Multidimensional array from string

arrays, multidimensional-array, php

Solution

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.

Problem

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 ?

Original source

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