CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
Oto Shavadze
Oto Shavadze

Reputation: 42803

Convert data generated by print_r() back to php code

I have text which is generated by print_r($some_array,true) and it looks something like this: 

Array
(
    [name] => Jon
    [lastname] => Jonson

    [car] => Array
    (
        [name] => bmw
        [year] => 2012
    )

)

(Real data have much more values and more dimensions.)

Question: how to convert this data back, into php's array ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 177

Answers (1)

Chrille
Chrille

Reputation: 1453

Looking at the print_r documentation on php.net 'Matt' has posted a solution:

<?php 
function print_r_reverse($in) { 
    $lines = explode("\n", trim($in)); 
    if (trim($lines[0]) != 'Array') { 
        // bottomed out to something that isn't an array 
        return $in; 
    } else { 
        // this is an array, lets parse it 
        if (preg_match("/(\s{5,})\(/", $lines[1], $match)) { 
            // this is a tested array/recursive call to this function 
            // take a set of spaces off the beginning 
            $spaces = $match[1]; 
            $spaces_length = strlen($spaces); 
            $lines_total = count($lines); 
            for ($i = 0; $i < $lines_total; $i++) { 
                if (substr($lines[$i], 0, $spaces_length) == $spaces) { 
                    $lines[$i] = substr($lines[$i], $spaces_length); 
                } 
            } 
        } 
        array_shift($lines); // Array 
        array_shift($lines); // ( 
        array_pop($lines); // ) 
        $in = implode("\n", $lines); 
        // make sure we only match stuff with 4 preceding spaces (stuff for this array and not a nested one) 
        preg_match_all("/^\s{4}\[(.+?)\] \=\> /m", $in, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE | PREG_SET_ORDER); 
        $pos = array(); 
        $previous_key = ''; 
        $in_length = strlen($in); 
        // store the following in $pos: 
        // array with key = key of the parsed array's item 
        // value = array(start position in $in, $end position in $in) 
        foreach ($matches as $match) { 
            $key = $match[1][0]; 
            $start = $match[0][1] + strlen($match[0][0]); 
            $pos[$key] = array($start, $in_length); 
            if ($previous_key != '') $pos[$previous_key][1] = $match[0][1] - 1; 
            $previous_key = $key; 
        } 
        $ret = array(); 
        foreach ($pos as $key => $where) { 
            // recursively see if the parsed out value is an array too 
            $ret[$key] = print_r_reverse(substr($in, $where[0], $where[1] - $where[0])); 
        } 
        return $ret; 
    } 
} 

?>

(Not my code)

Upvotes: 1

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