PHP: Efficient way to access nested array elements?

Question

I am tidying up some old code i've come across on a job including various arrays which i'd like to combine into nested arrays and would like to know a simple way of looping throught the contents of a nested array (likely that there's a better way to store the data than a nested array in the first place, if so, suggestions welcome).

The following code is just an example of the original code structure, behaves in the same way just generalised output.

$someArray elements used to be defined indifvidually which seems very time consuming to manage hence why i want to change it:

$fruit['fruit']['apple']['size'] = 'small';
$fruit['fruit']['apple']['colour'] = 'red';
$fruit['fruit']['apple']['taste'] = 'bitter';
$fruit['fruit']['pear']['size'] = 'big';
$fruit['fruit']['pear']['colour'] = 'green';
$fruit['fruit']['pear']['taste'] = 'sweet'; 

Here's an example of the nested arrays that i'm building:

class someEntity 
{
    public function someFunction()
    {       

    $someArray = array
    (
    'apple' => array(
            'size' => 'small',
            'colour' => 'red',
            'taste' => 'bitter'
            ),
    'pear' => array(
            'size' => 'big',
            'colour' => 'green',
            'taste' => 'sweet'
            )
    );
    return($someArray);
    }

    public function anotherFunction()
    {
    # some other stuff
    }

}

Calling via foreach loop:

$someArray= someEntity::someFunction();
var_dump($someArray);


foreach($someArray as $key)
{   
    foreach($key as $key => $value)
    {
    print($key.': '.$value.'<br>');
    }
}


array (size=2)
  'apple' => 
    array (size=3)
      'size' => string 'small' (length=5)
      'colour' => string 'red' (length=3)
      'taste' => string 'bitter' (length=6)
  'pear' => 
    array (size=3)
      'size' => string 'big' (length=3)
      'colour' => string 'green' (length=5)
      'taste' => string 'sweet' (length=5)  

Output:

size: small colour: red taste: bitter size: big colour: green taste: sweet

Questions:

1. What's the best way to compress the $fruits array? Is my $someArray approach incorrect?
2. Is there a better way to call $someArray data without nested foreach loops?

Consider:

1. The nested arrays may get more complex, possible an additional layer deep
2. Do not want to use a database for this scenario

Thank you in advance

Updated

I've reworked as follows using an object.

class fruit 
{
    private  $_type;
    private  $_size;            
    private  $_colour;
    private  $_taste;

    public function __construct($type,$size,$colour,$taste)
    {
    $this->_type = $type;
    $this->_size = $size;   
    $this->_colour = $colour;
    $this->_taste = $taste;             
    }

    public function displayFruitData()
    {

           echo'<br>'.$this->_type.'<br>'.$this->_size.'<br>'.$this->_colour.'<br>'.$this->_taste.'<br><br>';       
    }       
}   
    $fruit1 = new fruit("apple","small","red","bitter");
    $fruit2 = new fruit("pear","medium","yellow","sweet");
    $fruit3 = new fruit("pineapple","large","brown","sweet");       

    $output = $fruit1->displayFruitData();  
    $output = $fruit2->displayFruitData();  
    $output = $fruit3->displayFruitData();  


    exit();

Answer 1

you can do this in easy way like this

<?php
  $fruits = array('apple', 'pear');
  $size = array('apple' => 'small', 'pear' => 'big');
  $colour = array('apple' => 'red', 'pear' => 'green');
  $taste = array('apple' => 'bitter', 'pear' => 'sweet');

  foreach($fruits as $fruit)
  {
    echo "$fruit Size is {$size[$fruit]}<br />";
    echo "$fruit Colour is {$colour[$fruit]}<br />";
    echo "$fruit Taste is {$taste[$fruit]}<br />";
    echo '<br />';
  }
?>

Output

apple Size is small
apple Colour is red
apple Taste is bitter

pear Size is big
pear Colour is green
pear Taste is sweet