How can I convert an array of strings into an associative array in PHP?

Question

I currently have an array of three strings, and my goal is to turn these three strings from the array into individual associative arrays.

This is the array:

$arr = array(

  "action: Added; amount: 1; code: RNA1; name: Mens Organic T-shirt; colour: White; size: XL",

  "action: Subtracted; amount: 7; code: RNC1; name: Kids Basic T-shirt; colour: Denim Blue; size: 3-4y",

  "action: Added; amount: 20; code: RNV1; name: Gift Voucher; style: Mens; value: £20",

I'd like to have the key of the associative array be the action, quantity, item code etc and to start off I thought I should try turning the contents of the array into a string to make it more manageable.

// Convert $arr to a string.
$imploded = implode(": ",$arr);
//echo $imploaded;
$str = $imploded;
$results = preg_split('/: [;,]/', $str);
print_r($results);

Ideally, i'd like the array to look like this. I'm quite new to PHP so any help and advice would be much appreciated.

array(
    'action'    =>   '',
    'amount'    =>   '',
    'code'  =>   '',
    'name'  =>   '',
    'colour'    =>   '',
    'size'      =>   '',
);

Answer 1

This may be what you need:

<?php

$arr = array(   
  "action: Added; amount: 1; code: RNA1; name: Mens Organic T-shirt; colour: White; size: XL",    
  "action: Subtracted; amount: 7; code: RNC1; name: Kids Basic T-shirt; colour: Denim Blue; size: 3-4y",    
  "action: Added; amount: 20; code: RNV1; name: Gift Voucher; style: Mens; value: £20"
);
    


foreach ($arr as $string) {
   //Build array
   preg_match_all("/ [ ]?([^:]+): ([^;]+)[ ;]? /x", $string, $p);
   $array = array_combine($p[1], $p[2]);

   //Print it or do something else with it
    print_r($array);
}

https://3v4l.org/0cnhZ

You might want to check this as well:
PHP Split Delimited String into Key/Value Pairs (Associative Array)

Answer 2

You can use :

$tempArray = array();

foreach($arr as $data){
    $dataExplode = explode(';', $data);
      $temp = array();
    foreach($dataExplode as $key => $child){
              $childExplode = explode(':', $child);
              $temp[$childExplode[0]] = $childExplode[1];
    }
      array_push($tempArray, $temp);
}

print_r($tempArray); //to print array collection

You will get collection of seperate array()

Answer 3

As simple as:

$arr = array(
    "action: Added; amount: 1; code: RNA1; name: Mens Organic T-shirt; colour: White; size: XL",
    "action: Subtracted; amount: 7; code: RNC1; name: Kids Basic T-shirt; colour: Denim Blue; size: 3-4y",
    "action: Added; amount: 20; code: RNV1; name: Gift Voucher; style: Mens; value: £20",
);
  
$data = [];
foreach ($arr as $line) {
    $newItem = [];
    foreach (explode(';', $line) as $item) {
        $parts = explode(':', $item);
        $newItem[trim($parts[0])] = trim($parts[1]);
    }
    $data[] = $newItem;
}

print_r($data);

Fiddle here .

Answer 4

$arr = [
    "action: Added; amount: 1; code: RNA1; name: Mens Organic T-shirt; colour: White; size: XL",
    "action: Subtracted; amount: 7; code: RNC1; name: Kids Basic T-shirt; colour: Denim Blue; size: 3-4y",
    "action: Added; amount: 20; code: RNV1; name: Gift Voucher; style: Mens; value: £20",
];

$keyed = array_reduce($arr, function($collector, $value) {
    $collector[] = array_reduce(explode('; ', trim($value, '; ')), function($collector, $value) {
        $parts = explode(': ', $value);
        $collector[$parts[0]] = $parts[1];
        
        return $collector;
    }, []);
    
    return $collector;
}, []);

https://3v4l.org/lLl6T

Answer 5

One more solution without loops using:

$res = array_reduce(
    $arr, 
    function($acc, $item) {
        $s = array_reduce(
            explode(';', $item),
            function($a, $el) {
                $p = explode(': ', $el);
                $a[trim($p[0])] = trim($p[1]);
                return $a;
            },
            []
        );
        array_push($acc, $s);
        return $acc;
    },
    []
);
        
print_r($res);

Run PHP code here

Answer 6

Just for fun one more way to do it:

$arr = array(
  "action: Added; amount: 1; code: RNA1; name: Mens Organic T-shirt; colour: White; size: XL",
  "action: Subtracted; amount: 7; code: RNC1; name: Kids Basic T-shirt; colour: Denim Blue; size: 3-4y",
  "action: Added; amount: 20; code: RNV1; name: Gift Voucher; style: Mens; value: £20",
);

$result = array_map(function($line) {
    return array_combine(...array_map(null, ...array_chunk(preg_split('/[:;]\s+/', $line), 2)));

}, $arr);

print_r($result);

Basically here we split the line by the two possible separators either : or ; followed by spaces.

Then the array_chunk function groups the key and values together and we get for each line something like this:

        Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [0] => action
                    [1] => Added
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [0] => amount
                    [1] => 1
                )
* * *

By spreading and mapping the array above we get it's rotated version like this:

Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [0] => action
                    [1] => amount
* * *
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Added
                    [1] => 1
* * *
                )
        )

We can now spread this array and pass it to the array_combine function so we have a nice associative array filled with the desired keys and values.

Then we map all lines and this way we get the nicely formatted result.

Here is the final fiddle.