Allow for multiples of a column headers to store value in array

[VFAndrew]

I am contemplating modifying line 85 of src/Row.php to:
$array_counts = array_count_values($this->headingRow); if($array_counts[$this->headingRow[$i]] > 1){ $cells[$this->headingRow[$i]][] = $value; } else { $cells[$this->headingRow[$i]] = $value; }

to allow for multiples of a column header to indicate the the values should be stored as an array.

Wanted to check to see if this makes sense, or if this feature already is supported and I overlooked it.

I figured for my clients it would be easiest to format arrays in their sheets this way instead of enforcing json syntax in an individual cell. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your time.

[patrickbrouwers]

That would be a pretty big breaking change, so I would have to hold of on that.

You can implement a custom heading row formatter https://docs.laravel-excel.com/3.1/imports/heading-row.html#heading-key-formatting and use to key to make a difference between the columns that have the same heading name.

[patrickbrouwers]

Wether or not the tests pass, doesn't clear us from introducing a breaking change. There will be people having imports that would break because of this change.

As I mentioned before the heading key formatter is the way to go. You can do the grouping inside the prepareForValidation/onRow and process it however you want.

[VFAndrew]

I set a custom heading formatter

HeadingRowFormatter::extend('custom', function($value, $key) {
        return 'do-something-custom' . $value;

        // And you can use heading column index.
        // return 'column-' . $key;
    });

but when using two columns with the same header key I only receive one of the columns in the prepareForValidation callback.

You say "You can do the grouping inside the prepareForValidation/onRow and process it however you want." but by the time the data is passed to those functions I have lost the data I need to group.

[VFAndrew]

I get with the custom header formatting I can then ensure I have unique header keys by using both the index and key (in the custom formatter extension), but this would effect all my header keys. Causing me to do even more formatting and checking during validation. tbh this seems like a hack to get to the end result of just storing cell values in an array.

I would like to understand the example of a working sheet that this proposed change would break.

If the current implementation only stores the last column of the same headers, then who is even using columns with the same header? It seems like their sheet is malformed at that point with unnecessary data or unexpected data loss. If the only way to ensure that the data from multiple columns can be grouped during validation is to have unique header keys then the initial sheet should just have unique keys anyways instead of formatting unique keys in a custom formatter.

[patrickbrouwers]

If the import suddenly starts returning arrays instead of a string for a specific column, that is a breaking change. Especially if it could one time be an array and the other time be a string depending on the file, that will become very confusing I think.

I understand your use case, but I don't feel it should be the default, I'm okay with introducing a WithGroupedHeadings concern to add this behaviour.

[VFAndrew]

Thanks for the feedback.