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I have a collection of keys in this massive flat single array I would like to basically expand that array into a multidimensional one organized by keys - here is an example:

'invoice/products/data/item1'
'invoice/products/data/item2'
'invoice/products/data/item2'

=>

'invoice'=>'products'=>array('item1','item2','item3')

how can I do this - the length of the above strings are variable...

Thanks!

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1  
'invoice'=>'products'=>array() is not valid syntax. Did you mean 'invoice'=>array('products'=>array())? – Lekensteyn Oct 10 '10 at 19:28
1  
is it always 3 dimensions or can it vary? – Imre L Oct 10 '10 at 19:33
What about data? Why isn’t it array('invoice'=>array('products'=>array('data'=>array('item1','item2','item3')‌​)))? – Gumbo Oct 10 '10 at 20:22
actually that's better formatting – ronaktal Oct 10 '10 at 22:52

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Something along these lines: (Didn't test it though!) Works now ;)

$data = array();
$current = &$data;
foreach($keys as $value) {
  $parts = explode("/", $value);
  $parts_count = count($parts);
  foreach($parts as $i => $part) {
    if(!array_key_exists($part, $current)) {
      if($i == $parts_count - 1) {
        $current[] = $part;
      }
      else {
        $current[$part] = array();
        $current = &$current[$part];
      }
    }
    else {
      $current = &$current[$part];
    }
  }
  $current = &$data;
}

$keys beeing the flat array.

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congrats - works, thanks – ronaktal Oct 10 '10 at 22:45
up vote 4 down vote 
$src = array(
'invoice/products/data/item1',
'invoice/products/data/item2',
'invoice/products/data/item2',
'foo/bar/baz',
'aaa/bbb'
);

function rsplit(&$v, $w)
{
    list($first, $tail) = explode('/', $w, 2);
    if(empty($tail)) 
    {
        $v[] = $first;
        return $v;
    }
    $v[$first] =  rsplit($v[$first], $tail);
    return $v;

}

$result = array_reduce($src, "rsplit");
print_r($result);

Output is:

Array (
    [invoice] => Array
        (
            [products] => Array
                (
                    [data] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => item1
                            [1] => item2
                            [2] => item2
                        )

                )

        )

    [foo] => Array
        (
            [bar] => Array
                (
                    [0] => baz
                )

        )

    [aaa] => Array
        (
            [0] => bbb
        )

)
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This is a beautiful functional solution and deserves way, way more upvotes than it currently has. – erisco Oct 11 '10 at 4:02
i agree, awesome – ronaktal Oct 15 '10 at 12:40
up vote 0 down vote

Although it's not clear from your question how the "/" separated strings will map to an array, the basic approach will probably be something like this:

$result = array();
$k1 = $k2 = '';
ksort($yourData); // This is the key (!)
foreach ($yourData as $k => $v) {
  // Use if / else if / else if to watch for new sub arrays and change
  // $k1, $k2 accordingly
  $result[$k1][$k2] = $v;
}

This approach uses the ksort to ensure that keys at the same "level" appear together, like this:

'invoice/products/data1/item1'
'invoice/products/data1/item2'
'invoice/products/data2/item3'
'invoice/products2/data3/item4'
'invoice/products2/data3/item5'

Notice how the ksort corresponds to the key grouping you're aiming for.

share|improve this answer
nice, works - slightly faster – ronaktal Oct 15 '10 at 12:41

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