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In the previous tutorial PHP function: get US state name by abbreviation, we can get US state name by abbreviation. Now, we try to get US state abbreviation from state name.

We use function array_flip to flip $state_list:

array_flip($state_list);

We get the list below:

$state_list_flip = array
(
    "Alabama" => "AL",
    "Alaska" => "AK",
    "Arizona" => "AZ",
    "Arkansas" => "AR",
    "California" => "CA",
    "Colorado" => "CO",
    "Connecticut" => "CT",
    "Delaware" => "DE",
    "District Of Columbia" => "DC",
    "Florida" => "FL",
    "Georgia" => "GA",
    "Hawaii" => "HI",
    "Idaho" => "ID",
    "Illinois" => "IL",
    "Indiana" => "IN",
    "Iowa" => "IA",
    "Kansas" => "KS",
    "Kentucky" => "KY",
    "Louisiana" => "LA",
    "Maine" => "ME",
    "Maryland" => "MD",
    "Massachusetts" => "MA",
    "Michigan" => "MI",
    "Minnesota" => "MN",
    "Mississippi" => "MS",
    "Missouri" => "MO",
    "Montana" => "MT",
    "Nebraska" => "NE",
    "Nevada" => "NV",
    "New Hampshire" => "NH",
    "New Jersey" => "NJ",
    "New Mexico" => "NM",
    "New York" => "NY",
    "North Carolina" => "NC",
    "North Dakota" => "ND",
    "Ohio" => "OH",
    "Oklahoma" => "OK",
    "Oregon" => "OR",
    "Pennsylvania" => "PA",
    "Rhode Island" => "RI",
    "South Carolina" => "SC",
    "South Dakota" => "SD",
    "Tennessee" => "TN",
    "Texas" => "TX",
    "Utah" => "UT",
    "Vermont" => "VT",
    "Virginia" => "VA",
    "Washington" => "WA",
    "West Virginia" => "WV",
    "Wisconsin" => "WI",
    "Wyoming" => "WY",
    "Puerto Rico" => "PR",
    "Guam" => "GU"
);

We should use the list with key in lower case:

array_flip(array_map('strtolower',$state_list));

The flipped list we get:

$state_list_flip_lc = array
(
    "alabama" => "AL",
    "alaska" => "AK",
    "arizona" => "AZ",
    "arkansas" => "AR",
    "california" => "CA",
    "colorado" => "CO",
    "connecticut" => "CT",
    "delaware" => "DE",
    "district of columbia" => "DC",
    "florida" => "FL",
    "georgia" => "GA",
    "hawaii" => "HI",
    "idaho" => "ID",
    "illinois" => "IL",
    "indiana" => "IN",
    "iowa" => "IA",
    "kansas" => "KS",
    "kentucky" => "KY",
    "louisiana" => "LA",
    "maine" => "ME",
    "maryland" => "MD",
    "massachusetts" => "MA",
    "michigan" => "MI",
    "minnesota" => "MN",
    "mississippi" => "MS",
    "missouri" => "MO",
    "montana" => "MT",
    "nebraska" => "NE",
    "nevada" => "NV",
    "new hampshire" => "NH",
    "new jersey" => "NJ",
    "new mexico" => "NM",
    "new york" => "NY",
    "north carolina" => "NC",
    "north dakota" => "ND",
    "ohio" => "OH",
    "oklahoma" => "OK",
    "oregon" => "OR",
    "pennsylvania" => "PA",
    "rhode island" => "RI",
    "south carolina" => "SC",
    "south dakota" => "SD",
    "tennessee" => "TN",
    "texas" => "TX",
    "utah" => "UT",
    "vermont" => "VT",
    "virginia" => "VA",
    "washington" => "WA",
    "west virginia" => "WV",
    "wisconsin" => "WI",
    "wyoming" => "WY",
    "puerto rico" => "PR",
    "guam" => "GU"
);

Assume that the state name is “West virginia”:

$state = "West virginia";

if(isset($state_list_flip_lc[strtolower($state)])){
    echo $state_list_flip_lc[strtolower($state)];
}

We get the result:

WV

So, we have a function to get US state abbreviation from state name:

function getAbbrByStateName($state)
{
    global $state_list_flip_lc;
    if (isset($state_list_flip_lc[strtolower($state)]))
    {
        return $state_list_flip_lc[strtolower($state)];
    }
    return false;
}

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