multidimensional array help for a newbie

grahama · June 12th, 2004, 03:15 PM

Hi :)

I am creating an XML file out of a mysql query with nested arrays.
Currently I can get 1 element and 1 child with a properly formatted XML file with the below script .

My question: is, How do I add 3 to 4 more child elements to the below 'playlist' array ?
Currently ,I have one parent 'Artist' and one child 'english' ...
I need to add more child elements tot he 'Artist' array like urlPath, spanish, biography, etc

Do I have to add another dimension to the 'playlist' array? Do I need another foreach loop ?

I am a bit new to this so any help would be greatly appretiated ....

<?php
@ $db = mysql_connect('127.0.0.1','name','pass');

    if (!$db)
    {
    echo 'Error:Could Not Connect';
    exit;
    }

    mysql_select_db('univision');

$sql = 'SELECT artist.artist_name, media.english, media.path ';
$sql .= 'FROM media, artist ';
$sql .= 'WHERE artist.artist_id = media.artist_id LIMIT 0, 30 ';

$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$playlist[$row['artist_name']] [] = $row['english'];
//would like to add more children here...
}

$xml = "<sirenreels>\n";

foreach ($playlist as $artist => $media)
{
$num_media = count($media);
       $xml .= "<artist>\n";

       $xml .= "\t<meta>\n";
       $xml .= "\t\t<title>".$artist."</title>\n";
    $xml .= "\t</meta>\n";

    $xml .= "\t<content>\n";

foreach ($media as $mediaVal)
{
            $xml .= "\t\t<media>\n";
            $xml .= "\t\t\t<english_name>".$mediaVal."</english_name>\n";
            ///add more children
            ///add more children
            $xml .= "\t\t</media>\n";

}

    $xml .= "\t</content>\n";
    $xml .= "</artist>\n";
}
$xml .= "</sirenreels>\n";
print $xml

ciderpunx · May 13th, 2008, 09:41 AM

I'd use your primary key field (probably called id) to index the array. And use mysql_fetch_assoc, cos we want an array of associative arrays. Like this:

Code:

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$id = $row['id']; // want a globally unique id, assuming primary key is called id
$playlist[$id] = $row; // row is an associative array, so we can now say $playlist[$id]['artist_name'] or whatever
// etc...
}

And (didn't recreate your XML, but to give you the idea):

Code:

foreach($playlist AS $id=>$entry) {
   echo "Record ID: $id\n";
   echo "Artist: " . $entry['artist_name'] . "\n";
   echo "Track: " . $entry['track_name'] . "\n--\n";
}

HTH
Charlie

--
Charlie Harvey's website - linux, perl, java, anarchism and punk rock: http://charlieharvey.org.uk