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up vote 1 down vote favorite

I have the following array:

$array = array('23' => array('19' => array('7' => array('id' => 7, 'name' => 'John Doe'))));

Array
(
    [23] => Array
        (
            [19] => Array
                (
                    [7] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 7
                            [name] => John Doe
                        )

                )

        )

)

I want to access sub-element and i know his sub keys that 23 19 7. I can do this with simple format 

echo $array['23']['19']['7']['name']; // John Doe

But these array have just 3 level and this may vary, more or less. I have to make an array unlimited level.

I tried that like i want with following codes:

$keys =  array('23', '19', '7');

echo $array[$keys]['name'];

And of course i got Warning: Illegal offset type in error.

Then i tried this one but i couldnt get any element:

function brackets($str) {
    return sprintf("['%s']", $str);
}

$keys =  array('23', '19', '7');
$string_key = implode('', array_map('brackets', $keys)); // ['23']['19']['7']

echo $array{$string_key}['name'];
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

You can make a function that you can call with a key-array.

function getArrayPathVal($arr, $path){

    if(!is_array($path))
        return $arr[$path];

    $curr = $arr;
    foreach($path as $key)
    {
        if(!$curr[$key])
            return false;

        $curr = $curr[$key];
    }

    return $curr;
}


$array = array('23' => array('19' => array('7' => array('id' => 7, 'name' => 'John Doe'))));
$keys =  array('23', '19', '7');

$res = getArrayPathVal($array, $keys);
print $res['name']; //Prints 'John Doe'
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up vote 1 down vote

You could try a recursive function:

function getByKeys ($arr, $keys) {
  if (count($keys) == 0)
    return $arr;
  $key = array_shift ($keys);
  return getByKeys ($arr[$key], $keys);
}

$array = array('23' => array('19' => array('7' => array('id' => 7, 'name' => 'John Doe'))));
echo getByKeys ($array, array('23', '19', '7'));

this is untested, but the concept should do the trick:

  1. retrieve the next key to be applied to the array
  2. next iteration using the sub-array denoted by that key
  3. stop if no more keys should be applied.
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