php: parsing and converting array structure
- by mwb
I need to convert one array structure into another array structure.
I hope someone will find it worthy their time to show how this could be done in a simple manner. It's a little above my array manipulation skills.
The structure we start out with looks like this:
$cssoptions = array(
array(
'group' => 'Measurements'
, 'selector' => '#content'
, 'rule' => 'width'
, 'value' => '200px'
) // end data set
, array(
'group' => 'Measurements'
, 'selector' => '#content'
, 'rule' => 'margin-right'
, 'value' => '20px'
) // end data set
, array(
'group' => 'Colors'
, 'selector' => '#content'
, 'rule' => 'color'
, 'value' => '#444'
) // end data set
, array(
'group' => 'Measurements'
, 'selector' => '.sidebar'
, 'rule' => 'margin-top'
, 'value' => '10px'
) // end data set
); // END $cssoptions
It's a collection of discreet datasets, each consisting of an array that holds two key = value pairs describing a 'css-rule' and a 'css-rule-value'.
Further, each dataset holds a key = value pair describing the 'css-selector-group' that the 'css-rule' should blong to, and a key = value pair describing a 'rule-group' that should be used for structuring the rendering of the final css into a neat css code block arranged by the kind of properties they describe (colors, measurement, typography etc..)
Now, I need to parse that, and turn it into a new structure, where the:
'rule' => 'rule-name'
, 'value' => 'value-string'
for each dataset is converted into:
'rule-name' => 'value-string'
..and then placed into a new array structure where all 'rule-name' = 'value-string' pairs should be aggregated under the respective 'selector-values' Like this:
'#content' => array(
'width' => '200px'
, 'margin-right' => '20px'
) // end selecor block
..and finally all those blocks should be grouped under their respective 'style-groups', creating a final resulting array structure like this:
$css => array(
'Measurements' => array(
'#content' => array(
'width' => '200px'
, 'margin-right' => '20px'
) // end selecor block
, '.sidebar' => array(
'margin-top' => '10px'
) // end selector block
) // end rule group
, 'Colors' => array(
'#content' => array(
'color' => '#444'
) // end selector block
) // end rule group
); // end css
