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@NogDogAug 26.2016 — #A lot of unknowns there for me (plus it's Friday afternoon with the post-lunch desire for a nap), so I'm not sure what the "right" answers are. Maybe you could provide an abbreviated example of 2 or 3 drop-downs, what they would contain (at least a few entries each?), and what you would expect the output to be for a couple different user selections?
Depending on how dynamic the drop-down data is and how complex this hierarchy you allude to is, it might simply be a JSON config file and a bit of usort()-ing to get the results, or it might be a relational database solution with relation tables describing the hierarchy and complex DB queries to get the result. ?@NogDogAug 26.2016 — #So...if I understand correctly, you need to define the hierarchy somewhere. A fairly simple way would be in an array. If you don't want to maintain it in your PHP code, it could be in a JSON file, or even a DB table, either of which you load into an array as needed. Then something like this (probably over-complex) code could be used:
Sample test run:
@NogDogAug 27.2016 — #As far as what my code was doing, it's building an array that uses the values from the array of codes the user selected, but using the matching array key (or index if you prefer) from the hierarchy array. (array_search() returns the matched values key). Then we're just doing a sort by the keys in that new array, then finally spitting out the array with the keys renumbered in sequence from 0 up via the array_values() function. (I figured it would be a little less confusing to ultimately work with a sequentially indexed array.)
As for dealing with exceptions, probably each one has to be handled on its own. Each might have to be analyzed to determine if you deal with it before the sorting gets done, or after. For instance, you suggest you might change a code to "0000" in a particular circumstance. If you want that change before you do the sort, then you'll have to search for that condition, make the change, then call the sort function.
If a certain condition might actually change how you want the sorting hierarchy to be, you might want to actually pass the hierarchy array in as an additional parameter to that function. In that case, you might define a number of hierarchy arrays, and the select which one to pass in depending on such special circumstances. If there are only a few of these special cases, that all seems reasonably manageable, but if there are a lot (for some undefined value of "a lot"), I might have to start reading up on "expert systems", which typically deal with a lot of "if this then that, unless this, in which case that..." sort of things, and maybe see if there's a clever, cool way to do this in a maintainable way. ?
[RESOLVED] PHP Comparing and Establishing a Hierarchy
I am fairly new to PHP. I’ve only created a few PHP/MySQL scripts so far, so what I am trying to accomplish is a little out of my level of expertise.
Here is what I have:
In essence, I have 6 dynamically populated drop down menus, which are populated by a MySQL database. The end user selects an option from each of the 6 drop down menus. The end user then clicks the submit button, which collects the data from the drop down menus.
Here is what I want to accomplish:
Upon the user clicking the submit button, I want to sort the end user’s choices, based on a hierarchy that I’ve defined, and then echo the results back to the browser in the correct order. So, how would I:
[LIST=1][*]
Define the Hierarchy?
Sort the Data
Arrange the Data (based on the hierarchy); and
Echo the results to the browser out
For instance, is it possible to define my hierarchy like this?
[CODE]
$a = 110A;
$b = 130B;
$c = 9000;
$a > $b > $c;
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@NogDogAug 26.2016 — #A lot of unknowns there for me (plus it's Friday afternoon with the post-lunch desire for a nap), so I'm not sure what the "right" answers are. Maybe you could provide an abbreviated example of 2 or 3 drop-downs, what they would contain (at least a few entries each?), and what you would expect the output to be for a couple different user selections?Depending on how dynamic the drop-down data is and how complex this hierarchy you allude to is, it might simply be a JSON config file and a bit of usort()-ing to get the results, or it might be a relational database solution with relation tables describing the hierarchy and complex DB queries to get the result. ?
0
@NogDogAug 26.2016 — #So...if I understand correctly, you need to define the hierarchy somewhere. A fairly simple way would be in an array. If you don't want to maintain it in your PHP code, it could be in a JSON file, or even a DB table, either of which you load into an array as needed. Then something like this (probably over-complex) code could be used:[code=php]
/**
* @param array $codes
* @return array
* @throws Exception
*/
function sortCodes(array $codes)
{
$hierarchy = array(
'090A',
'090C',
'110A',
'110C',
'1200',
'130A',
'130D'
);
$result = array();
foreach($codes as $code) {
$key = array_search($code, $hierarchy);
if($key === false) {
throw new Exception("'$code' not found in hierarchy");
}
$result[$key] = $code;
}
ksort($result);
return array_values($result);
}
// test it:
$codes = array(
'090A',
'090C',
'110A',
'110C',
'1200',
'130A',
'130D'
);
for($i=0; $i<20; $i++) {
$test = $codes;
shuffle($test);
$test = array_slice($test, 0, 3);
echo "Test data:".PHP_EOL;
print_r($test);
$sorted = sortCodes($test);
echo "Sorted data:".PHP_EOL;
print_r($sorted);
echo PHP_EOL;
}
[/code]Sample test run:
<i>
</i>[~]$ php sort.php
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130D
[1] => 130A
[2] => 110C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 130A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130D
[1] => 090A
[2] => 090C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 090C
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 130D
[2] => 090A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 090C
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130D
[1] => 090A
[2] => 110A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 110A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130D
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 090C
[2] => 110A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 110A
[2] => 110C
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130A
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130D
[1] => 110A
[2] => 090A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 110A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 1200
[1] => 110C
[2] => 130D
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 110A
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 110A
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 130A
[2] => 090C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 110C
[2] => 130A
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 110C
[1] => 130A
[2] => 090C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 110C
[2] => 130A
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130A
[1] => 1200
[2] => 130D
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 1200
[1] => 130A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 130D
[1] => 090A
[2] => 130A
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 130A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 1200
[1] => 090C
[2] => 110C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090C
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 1200
[2] => 110C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 110C
[2] => 1200
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 130A
[2] => 130D
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 130A
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 130D
[2] => 090C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 090C
[2] => 130D
)
Test data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 130A
[2] => 090C
)
Sorted data:
Array
(
[0] => 090A
[1] => 090C
[2] => 130A
)
0
@NogDogAug 27.2016 — #As far as what my code was doing, it's building an array that uses the values from the array of codes the user selected, but using the matching array key (or index if you prefer) from the hierarchy array. (array_search() returns the matched values key). Then we're just doing a sort by the keys in that new array, then finally spitting out the array with the keys renumbered in sequence from 0 up via the array_values() function. (I figured it would be a little less confusing to ultimately work with a sequentially indexed array.)As for dealing with exceptions, probably each one has to be handled on its own. Each might have to be analyzed to determine if you deal with it before the sorting gets done, or after. For instance, you suggest you might change a code to "0000" in a particular circumstance. If you want that change before you do the sort, then you'll have to search for that condition, make the change, then call the sort function.
If a certain condition might actually change how you want the sorting hierarchy to be, you might want to actually pass the hierarchy array in as an additional parameter to that function. In that case, you might define a number of hierarchy arrays, and the select which one to pass in depending on such special circumstances. If there are only a few of these special cases, that all seems reasonably manageable, but if there are a lot (for some undefined value of "a lot"), I might have to start reading up on "expert systems", which typically deal with a lot of "if this then that, unless this, in which case that..." sort of things, and maybe see if there's a clever, cool way to do this in a maintainable way. ?
