Req #64493 [Asn]: array_column: 2nd param should be optional to use entire rows as result values
Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64493&edit=1
ID: 64493
Updated by: ramsey@php.net
Reported by: mtanalin at yandex dot ru
Summary: array_column: 2nd param should be optional to use
entire rows as result values
Status: Assigned
Type: Feature/Change Request
Package: Arrays related
PHP Version: 5.5.0beta1
Assigned To: ramsey
Block user comment: N
Private report: N
New Comment:
I have added a pull request that provides this functionality.
https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/331
Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2013-03-22 17:18:00] mtanalin at yandex dot ru
Description:
------------
array_column() function (new in PHP 5.5: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/array_column ) is a very
nice addition, but its design is incomplete currently.
What is missing is the ability to have entire rows (not just a column) as values of each element
(indexed by a specified-column's values) in array returned by the function.
This could be achieved by making array_column's second parameter ($columnKey) optional.
null value could be used to indicate that the parameter is omitted:
array_column($rows, null, 'id');
When both 2nd and 3nd parameters are omitted, an error should be triggered (or an exception thrown)
usual way.
2nd parameter's optionality is needed to make it possible to quickly select exact row by exact
column value while still having access to ALL columns of a row, not just one of the columns.
Otherwise, web-developers will still be forced to use pure-script workarounds like:
array_combine(array_column($rows, 'id'), $rows);
Even worse, if array_column() function in its current design will be added in PHP 5.5.0, but the
subfeature proposed here will be added in some future version different from exactly 5.5.0, it would
then be problematic to polyfill it performant and future-proof way (most likely we then would be
forced to rely on exact PHP version while relying on implementation version instead of direct
feature detection is usually considered bad form; we can easily determine function existence with
function_exists('array_column'), but [AFAIK] we cannot determine supported types of
function parameters as easily.)
Hopefully, this proposal can be implemented in PHP 5.5.0 thus making design of array_column() more
complete and more applicable in real-world web programming.
Thanks.
P.S. Of course, anyway, having array_column() even in its current design is much better than not
having it at all.
Test script:
---------------
For example, for the following input array:
$rows = [
[
'id' => '3',
'title' => 'Foo',
'date' => '2013-03-25'
],
[
'id' => '5',
'title' => 'Bar',
'date' => '2012-05-20'
]
];
array_column($rows, null, 'id') should return the following resulting array:
[
'3' => [
'id' => '3',
'title' => 'Foo',
'date' => '2013-03-25'
],
'5' => [
'id' => '5',
'title' => 'Bar',
'date' => '2012-05-20'
]
]
Expected result:
----------------
Second parameter ($columnKey) of array_column() function should be optional to make it possible to
have entire rows as values of elements (indexed by a specified-column's values) of returned
array.
Actual result:
--------------
Second parameter is not optional, so we are forced to use pure-script workarounds like:
array_combine(array_column($rows, 'id'), $rows);
to be able to quickly access exact row while still having ability to access any (not just one)
column of the row.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64493&edit=1
Thread (3 messages)