up vote 0 down vote favorite

I have the following multidimensional array:

Array ( [0] => Array 
         ( [id] => 1 
           [name] => Jonah 
           [points] => 27 )
        [1] => Array 
         ( [id] => 2 
           [name] => Mark 
           [points] => 34 )
      )

I'm currently using a foreach loop to extract the values from the array:

foreach ($result as $key => $sub)
{
    ...
}

But I was wondering how do I see whether a value within the array already exists.

So for example if I wanted to add another set to the array, but the id is 1 (so the person is Jonah) and their score is 5, can I add the 5 to the already created array value in id 0 instead of creating a new array value?

So after the loop has finished the array will look like this:

Array ( [0] => Array 
         ( [id] => 1 
           [name] => Jonah 
           [points] => 32 )
        [1] => Array 
         ( [id] => 2 
           [name] => Mark 
           [points] => 34 )
      )
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

What about looping over your array, checking for each item if it's id is the one you're looking for ?

$found = false;
foreach ($your_array as $key => $data) {
    if ($data['id'] == $the_id_youre_lloking_for) {
        // The item has been found => add the new points to the existing ones
        $data['points'] += $the_number_of_points;
        $found = true;
        break; // no need to loop anymore, as we have found the item => exit the loop
    }
}

if ($found === false) {
    // The id you were looking for has not been found, 
    // which means the corresponding item is not already present in your array
    // => Add a new item to the array
}
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Thanks for your suggestion Pascal, just one question - If I didn't know the id of the array, is there a way to go through all the arrays and check that it matches (e.g [id] == 2 or [name] == Mark )? – user1092780 Feb 11 '12 at 13:07
1  
You'd just have to change the condition, to reflect what you want ; it would the become something like if ($data['id'] == $the_id_youre_lloking_for || $data['name'] == $the_name_youre_looking_for) – Pascal MARTIN Feb 11 '12 at 13:10
Fantastic, thank you @Pascal for your help! – user1092780 Feb 11 '12 at 13:14
You're welcome ; have fun ! – Pascal MARTIN Feb 11 '12 at 13:14
up vote 1 down vote

you can first store the array with index equal to the id. for example :

 $arr =Array ( [0] => Array 
     ( [id] => 1 
       [name] => Jonah 
       [points] => 27 )
    [1] => Array 
     ( [id] => 2 
       [name] => Mark 
       [points] => 34 )
  );
 $new = array();
 foreach($arr as $value){
    $new[$value['id']] = $value; 
 }

//So now you can check the array $new for if the key exists already 
if(array_key_exists(1, $new)){
    $new[1]['points'] = 32;
}
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