Get categories names as an array to use it in theme settings

Question

I am building a theme and for the Theme Settings Page I followed this tutorial: http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/using-the-settings-api-part-1-create-a-theme-options-page/

What I want now is to have a multi-checkbox with every category. This is what I should have:

$options[] = array(
    "section" => "zzz",  
    "id"      => HS_SHORTNAME . "_multicheckbox_inputs",  
    "title"   => __( 'Multi-Checkbox', 'hs_textdomain' ),  
    "desc"    => __( 'Some Description', 'hs_textdomain' ),  
    "type"    => "multi-checkbox",  
    "std"     => '',  
    "choices" => array( __('Category 1','hs_textdomain') . "|category1", __('Category 2','hs_textdomain') . "|category2", __('Category 3','hs_textdomain') . "|category3")
);

However I've tried multiple options but none of them gives me exactly as shown above. I think the answer is close to get_categories() function with no luck. Also tried:

function my_list_cats() {
    $cats = get_categories();
    foreach($cats as $cat) {
        $catsArray[] = __('' . $cat->cat_name . '','hs_textdomain') . "|" . $cat->category_nicename . "";
    }
    echo implode(', ', $catsArray);
}

And then:

"choices" => array(my_list_cats())

But no luck. Does anyone know a solution? Thank you very much

Answer 1

Thanks Michael for the tip. I finally got it. The solution is as follows:

$options[] = array(
    "section" => "zzz",  
    "id"      => HS_SHORTNAME . "_multicheckbox_inputs",  
    "title"   => __( 'Multi-Checkbox', 'hs_textdomain' ),  
    "desc"    => __( 'Some Description', 'hs_textdomain' ),  
    "type"    => "multi-checkbox",  
    "std"     => '',  
    "choices" => my_list_cats()
);

And in functions.php:

function my_list_cats() {
  $cats = get_categories();
  foreach($cats as $cat) {
      $catsArray[] = __('' . $cat->cat_name . '','hs_textdomain') . "|" . $cat->category_nicename . "";
  }
  return $catsArray;
}

Thanks again!