Searching through multidimensional arrays

Swiftaxe · 10-02-2009, 01:06 PM

Hi,

I need advice about searching through multidimensional arrays.

My array contains product data for a webshop. This is the structure:

PHP Code:


			
$array = array( $category =>

    array( $product =>

       $id,

       $title,

       $price,

       etc... ));

There is several categories and in each category many products with it's data. What is a good way to search such an array for a product with a certain ID? I need the keys for each dimension returned so I can extract data from that product.

Is there a way to do this without having nested foreach loops?
Tell me If I am not clear enough.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

/Swiftaxe

Village Idiot · 10-02-2009, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swiftaxe

Hi,

I need advice about searching through multidimensional arrays.

My array contains product data for a webshop. This is the structure:

PHP Code:


			
$array = array( $category =>
    array( $product =>
       $id,
       $title,
       $price,
       etc... ));

There is several categories and in each category many products with it's data. What is a good way to search such an array for a product with a certain ID? I need the keys for each dimension returned so I can extract data from that product.

Is there a way to do this without having nested foreach loops?
Tell me If I am not clear enough.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

/Swiftaxe

Nested foreaches would be the best way, but doing this outside of a database to start with is bad. Why aren't you using a database? SQL queries could search though results literally thousands of time faster.

Swiftaxe · 10-04-2009, 12:03 PM

Thanks! I thought doing several sql-queries would be more time-consuming.

So making a dozen of these queries would be faster?: "SELECT title FROM products WHERE id=$id LIMIT 1"

Swiftaxe · 10-04-2009, 03:21 PM

Village Idiot,

I timed the two different approaches. Doing 16 sql queries was way slower than looping the arrays.
Sql query time: 0.002832 msec
Array looping time: 0.000097 msec

But I guess that if there were thousands of products the sql would be faster. I only have about 30 in my test.

Village Idiot · 10-04-2009, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swiftaxe

Village Idiot,

I timed the two different approaches. Doing 16 sql queries was way slower than looping the arrays.
Sql query time: 0.002832 msec
Array looping time: 0.000097 msec

But I guess that if there were thousands of products the sql would be faster. I only have about 30 in my test.

That is because of connection overheads associated with each individual query. Can you show us the query? I've never seen a need to use that many queries for one task before.