How to Merge Associative Arrays with Default Values for Missing Columns?

Merging Associative Arrays with Default Values for Missing Columns

To merge multiple associative arrays and fill in missing columns with a default value, you can leverage the power of PHP's array functions.

The Problem

Consider the following arrays:

$a = array('a' => 'some value', 'b' => 'some value', 'c' => 'some value');
$b = array('a' => 'another value', 'd' => 'another value', 'e' => 'another value', 'f' => 'another value');
$c = array('b' => 'some more value', 'x' => 'some more value', 'y' => 'some more value', 'z' => 'some more value');

When you merge these arrays using var_export, you get:

array (
  0 => 
  array (
    'a' => 'some value',
    'b' => 'some value',
    'c' => 'some value',
  ),
  1 => 
  array (
    'a' => 'another value',
    'd' => 'another value',
    'e' => 'another value',
    'f' => 'another value',
  ),
  2 => 
  array (
    'b' => 'some more value',
    'x' => 'some more value',
    'y' => 'some more value',
    'z' => 'some more value',
  ),
)

The Solution

To combine the array keys and fill in missing columns with an empty string, you can use array_merge:

<code class="php">$keys = array();
foreach(new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($d)) as $key => $val) $keys[$key] = '';
$data = array();
foreach($d as $values) {
    $data[] = array_merge($keys, $values);
}</code>

This will produce the desired output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [a] => some value
            [b] => some value
            [c] => some value
            [d] => 
            [e] => 
            [f] => 
            [x] => 
            [y] => 
            [z] => 
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [a] => another value
            [b] => 
            [c] => 
            [d] => another value
            [e] => another value
            [f] => another value
            [x] => 
            [y] => 
            [z] => 
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [a] => 
            [b] => some more value
            [c] => 
            [d] => 
            [e] => 
            [f] => 
            [x] => some more value
            [y] => some more value
            [z] => some more value
        )
)

Another option is to create key-pair values with empty values and merge them:

<code class="php">$keys = array_keys(call_user_func_array('array_merge', $d));
$key_pair = array_combine($keys, array_fill(0, count($keys), null));
$values = array_map(function($e) use ($key_pair) {
    return array_merge($key_pair, $e);
}, $d);</code>

This will also produce the same desired output.

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