Return collection or multidimensional array or array inside array in php

Question

This question already asked but did not find any good answer.

To retrieve categories and subcategories in magento I am using this function:

$categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')
    ->getCollection()
    ->addAttributeToSelect('name')
    ->addAttributeToSort('path', 'asc')
    ->addFieldToFilter('is_active', array('eq'=>'1'))
    ->load()
    ->toArray();

// Arrange categories in required array
$categoryList = array();
foreach ($categories as $catId => $category) {
    if (isset($category['name'])) {
        $categoryList[] = array(
            'label' => $category['name'],
            'level'  =>$category['level'],
            'value' => $catId
        );
    }
}

after that if I simply use return $categoryList; it will not return anything(just blank) output like:

[
    [
    ],
    [
    ],
    [
    ]
]

but if I use return array(array($categoryList)); in that case it will give right output.

Like this:(checking with json format)

[
    [
        [
            {
                "label": "hello",
                "level": "1",
                "value": 2
            },
            {
                "label": "hello1",
                "level": "2",
                "value": 10
            },
            {
                "label": "hello3",
                "level": "3",
                "value": 17
            },
            {
                "label": "Tunics",
                "level": "3",
                "value": 18
            }
       ]
   ]
]

but there are two more brackets and I do not want them and as I am new to php I do not have much Idea about how to remove them.

Is there any method which can make it right or I have to create array with different style.

Answer 1

try this code

    $categoryList = array();
    $i = 0;
    foreach ($categories as $catId => $category) {
        if (isset($category['name'])) {
            $categoryList[$i]['label'] = $category['name'];
            $categoryList[$i]['level'] = $category['level'];
            $categoryList[$i]['value'] = $catId;
            $i++;
        }
    }
    return json_encode( $categoryList);

Output:

[{"label":"hello","value":2,"level":"0"},{"label":"hello","value":2,"level":"1"},{"label":"hello","value":2,"level":"2"}]

if this doesn't work for you try this

var_dump($categoryList) if it was like this

array(1) {
    [0]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          array(3) {
            ["label"]=>
            string(5) "hello"
            ["level"]=>
            string(1) "1"
            ["value"]=>
            int(2)
          }
        }
      }
    }

then

$response = json_encode($categoryList[0][0][0]);

Output:

{"label":"hello","level":"1","value":2}

Answer 2

First of all you can use Mage::log($myvar, Zend_Log::ERR); to properly display your variable / array. The outpout is in your root directory / var/log/system.log

Then try to log $categoryList; and check the format of your response. If you have too much bracket in the result you can use this simple hack :

foreach ($categoryList as $category){
    Mage::log($category);
}

Hope this help Cheers