php associative array key order (not sort)

Question

My array:

$data = array('two' => 2, 'one' => 1, 'three' => 3);

Now, with when I iterate the array, the first value that will come up will probably be

$data['two'] // = 2 @ index[0]

right?

What if I want to move the $data[1] to the position of $data[0] ?

To rephrase:

How do I make the array look like this (so that 'one' comes up at $data[0])

$data = array('one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3

Why do I need this?

I use code igniter, the table->generate built-in function takes an assoc array and creates a table but offers no method of arranging the columns. This is why I would like to move the columns in the source array.

Answer 1

Two possible solutions (without using array_splice):

1) Create a new array with the new order of the keys.

$new_keys = array('one', 'two', 'three');
$new_data = array();
foreach ($new_keys as $key) {
    $new_data[$key] = $data[$key];
}
$data = $new_data;

2) Move the element one upfront, remove it from $data and copy the rest of the array.

function rearrangeData($data) {
    $result['one'] = $data['one'];
    unset($data['one']);
    return array_merge($result, $data);
}    
$data = rearrangeData($data);

Answer 2

Take a look at daniele centamore's comment on PHP's array_splice() function, where he provides a couple of functions for moving the elements in an non-associative array.

<?php

// $input  (Array) - the array containing the element
// $index (int) - the index of the element you need to move

function moveUp($input,$index) {
      $new_array = $input;

       if((count($new_array)>$index) && ($index>0)){
                 array_splice($new_array, $index-1, 0, $input[$index]);
                 array_splice($new_array, $index+1, 1);
             } 

       return $new_array;
}

function moveDown($input,$index) {
       $new_array = $input;

       if(count($new_array)>$index) {
                 array_splice($new_array, $index+2, 0, $input[$index]);
                 array_splice($new_array, $index, 1);
             } 

       return $new_array;
}  

$input = array("red", "green", "blue", "yellow");

$newinput = moveUp($input, 2);
// $newinput is array("red", "blue", "green", "yellow")

$input = moveDown($newinput, 1);
// $input is array("red", "green", "blue", "yellow")

?>