrayString = array();
foreach($elements as $element)
{
  $arrayString[] = $element;
}

Now, in your $arrayString you will need to access each element as $arrayString[0], $arrayString[1] etc instead of $arrayString and so on.

[oconndav]

thanks darkagn,

although i'm not sure if I can do that.. becuase I need to reference the keys in the function (as well as the values).

Sorry I should have been clearer. I am passing the array into a function which will create a tag cloud. So the array contains each of the tags names and associated count.

So the array i pass needs to look like this:

$array = array('tag1'=>5,'tag3'=>10,'tag2'=>2,'tag26'=>3);

I am pulling the tag names and count values in from a MySQL query. It works fine when I hardcode type the array so my function works and I know that the array design is fine.

And as I said I have figured out how to dynamically build a string which looks exactly like the array (to the right of the equals above).

I was hoping that I can somehow force PHP to resolve the string as part of the array creation line.

So when I type:

$array = $stringibuilt

I want PHP to interperate it as:

$tags = array('tag1'=>5,'tag3'=>10,'tag2'=>2,'tag26'=>3);

..becuase that's what the string $stringibuilt contains.

OK the very fact that i'm struggling to explain this probably means i'm going about it the wrong way right?