PHP recursive array copy

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0

I have a multidimensional array of arrays (source below), where my keys and values are arbitrary strings. I want to create a new array (desired below), where the hierarchy stays the same, but every KEY is restructured into its own array, with the key itself becoming a 'title' value, and any subarrays are continued under 'children'.

How can I accomplish this using a recursive function that takes &$source and &$destination arrays, and populates the destination array accordingly?

Source Array:

Array (
    [Alpha] => Array (
        [Red] => one
        [Blue] => two
    )
    [Bravo] => Array (
        [Blue] => three
    )
)

Desired Array:

Array (
    [0] => Array (
        [title] => Alpha
        [children] => Array (
                    [0] Array([title] => Red, [children]= > false)
                    [1] Array([title] => Blue, [children]= > false)
        )
    )
    [1] => Array (
        [title] => Bravo
                    [0] Array([title] => Blue, [children]= > false)
        )
    )
)

Note: I don't care about the final nodes/leafs in my new array.

2012-04-05 20:45
by lioman


3

You can do te conversion without passing a reference to the destination array.

function convert_array($from){
    if(!is_array($from)){
        return false;
    }
    $to = array();
    foreach($from as $k=>$v){
        $to[] = array(
            'title' => $k,
            'children' => convert_array($v)
        );
    }
    return $to;
}

Codepad example

2012-04-05 20:50
by miguel_ibero
Thanks, works great. BTW what is the significance of using $to[] versus just $to in the foreach? Only $to[] seems to work, but $to is still ok syntax-wise - lioman 2012-04-05 21:08
Using $to[] you are appending an element to the array (the same as using array_push), using $to you are overwriting the array each time - miguel_ibero 2012-04-05 21:20
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