Comparing nested associative arrays

[delayedinsanity]

"Cannot find search daemon". I tried.

 

I've been wracking my brain for the last two hours trying to simplify this. It seems like I'm running over the two arrays far too many times, and that I should be able to do it in one pass somehow.

 

I have two associative arrays, the first contains a set of older options (previous version), the second is a default set of new options. I want to compare the two arrays, and strip out any old options that aren't in the new set. I want to add options from the new set that aren't already in the old, and I don't want to overwrite and of the old options that already have values.

 

Here's a copy of the sandbox I've been working it out in; it works, but it does four separate operations on the arrays to achieve the result: http://pastebin.com/erbFujkG

 

 

[delayedinsanity]

Bump from page 3... I fixed the formatting (tabs vs spaces, oops) and repasted: http://pastebin.com/yD7u8bZ4

 

I know it's something simple I'm missing. A change in the function itself, somewhere, is going to reduce the number of times I have to run it from 3 to 1.

[fugix]

what is your actual question?

[delayedinsanity]

"It seems like I'm running over the two arrays far too many times, and that I should be able to do it in one pass somehow."

 

It works; There are no errors that I'm trying to work out. I just thought I would pick everybody's brain to see if it was possible to do it more efficiently.