I have a string like this:
$string = '[miniTrack, boxTrack]'
I want to turn it into an array of variables like this:
$array = [$miniTrack, $boxTrack];
So that I can perform loops and iterations through the variable. And access the variables they are referencing.
I tried eval but I can't figure out how to convert it to a PHP Variable.
I KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT IDEAL, THE STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE THIS IS PULLING FROM CAN'T BE ADJUSTED UNFORTUNATELY
Your question starts unusually, because you show an array containing a single string that is comma-separated, rather than an array of individual strings.
You could try something like the following:
$arr = [];
$string = ['miniTrack, boxtrack'];
//split the one string into an array, trimming spaces
$vars= array_map('trim', explode(',', $string[0]));
foreach($vars as $var) {
$arr[] = $var; //add the var to the array
}
print_r($arr);
Array
(
[0] => miniTrack
[1] => boxtrack
)
And if you need to create a variable for each item, you can create "variable variables":
foreach($vars as $var) {
$my_var = $$var; //variable variable
}
$$var part isn't turning it into a variable
$my_var = $$var; //variable variable though
$x = 'test'; then $xx would be equivalent to a variable called $testIt should be as easy as the following:
preg_match_all('~(\w+)~','[miniTrack, boxTrack]', $matches);
foreach($matches[1] as $var)
{
print $$var;
}
You can convert your strings to array like this. It may be not ideal but you can use try this.
$string = '[miniTrack, boxTrack]';
$string = str_replace(array('[',']'),array('', '' ), $string);
$array = explode(',',$string);
Here you can iterate your array whatever you want.
minitrackandboxtrackwill be seen as undefined/unknown constants. YOu'll have to parse the string manually. explode on commas, strip off the[], etc... And frankly, dynamically generating variable names is just a plain bad idea. it's pretty much always a sign of bad design, and will make for insanely ugly code that's nearly impossible to figure out/maintain later on.