- Creating the Catalog Array 4:43
- Adding Elements and Specifying a Key 3:20
- Introducing Arrays 4 objectives
- Associative Arrays 5:30
- Associative Arrays 7 objectives
- Displaying All Items 3:30
- Multidimensional Arrays 8 questions
- Creating the Display Function 4:56
- Working with Functions 8 questions
- Random Fun with Arrays 3:36
- Introducing Functions 1 objective
- Displaying Categories 5:50
- Sorting Array Items 6:05
- Item Details and Redirection 5:35
- Array Keys 2 objectives
- Displaying Item Details 5:55
- More Excitement With Arrays 6 questions
- Review Basics 3 objectives
- Wrapping It Up 0:45
Preview
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Associative Arrays
5:30We will use a multidimensional associative array to store the information for our Media Library Catalog. In this video, we’ll add a second dimension to our current array.
We left our catalog page looking like this
with the bulleted list of four items.
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In the code for
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the catalog.php file, we had our catalog
stored in a simple indexed array.
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Instead of letting PHP assign the key,
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we have specified our own item ID for
the key.
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Each element in the main catalog
array represents one item.
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Right now each element has a piece of text
with a title of the item as its value.
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Let's change this first element
making the value another array
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instead of just a piece of text.
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Let's go back into our catalog.
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Before we add any more
information to our array here,
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let's separate out this code
into a new include file.
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We'll name this file data.php.
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Let's copy our array from catalog.php,
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and paste it into data.php.
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Add our opening php tag,
and the closing php tag.
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Now we're ready to add a new
dimension to our array.
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I'm going to show you another shortcut for
adding an array.
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Instead of using the keyword
array with parentheses,
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we can simply add open and
closed square brackets.
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We'll use this as we add another
array to the first element
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in our main catalog array.
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I'll refer to this as our interior array,
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because it's inside our
main catalog array.
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This interior array will contain
information about this one item.
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One element for each piece of information.
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The first element will contain the title.
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We'll specify the key for each element
here using a piece of text to describe
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what information the element contains.
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Title and then the = sign,
followed by the > sign.
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Then we also have the value in quotation
marks, because it too, is a piece of text.
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We need to add another element
to this interior array, for
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all the information about this item.
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We separate items in array with a comma.
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Then we can create a new element for each
of the shared attributes of this item.
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The next element we'll add
is the path to the image.
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Call it "img" =>, our path
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is img/media/design_patterns.jpg.
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Then we'll add the genre.
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Tech.
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The format.
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Paperback.
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And the year.
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Since this value is a number,
it does not need quotation marks.
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Finally, let's specify the category.
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This will match up with one of
the navigation headings, books,
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movies, or music.
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This one's Books.
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Each category will have some extra details
that are specific to the item category.
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Design Patterns is a book, so now we
need to add the extra book elements.
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To start with, we'll add ISBN.
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Then we'll add publisher.
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And finally, authors.
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Although many books only have one author,
some books,
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including this one, have multiple authors.
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Instead of making authors
a string like our elements,
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we'll make authors another array.
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And just like that, we have a third
dimension to our associated array.
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Let's add our authors.
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And let's finish off our arrays.
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We've changed the first element in our
main catalog array from a simple piece of
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text to a full associative array,
this makes our item much more useful.
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We now have attributes for
each item grouped together.
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This will allow us to
display details of each item.
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To get our catalog ready to use,
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we'll need to add the details
of each item in the array.
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For movies and music, we'll have
elements specific to those items.
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You probably don't want to watch me type
out all the code for all the other items
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in the catalog, and you probably
don't want to type them yourself.
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So I've attached a text file to this
video with the code you'll need.
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I also added a few more items so
we have four items in each category.
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Download that text file and
copy the code from that file and
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paste it into our data.php file.
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Also, when ending a php
file with php code,
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you do not need to use
the php closing tag.
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Leaving off the closing tag is
a widely accepted coding practice
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used by projects such as WordPress and
Drupal.
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In fact, the Zend Framework
specifically forbids using it.
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The closing tag is not required by PHP,
and by omitting it at the end of a file,
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you guarantee that no trailing
whitespace can be added.
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These might cause unexpected results.
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Once you've pasted your code the full
array should look like this.
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