Hi, The solution I posted:
echo '<OPTION VALUE="'.$alphabetical[$i][0].'">'.$alphabetical[$i].'</OPTION>'."\n"; did indeed take the first letter of $squads[1] as option value. I wondered at the time why Chad would want the first letter of the name as option value (that was his original code); I didn't realise that he wanted the id as option value. This code works fine: $fd = fopen ($teams, "r"); while (!feof ($fd)) { $list = fgets($fd, 4096); $squads = explode("|", $list); $alphabetical[$squads[1]] = $squads[0]; } fclose ($fd); ksort ($alphabetical); echo "<select>"; foreach ($alphabetical as $name => $id) { echo '<OPTION VALUE="'.$id.'">'.$name.'</OPTION>'."\n"; } echo "</select>"; (I think it is Marek's code - I added the <select>). Building on the above code and if you you wanted to have every column in an array: Instead of having squad_compares, usorts and the like, why not just link on id to associative arrays for each column, e.g. $fd = fopen ($teams, "r"); while (!feof ($fd)) { $list = fgets($fd, 4096); $squads = explode("|", $list); $alphabetical[$squads[1]] = $squads[0]; $stadium[$squads[0]] = $squads[2]; $city[$squads[0]] = $squads[3]; } fclose ($fd); ksort ($alphabetical); echo "<select>"; foreach ($alphabetical as $name => $id) { echo '<OPTION VALUE="'.$id.'">'.$name." - ".$stadium[$id].'</OPTION>'."\n"; } echo "</select>"; If you wanted to access the appropriate data you would use $stadium[$id] if you had the id, or $stadium[$alphabetical[$name]] if you had the name. Cheers Rudolf Visagie Principal Software Developer Digital Healthcare Solutions <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tel: 011 6901019 Cell: 082 895 1598 -----Original Message----- From: Ford, Mike [LSS] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 12:21 PM To: 'Chad Winger'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [PHP] Help.....still stuck after 3 days :/ > -----Original Message----- > From: Chad Winger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: 18 September 2002 02:32 > > however there is a little problem with the end result. > > your code: > > <?php > > include ("C:\Program > Files\EasyPHP\www\florentiaviola.com\control\config.php"); > > $fd = fopen ($teams, "r"); > while (!feof ($fd)) > { > $list = fgets($fd, 4096); > $squads = explode("|", $list); > $alphabetical[] = $squads[1]; > } > > sort ($alphabetical); > reset ($alphabetical); > > for ($i = 0; $i <= count($alphabetical) - 1; $i++) > { > echo '<OPTION VALUE="'. > $alphabetical[$i][0].'">'.$alphabetical[$i].'</OPTION>'."\n"; > } > fclose ($fd); > > > ?> The problem with this script is it only sorts the team names, without re-ordering the other columns of your array to match. And the notation $alphabetical[$i][0] is actually accessing the first character of the string (tema name) in $alphabetical[$i] -- hence the result you see. What you need to do is create an array or arrays containing all the content you need to sort, and then sort them in parallel based on the team names. My instinct would be to build a nested array of your values thusly: while (!feof ($fd)) { $list = fgets($fd, 4096); $squads[] = explode("|", $list); } which would build an array like this: $squads[0][0] => 01 $squads[0][1] => Brescello $squads[0][2] => stadium $squads[0][3] => city $squads[1][0] => 02 $squads[1][1] => Aglianese $squads[1][2] => stadium $squads[1][3] => city $squads[2][0] => 03 $squads[2][1] => Casteldisangro $squads[2][2] => stadium $squads[2][3] => city etc. However, a little research in the PHP online manual looking for sorting functions reveals that there's no simple function to sort this array the way you want. There are two ways around this: 1. Build your arrays differently; whilst this is possible, it needs more work and is not nearly as elegant (unless you need them this way for other stuff in your script). I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader, as there at least 2 possible answers, but the sorting functions you might use are asort() or array_multisort(). 2. Use a more complex sorting method that sorts the above array as you want. This is not actually as hard as it sounds, as there are several user notes in the online manual under the entry for usort() that address exactly this problem. Basically, you need to define a function that says how to compare two $squads[] rows for sorting -- in this case, by comparing the $squads[][1] entries, so: 123456789*123456789*123456789*123456789*123456789*123456789*123456789*123456 function squad_compare($a, $b) // $a, $b each passed a $squads[] row { return strcasecmp($a[1], $b[1]); // returns <0 if $a sorts first, // 0 if equal, >0 if $b sorts first // (case-INsensitive comparison) } and then use this in a usort() (sort with user-defined comparison) call: usort($squads, 'squad_compare'); I've broken this down into component steps for easier understanding, but you can actually do it all-in-one if you don't need to use the compare function elsewhere; again, this is adapted from a user note on the usort() manual page: usort($squads, create_function('$a,$b', 'return strcasecmp($a[1], $b[1])')); Finally, you can iterate through the results and generate your form: foreach($squads as $squad_info): echo '<OPTION VALUE="'.$squad_info[0].'">'.$squad_info[1].'</OPTION>'."\n"; endforeach; Hope this helps somewhat! Cheers! Mike --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Ford, Electronic Information Services Adviser, Learning Support Services, Learning & Information Services, JG125, James Graham Building, Leeds Metropolitan University, Beckett Park, LEEDS, LS6 3QS, United Kingdom Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 113 283 2600 extn 4730 Fax: +44 113 283 3211 -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php