Split an Array into N Arrays - PHP

Question

I have an array of 18 values:

$array = array(\'a\', \'b\', \'c\', \'d\', \'e\', \'f\', \'g\', \'h\', \'i\', \'j\', \'k\', \'l\', \'m\', \'n\', \'o\', \'p\',          


        

Answer 1

This simple function would work for you:

Usage

$array = range("a", "r"); // same as your array
print_r(alternate_chunck($array,12));

Output

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => a
            [1] => b
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => c
            [1] => d
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => e
            [1] => f
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => g
            [1] => h
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => i
            [1] => j
        )

    [5] => Array
        (
            [0] => k
            [1] => l
        )

    [6] => Array
        (
            [0] => m
        )

    [7] => Array
        (
            [0] => n
        )

    [8] => Array
        (
            [0] => o
        )

    [9] => Array
        (
            [0] => p
        )

    [10] => Array
        (
            [0] => q
        )

    [11] => Array
        (
            [0] => r
        )

)

Update The above might not be useful for most cases ... here is another type of chunk

$array = range("a", "r"); // same as your array
print_r(fill_chunck($array, 5));

Output

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => a
            [1] => b
            [2] => c
            [3] => d
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => e
            [1] => f
            [2] => g
            [3] => h
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => i
            [1] => j
            [2] => k
            [3] => l
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => m
            [1] => n
            [2] => o
            [3] => p
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => q
            [1] => r
        )

)

This would make sure the group at no time is more that 5 elements where the other one has no limitation

Function Used

function alternate_chunck($array, $parts) {
    $t = 0;
    $result = array();
    $max = ceil(count($array) / $parts);
    foreach(array_chunk($array, $max) as $v) {
        if ($t < $parts) {
            $result[] = $v;
        } else {
            foreach($v as $d) {
                $result[] = array($d);
            }
        }
        $t += count($v);
    }
    return $result;
}


function fill_chunck($array, $parts) {
    $t = 0;
    $result = array_fill(0, $parts - 1, array());
    $max = ceil(count($array) / $parts);
    foreach($array as $v) {
        count($result[$t]) >= $max and $t ++;
        $result[$t][] = $v;
    }
    return $result;
}