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MrJ
MrJ

Reputation: 1938

Recursive UL LI to PHP multi-dimensional array

I'm trying to convert an HTML block which is basically in the following form (each list item should be on one line, so there shouldn't be any lines containing <ul><li> if you see what I mean):

<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>
<ul>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Item 4</li>
</ul>

But it could be several layers deep. I basically want to convert it to a multidimensional array, where the contents are the value (the actual contents are a bit more detailed, but I should be able to process these details). Where the output array is pretty much like the below:

$array[0]['value'] = "item 1";
$array[1][0]['value'] = "item 2";
$array[1][1]['value'] = "item 3";
$array[2]['value'] = "item 4";

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3412

Answers (2)

MrJ
MrJ

Reputation: 1938

This is the answer if anyone comes across this later...

function ul_to_array($ul){
        if(is_string($ul)){
            if(!$ul = simplexml_load_string($ul)) {
                trigger_error("Syntax error in UL/LI structure");
                return FALSE;
            }
            return ul_to_array($ul);
        } else if(is_object($ul)){
            $output = array();
            foreach($ul->li as $li){
                $update_with = (isset($li->ul)) ? ul_to_array($li->ul) : (($li->count()) ? $li->children()->asXML() : (string) $li);
                if(is_string($update_with)){
                    if(trim($update_with) !== "" && $update_with !== null){
                        $output[] = $update_with;
                    }
                } else {
                        $output[] = $update_with;
                }
            }
            return $output;
        } else {
            return FALSE;
        }
    }

Upvotes: 2

Philthi
Philthi

Reputation: 95

The easiest way to accomplish this is with a recursive function, like so:

//output a multi-dimensional array as a nested UL
function toUL($array){
    //start the UL
    echo "<ul>\n";
       //loop through the array
    foreach($array as $key => $member){
        //check for value member
        if(isset($member['value']) ){
            //if value is present, echo it in an li
            echo "<li>{$member['value']}</li>\n";
        }
        else if(is_array($member)){
            //if the member is another array, start a fresh li
            echo "<li>\n";
            //and pass the member back to this function to start a new ul
            toUL($member);
            //then close the li
            echo "</li>\n";
        }
    }
    //finally close the ul
    echo "</ul>\n";
}

Pass your array to that function to have it output the way you want.

Hope that helps!

Regards, Phil,

Upvotes: 0

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