Need to convert string of term ids into comma separated integers for use in an arguments array

Question

So I'm working on a medical site that has a custom post type "doctors". Within this post type are custom taxonomies for "locations" and "procedures". I've created a custom taxonomy-locations.php file to control how my locations pages look, on this page is some general information like contact info, maps, related doctors. I also need to include a list of all procedures offered at each location. Since procedures are attached to each doctor, not to each location, I created a function containing a loop to run through all doctors tagged at the current location and output a comma separated list of all tagged procedures term ids. See below:

// Get the doctors procedures
function location_doctors_procedure_loop() {

$tax_slug = get_query_var( 'locations' );

$args = array(
    'posts_per_page'    =>  -1,
    'order'             =>  'DESC',
    'post_type'         =>  'our_team',
    'locations'         =>  $tax_slug
); 

// The Query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

// The Loop
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {

    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {

    $the_query->the_post();

        $terms = get_the_terms( $post, 'procedures' );

        if ( !empty($terms) ) {
            foreach( $terms as $term ) {
                echo $term->term_id . ','; 
            }

        }

    }

    wp_reset_postdata();

} 
}

I then created a function that loops through all active procedure taxonomies and lists them hierarchically as parent, child, grandparent. See below:

// Get the procedures
function tax_location_procedures() {

$doctor_procedures = location_doctors_procedure_loop();

$terms = get_terms( array(
    'taxonomy'      =>  'procedures',
    'hide_empty'    =>  true,
    'include'       =>  array( $doctor_procedures ),
) );

echo '<h2 class="doctor-bio-procedure-condition-header">Procedures</h2>';

if ( !empty($terms) ) {
    echo '<div class="doctor-bio-procedures">';
    foreach( $terms as $term ) {
        if( $term->parent == 0 ) {
        ?>
            <p class="doctor-bio-procedure-condition-sub-header"><?php echo $term->name; ?></p>
        <?php 
            echo '<ul>';
            foreach( $terms as $childterm ) {
                if($childterm->parent == $term->term_id) {
                    echo '<li>' . $childterm->name . '</li>';
                    echo '<ul>';
                    foreach( $terms as $grandchildterm ) {
                        if($grandchildterm->parent == $childterm->term_id) {
                            echo '<li>' . $grandchildterm->name . '</li>';
                        }
                    }
                    echo '</ul>';
                }
            }
            echo '</ul>';
        }
    }
    echo '</div>';

} 
}

What I'm trying to do is use my first function "location_doctors_procedure_loop()" to populated the 'include' arguments array in "function tax_location_procedures()". The problem I'm having is that while "location_doctors_procedure_loop()" does echo out a comma separated list of the correct term IDs (e.g 231,229,) it does nothing for my 'include" argument because its echoing as a string rather than integers, so it's reading as

'include'    => array('231,229,')

rather than

'include'    => array(231,229,)

I'm stuck on this and have already spent the better part of a day trying to get this to work properly. Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You should be able to change these lines

if ( !empty($terms) ) {
    foreach( $terms as $term ) {
        echo $term->term_id . ','; 
    }

}

to this:

if ( !empty($terms) ) {
    // create an empty array
    $procedures_to_include = array();
    foreach( $terms as $term ) {
        // now instead of echoing, add each term to the array
        $procedures_to_include[] = $term->term_id;
    }

}

Basically instead of echoing manually, you're creating the array to begin with, and in your get_terms call you can just use $procedures_to_include directly:

$terms = get_terms( array(
    'taxonomy'      =>  'procedures',
    'hide_empty'    =>  true,
    'include'       =>  $procedures_to_include
) );

Answer 2

So there's a few things you need to do in location_doctors_procedure_loop() for this to work:

1. Have the function return values, rather than echo them. If you need to assign the output of the function to a variable, or use it as an argument, it needs to be returned. echo outputs the values to the screen, which you don't want.
2. To do this you'll need to build up an array of values within the loop. Do this by creating an empty array at the beginning, then adding procedures to it in the loop before ultimately returning the array.
3. Probably not required, but it might be a good idea to strip out duplicates from the array.

But you can go further. All you're doing with these IDs is retrieving the terms. Why not just pass the full terms all the way through, thus avoiding the need to call get_terms() at all. You can avoid duplicates by using the term ID as the key of the array.

Here's a version of your function with this all applied:

function location_doctors_procedure_loop() {
    /**
     * Create the array to return at the end.
     */
    $procedures = array();

    /**
     * Get all doctors for the current location.
     * We're not using template tags, so a custom WP_Query is unnecessary.
     */
    $doctors = get_posts( array(
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'order'          => 'DESC',
        'post_type'      => 'our_team',
        'locations'      => get_query_var( 'locations' )
    ) );

    /**
     * Loop through each doctor and add its procedures' to the array.
     * If a term is added a second time, it will just replace the original 
     * because the key is the ID.
     */
    foreach ( $doctors as $doctor ) {
        $terms = get_the_terms( $doctor, 'procedures' );

        if ( ! empty( $terms ) ) {
            foreach( $terms as $term ) {
                $procedures[$term->term_id] = $term;
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Return the array.
     */
    return $procedures;
}

Now in your tax_location_procedures() function you can just pass this directly to $terms:

$terms = location_doctors_procedure_loop();

Answer 3

Turn your comma seperated string into an array like this :

$inclusionArray = explode(',', $doctor_procedures);

Then use that array.

'include'    => $inclusionArray

Answer 4

You need to convert values into an integer array because you are getting string in this

$doctor_procedures = location_doctors_procedure_loop();

variable. You can convert it by using following option :

$doctor_procedures_int_val = array_map('intval', explode(',',  $doctor_procedures));

after this you need to pass this new array variable in "include" index.

so currently you are getting

'include'    => array('231,229,')

by using array_map('intval', explode(',', '231,229,')) this you will get array(231,229,)

So need to update your function with this :

$doctor_procedures = location_doctors_procedure_loop();
$doctor_procedures_int_val = array_map('intval', explode(',',  $doctor_procedures));
$terms = get_terms( array(
                  'taxonomy'      =>  'procedures',
                  'hide_empty'    =>  true,
                  'include'       =>  array( $doctor_procedures_int_val ),
                 ) );

Or you can make changes in your first function as well. Instead of doing echo the ids, you can put them in an array. then you do not need to do the above steps.

Let me know, if you need any more clarification.