Documentation

A (Array)

The a class is a collection of helpers to make things easier with arrays.

Function: a::get

get any value from the array by key

Syntax

a::get('array', 'key'[, 'default']);

Arguments

array - (array) the array to search in
key - (string) the key
default - (mixed) anything that should be returned when nothing is found in the array

Returns

(mixed) whatever is stored with this key

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

echo a::get($array, 'cat');
// output: 'miao'

echo a::get($array, 'elephant', 'shut up');
// output: 'shut up'

Function: a::remove

remove an item from an array

Syntax

a::remove('array', 'key');

Arguments

array - (array) the array to remove something from
key - (string) the key

Returns

(array) the array

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

$array = a::remove($array, 'cat');
// array is now: array(
//     'dog' => 'wuff',
//     'bird' => 'tweet'
// );

Function: a::show

a pretty useful debug function to print the content of arrays

Syntax

a::show('array'[, 'echo']);

Arguments

array - (array) the array to show
echo - (boolean) true: echo the output immediately, false: return the output

Returns

(string) the html with all the array content

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

a::show($array);

// output: 
// Array
// (
//     [cat] => miao
//     [dog] => wuff
//     [bird] => tweet
// )

Function: a::json

Convert the array to a json string

Syntax

a::json('array');

Arguments

array - (array) the array to convert

Returns

(string) the json string

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

echo a::json($array);
// output: {"cat":"miao","dog":"wuff","bird":"tweet"}

Function: a::xml

Convert the array to xml

Syntax

a::xml('array'[, 'tag'[, 'head'[, 'charset'[,'tab']]]]);

Arguments

array - (array) the array to convert
tag - (string) the root tag (default = root)
head - (boolean) true: a xml header will be added, false: returns just the raw xml
charset - (string) default is utf-8
tab - (string) determins the used tab character(s), default is ' '

Returns

(string) the xml

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

echo a::xml($array, 'animals');
// output: 
// <animals>
//   <cat>miao</cat>
//   <dog>wuff</dog>
//   <bird>tweet</bird>
// </animals>

Function: a::extract

Extract a certain field from a multidimensional array

Syntax

a::extract('array', 'key');

Arguments

array - (array) the array to extract from
key - (string) the name of the key

Returns

(array) a new array with the extracted values

Example

$array[0] = array(
    'id' => 1,
    'username' => 'bastian',
);    

$array[1] = array(
    'id' => 2,
    'username' => 'peter',
);    

$array[3] = array(
    'id' => 3,
    'username' => 'john',
);    

$extract = a::extract($array, 'username');
// output: array(
//    'bastian',
//    'peter',
//    'john'
// );

Function: a::shuffle

Shuffle an array and keep the key/value pairs

Syntax

a::shuffle('array');

Arguments

array - (array) the array to shuffle

Returns

(array) the shuffled array

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

$shuffled = a::shuffle($array);
// output: array(
//    'dog' => 'wuff',
//    'cat' => 'miao',
//    'bird' => 'tweet'
// );

Function: a::first

Get the first element of the array

Syntax

a::first('array');

Arguments

array - (array) the array

Returns

(mixed) the first element

Example

$array = array(
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
);    

$first = a::first($array);
// first: 'cat'

Function: a::last

Get the last element of the array

Syntax

a::last('array');

Arguments

array - (array) the array

Returns

(mixed) the last element

Example

$array = array(
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
);    

$last = a::last($array);
// first: 'bird'

Function: a::search

Search for the given element inside the array

Syntax

a::search('array', 'searchword');

Arguments

array - (array) the array
searchword - (string) the searchword

Returns

(array) returns an array of searchresults

Example

$array = array(
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
);    

$search = a::search($array, 'cat');
// output: array(
//    'cat'
// )

Function: a::contains

Check if the string is contained in the array

Syntax

a::contains('array', 'searchword');

Arguments

array - (array) the array
searchword - (string) the searchword

Returns

(boolean) true: it's inside the array, false: it's not inside

Example

$array = array(
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
);    

if(a::contains($array, 'cat')) echo 'miao';

Function: a::fill

Fill up an array with whatever you like

Syntax

a::fill('array', 'limit'[, 'fill']);

Arguments

array - (array) the array
limit - (int) the numer of elements which should be added to the array
fill - (mixed) the elements which should be added (default: 'placeholder')

Returns

(array) returns the new array

Example

$array = array(
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
);    

$result = a::fill($array, 5, 'elephant');
// result: array(
//    'cat',
//    'dog',
//    'bird',
//    'elephant',
//    'elephant',
// );

Function: a::missing

Check for missing elements inside an array

Syntax

a::missing('array', 'required');

Arguments

array - (array) the array
required - (array) array of required elements to search for

Returns

(array) returns either an array of missing elements

Example

$array = array(
    'cat' => 'miao',
    'dog' => 'wuff',
    'bird' => 'tweet'
);    

$required = array('cat', 'elephant');

$missng = a::missing($array, $required);
// missing: array(
//    'elephant'
// );

Function: a::sort

Sort an mulitdimensional array like you would sort a database table

Syntax

a::sort('array', 'params');

Arguments

array - (array) the array
params - (array) the sort parameters

Params

The sort params are pretty similar to MySQL sort params:
fieldname ASC or fieldname DESC

You can even sort by multiple fields:
fieldname1 ASC, fieldname2 DESC

Returns

(array) returns the sorted array

Example

$array[0] = array(
    'id' => 1,
    'username' => 'bastian',
);    

$array[1] = array(
    'id' => 2,
    'username' => 'peter',
);    

$array[3] = array(
    'id' => 3,
    'username' => 'john',
);    

$sorted = a::sort($array, 'username ASC');
// Array
// (
//      [0] => Array
//          (
//              [id] => 1
//              [username] => bastian
//          )
//      [1] => Array
//          (
//              [id] => 3
//              [username] => john
//          )
//      [2] => Array
//          (
//              [id] => 2
//              [username] => peter
//          )
// )