How do you swap two values in an array?

[londrum]

Hello. I've had a good look through the docs, but I can't find a ready made php function to swap two values in an array, so I was hoping someone might know one.
Here's my problem...

I've got an array like this

Array( [0] => sydney [1] => paris [2] => london [3] => madrid )

The elements are in no particular order. the user chooses whichever order they want.

But i want them to be able to move the values up and down the list, one position at a time. So if they moved paris up the list, it would change to this

Array( [0] => paris [1] => sydney [2] => london [3] => madrid )

is there a function to swap two values around?

[Anyango]

Here you go, It was fun so i made 2 more functions, allowing us to swap by value or by index, just for the fun or it. they may be useful for someone reading this post

<pre>
<?php
$cities=array();
$cities[]="Sydney";
$cities[]="Paris";
$cities[]="London";
$cities[]="Madrid";



print_r($cities);

/*
$cities=swapByValues($cities,"Paris","Madrid");
print_r($cities);
$cities=swapByIndex($cities,0,1);
print_r($cities);
*/

$cities=moveUp($cities,"Paris");
$cities=moveDown($cities,"London");


print_r($cities);

function moveUp($values,$value)
{
$index1=array_search($value,$values);
if($index1==0)
{
return $values;
}
else
{
$index2=$index1-1;
$value1=$values[$index1];
$value2=$values[$index2];
$values[$index1]=$value2;
$values[$index2]=$value1;
return $values;
}
}

function moveDown($values,$value)
{
$index1=array_search($value,$values);
$lastIndex=count($values)-1;
if($index1==$lastIndex)
{
return $values;
}
else
{
$index2=$index1+1;
$value1=$values[$index1];
$value2=$values[$index2];
$values[$index1]=$value2;
$values[$index2]=$value1;
return $values;
}
}

function swapByValues($values,$value1,$value2)
{
$index1=array_search($value1,$values);
$index2=array_search($value2,$values);
$values[$index1]=$value2;
$values[$index2]=$value1;
return $values;
}

function swapByIndex($values,$index1,$index2)
{
$value1=$values[$index1];
$value2=$values[$index2];
$values[$index1]=$value2;
$values[$index2]=$value1;
return $values;
}


?>
</pre>

[enigma1]

There is no direct function. Here is a function to exchange 2 values of an array:

function exchange_array_elements($src_array, $index) {
if( empty($src_array) || !is_array($src_array) || count($src_array) < 2 ) return $src_array;
$j = count($src_array);

$index = max($index, 1);
$index = min($index, $j-1);

$replace = $src_array[$index];
array_splice($src_array, $index-1, 0, $replace);
array_splice($src_array, $index+1, 1);
return $src_array;
}
// test
$index = 2;
$src_array = array('sydney', 'paris', 'london', 'madrid');
$result_array = exchange_array_elements($src_array, $index);
print_r($result_array);

It will swap $index with $index-1 after validating the array and index.

[Anyango]

No interest in the solution?

[londrum]

sorry guys, i reckon your ideas would have been good. i managed to get a really easy one that only takes a few lines.
if you feed the position the user wants to 'move up' into $_GET['pos'], and the array of places is called $value, all i did was this

$position1 = $_GET['pos'];

$position2 = $position1 - 1;

$tmpa = $values[$position1];

$tmpb = $values[$position2];

$values[$position1] = $tmpb;

$values[$position2] = $tmpa;

and for the 'move down' version, you just change

$position2 = $position1 - 1

to

$position2 = $position1 + 1

suprised php doesnt have its own function for something like this though. i think they must everything but

[Matthew1980]

>>No interest in the solution?

Thanks for that anyango, I'm sure that people will find this little snippet quite useful, I shall have a play with it myself as I can see a potential application for it.

londrum, good that you found a work around for this little issue, happy coding!

Cheers,
MRb

[enigma1]

that only swaps two adjacent values, doesn't really exchange. And you will endup with a corrupt array if the passed value is outside the array boundaries.

If I had to drag/drop a row within a table an adjacent swap won't do

The elements are in no particular order. the user chooses whichever order they want.