To better handle the problem of sparse array completion mentioned a couple years ago...
What you really need in this scenario is an empty array containing all the desired keys, and a sparse array containing the keys and values you want overridden. This PHP5 function does that. (The PEAR package PHP_Compat should be able to fill in the gap -- array_combine() -- for a 4.3 install, if necessary.)
<?php
function array_complete(
$keys="", // array of keys you need filled, in order
$sparse="" // sparse array to override blanks
)
{
if(!is_array($sparse))
$sparse=array();
if(!is_array($keys))
return $sparse;
return array_merge(
array_combine( // create an associative array
$keys, // your list of keys
array_fill( // blank value for each key
0,count(
$keys
),""
)
),$sparse // merge with your incomplete array
);
}
?>
This merges in your sparse array (inserting any additional keys in that array after the ones you've specified), placing its values in the key order you specify, leaving all the other values blank.
Test call: var_dump(array_complete(array("test1", "test2", "test3", "test4", "test5"), array("test3" => "test3", "test1" => "test1", "garbage" => "garbage")));
Result: array(6) {
["test1"]=>
string(5) "test1"
["test2"]=>
string(0) ""
["test3"]=>
string(5) "test3"
["test4"]=>
string(0) ""
["test5"]=>
string(0) ""
["garbage"]=>
string(7) "garbage"
}