CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phparraysmultidimensional-array
Paolo_Mulder
Paolo_Mulder

Reputation: 1289

Multidimensional array from string

Let's say I have this string which I want to put in a multidimensional array.

Edit : The number of subfolders in the string are dynamic .. from zero sub folders to 10 

<?php
       $string ="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
       $string .=" Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
       $string .=" Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";
?>

I want the following array returned

<?php
 Array
(
    [Folder1] => Array
        (
            [Folder2] => Array
                (
                    [Folder3] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => filename1
                            [1] => filename2
                        )

                )

        )

    [Folder4] => Array
        (
            [Folder2] => Array
                (
                    [Folder3] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => filename3
                        )

                )

        )

)
?>

What would be the most efficient way to accomplish this ?

And for the fun of it let's say this array will be send to the other side of the world and it wants to return to a string. How would we do that ?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 4614

Answers (3)

Al-Amin
Al-Amin

Reputation: 656

This can be solved recursively in another way by taking the items from the beginning of the array and when the last item is reached just return it.

function make_tree( $arr ){
   if( count($arr) === 1){
      return array_pop( $arr );
   }else{
      $result[ array_shift( $arr )] = make_tree( $arr ) ; 
   }
   return $result;
}

$string  = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= "Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";

$string = trim( $string );

$files_paths = explode( PHP_EOL, $string);

$result = [];

foreach ($files_paths as $key => $value) {
   $parted = explode( '/', $value );
   $tree = make_tree( $parted );
   $result = array_merge_recursive( $result, $tree );
   
}
var_dump( $result );

Upvotes: 0

Andris
Andris

Reputation: 6113

You could borrow pieces of code from this class (link no longer available), specifically the _processContentEntry method.

Here's a modified version of the method that does the job:

function stringToArray($path)
{
    $separator = '/';
    $pos = strpos($path, $separator);

    if ($pos === false) {
        return array($path);
    }

    $key = substr($path, 0, $pos);
    $path = substr($path, $pos + 1);

    $result = array(
        $key => stringToArray($path),
    );

    return $result;
}

The output of

var_dump(stringToArray('a/b/c/d'));

Will be

array(1) {
  ["a"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["b"]=>
    array(1) {
      ["c"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(1) "d"
      }
    }
  }
}

I suppose that's what you need :)

UPDATE

As per your comment, here's how you can process a string separated by new line characters:

$string = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= " Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= " Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";

// split string into lines
$lines = explode(PHP_EOL, $string);

// trim all entries
$lines = array_map('trim', $lines);

// remove all empty entries
$lines = array_filter($lines);

$output = array();

// process each path
foreach ($lines as $line) {
    // split each line by /
    $struct = stringToArray($line);

    // merge new path into the output array
    $output = array_merge_recursive($output, $struct);
}

print_r($output);

P.S. To convert this array to a string, just call json_encode, however I see no reason to convert it to an array and then back to what it was.

Upvotes: 12

GoSmash
GoSmash

Reputation: 1108

I think this what you want,

$string ="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .="Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";


$string_array_1 = explode("\n", $string);

$array_need = array();

foreach($string_array_1 as $array_values)
{
        if($array_values)
        {
            $folders =  explode("/", $array_values);
            $array_need[$folders[0]][$folders[1]][$folders[2]][] = $folders[3];
        }
    }

print_r($array_need);

Upvotes: 0

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