php array values not being pushed onto associative array

Question

I wrote a javascript function which takes in a string and parses it as an associative array.

function getValues(string){
    var array_values = new Array();
    var pairs_array = string.split('\n');
    if(pairs_array[0] == 'SUCCESS'){
        window.success = true;
    }

    for(x=1; x< pairs_array.length; x++){
    var parsedValue = '';
    //console.log(pairs_array[x] + "<br>");
    var pair = pairs_array[x].split('=');
    //console.log(pair[1]);
    var variable = pair[0];
        if(pair[1]){
        var value = pair[1];
        for(i=0; i< value.length; i++){

            var character = value.charAt(i);

            if(character == '+'){
                parsedValue = parsedValue + character.replace('+', ' ');    
            }else{
                parsedValue = parsedValue + value.charAt(i);
            }   
        }

        array_values[variable] = decodeURIComponent(parsedValue);
        }else{
        array_values[variable] = '';

        }
    }
return array_values;


}

Then the function is called on the string window.name_value_pairs as follows

var array_callback = getValues(window.name_value_pairs);
    for(x in array_callback){
    console.log("call" + x + " " + array_callback[x]);


}

Works fine. Now i have been trying to write the function in php because i would prefer it on the server side but it is not working out. I'm not sure if the array values ar getting pushed onto the array because nothing gets returned. heres the php code i have tried: Note: $results_values is a string

$result_values = $_REQUEST['result_values'];
echo "php array " . getValuesPhp($result_values);

function getValuesPhp($string){
    $array_values = array();
    $pairs_array = explode("\n",$string);
        if($pairs_array[0] == 'SUCCESS'){
            $success = true;
            echo "TRUE";
        }
        for($x=1; $x< count($pairs_array); $x++){
            $parsedValue = '';

            $pair = explode("=",$pairs_array[$x]);

            $variable = $pair[0];

            if(isset($pair[1])){
                $value = $pair[1];

                for($i=0; $i< strlen($value); $i++){

                    $character = $value[$i];

                    //echo "char \n" . $character;
                    if(strpos($character, '+') !== false){
                        //echo "plus";
                        $parsedValue .= str_replace('+', ' ', $character);  
                    }else{
                        //echo "hi2";
                        $parsedValue .= $value[$i];
                    }   
                }
                echo "\n var " . $variable;
                echo "\n parsed " . $parsedValue;

                $array_values['" . $variable . "'] = $parsedValue;
                //echo "arrayValues " . $array_values['" . $variable . "'];
                //array_push($GLOBALS[$array_values]['" . $variable . "'], $parsedValue);
            }else{
                $array_values['" . $variable . "'] = '';
                //array_push($GLOBALS[$array_values]['" . $variable . "'], '');

            }
        }
        //echo "array payment stat" . $array_values['payment_status'];
        return $array_values;
}

note: where it says $array_values['" . $variable . "'] this does print out the write result as it goes through the loop however it seems like the array elements are not being added to the array as nothing is returned at the end. Thanks for any help Sarah Update: @ChrisWillard I would like to return an associative array from the string. the string is in the format where each line is in the form key=value .. it is actually the string which comes back from a paypal pdt response. For example:

SUCCESS
mc_gross=3.00
protection_eligibility=Eligible
address_status=confirmed
item_number1=3
tax=0.00
item_number2=2
payer_id=VWCYB9FFJ
address_street=1+Main+Terrace
payment_date=14%3A26%3A14+May+22%2C+2014+PDT
payment_status=Completed
charset=windows-1252
address_zip=W12+4LQ
mc_shipping=0.00
mc_handling=0.00
first_name=Sam
address_country_code=GB
address_name=Sam+Monks
custom=
payer_status=verified
business=mon%40gmail.com
address_country=United+Kingdom
num_cart_items=2
mc_handling1=0.00
mc_handling2=0.00
address_city=Wolverhampton
payer_email=monks%40gmail.com
mc_shipping1=0.00
mc_shipping2=0.00
tax1=0.00
tax2=0.00
txn_id=3PX5572092U
payment_type=instant
last_name=Monks
address_state=West+Midlands
item_name1=Electro
receiver_email=mon%40gmail.com
item_name2=Dub
quantity1=1
quantity2=1
receiver_id=WHRPZLLP6
pending_reason=multi_currency
txn_type=cart
mc_gross_1=1.00
mc_currency=USD
mc_gross_2=2.00
residence_country=GB
transaction_subject=
payment_gross=3.00

thanks for all your answers and help. it was a combination of two things that caused it to not print.. firstly my silly syntax error (being just new at programming haha I wont go into the logic i had behind this but it did make sense to me at the time haha) $array_values['" . $variable . "'] = $parsedValue; changed to this: $array_values[$variable] = $parsedValue; it was also the line echo "php array" . getValuesPhp($result_values); that caused it not to print. when i changed this to print_r(getValuesPhp($result_values)); it printed perfect thanks to @ChrisWillard for this. So here is my final code. A combination of @ChrisWillard answer and @Mark B and @Jdo answers. I also wanted to check first if pair[1] existed and go through each character of pair[1] changing any '+' to a space ' ' if it existed so that it could be read by the user. Now i have found the function to do this for me haha. I'm sure it is not new information for a lot of you but for anyone who doesn't know it is urldecode so you can see below ive commented out the loop that i did not need (going through the characters of the string changing the plus value) and instead ive written: $finished_array[$key] = urldecode($value); thanks for all your help.

$result_values = $_REQUEST['result_values'];
print_r(getValuesPhp($result_values));


function getValuesPhp($string){
    $finished_array = array();
        $pairs_array = explode("\n",$string);
        if($pairs_array[0] == 'SUCCESS'){
            $success = true;
            //echo "TRUE";
        }
    for($x=1; $x< count($pairs_array); $x++){
        $parsedValue = '';

        $pair = explode("=",$pairs_array[$x]);
        $key = $pair[0];
        if(isset($pair[1])){
            $value = $pair[1];

            //for($i=0; $i< strlen($value); $i++){
                //$character = $value[$i];
                //if(strpos($character, '+') !== false){
                    //$parsedValue .= str_replace('+', ' ', $character);    
                //}else{    
                    //$parsedValue .= $value[$i];
                //} 
            //}

            $finished_array[$key] = urldecode($value);

        }else{
            $finished_array[$key] = ''; 

        }
    }
    return $finished_array;
}

Answer 1

From what I can gather, this should get you what you need:

$result_values = $_REQUEST['result_values'];
print_r(getValuesPhp($result_values));

function getValuesPhp($string){
    $finished_array = array();
    $pairs_array = explode("\n",$string);

        if($pairs_array[0] == 'SUCCESS'){
            $success = true;   ////Not sure what you're trying to do here
        }

    for($x=1; $x< count($pairs_array); $x++)  {

        $pair = explode("=",$pairs_array[$x]);
        $key = $pair[0];
        $value = $pair[1];
        $finished_array[$key] = $value;

    }
        return $finished_array;
}

Answer 2

This is totally non-sensical:

            $array_values['" . $variable . "'] = $parsedValue;

You're literally using " . $variable . " as your array key - remember that '-quoted strings do NOT expand variables.

Why not just

$array_values[$variable] = $parsedValue