Creating a Multidimensional Array from an Array of Keys

[mitchkill]

Guys,

I am trying to create a class to interface with PayPal's invoicing API. The array that I will need to submit to them has a structure similar to the following:

 

Array
(
    [requestEnvelope] => Array
        (
            [detailLevel] => 
            [errorLanguage] => 
        )

    [invoice] => Array
        (
            [merchantEmail] => 
            [payerEmail] => 
            [number] => 
            [merchantInfo] => Array
                (
                    [firstName] => 
                    [lastName] => 
                    [businessName] => 
                    [phone] => 
                    [fax] => 
                    [webSite] => 
                    [customValue] => 
                    [address] => Array
                        (
                            [line1] => 
                            [line2] => 
                            [city] => 
                            [state] => 
                            [postalCode] => 
                            [countryCode] => 
                            [type] => 
                        )
                )
       )
)

 

I want to use PHP's magic method __set to be able to set values in the array like so:

 

$paypalObj->invoice_merchantInfo_firstName = "John";

 

To do this, I have created the following __set function within my class:

 

public function __set($name, $val) {
$nameArr = explode("_", $name);
$arr =& $this->request; // $this->request is the class property that holds the array
foreach($nameArr as $v) {
	if(isset($arr[$v]))
		$arr = &$arr[$v];
	else
		throw new Exception("Array key \$this->request[\"" . implode("\"][\"", $nameArr) . "\"] does not exist.");
}
$arr = $val;
}

 

The idea is that I split the variable name up via the underscore which gives me the name of the keys that I'll need to check for each depth of the multidimensional array. I then want to loop through the array of key names and append them to the working array so that I can determine if that is a valid array. However, this doesn't seem to work for me. When I try to build the array to check it (Line: $arr = &$arr[$v]; ), it's only returning the value of $arr[$v] and not the actual array itself. I need some way to be able to construct a multidimensional array using the array of keys, but I'm coming up empty so far. It seems like I'm missing something simple, but I can't figure it out. If you have any ideas, let me know! If you need clarifications, please ask. Thanks for your help!

[Barand]

Are you meaning something like this?

 

<?php
$x = array(
     'a_b_c' => 1,
     'a_b_d' => 2,
     'a_c'   => 3
);

$res = array();

foreach ($x as $k => $v )
{
    $str = '$res[' . str_replace('_', '][', $k) . ']=' . $v . ';';
    eval($str);
}

echo '<pre>'.print_r($res, 1).'</pre>';
?>

 

result-->

Array
(
    [a] => Array
        (
            [b] => Array
                (
                    [c] => 1
                    [d] => 2
                )

            [c] => 3
        )

)

[Barand]

Although the above works, I should have used quoted array indices ie

 

$str = "\$res['" . str_replace("_", "']['", $k) . "']='$v';";

[mitchkill]

Barand,
Thanks for the reply, but I'm really trying to stay away from eval. Too much can go wrong with it. I actually was given a solution on another board as follows:

public function __set($name, $val) {
        $nameArr = explode("_", $name);
        $lastName = array_pop($nameArr);
        $arr =& $this->request;
    
        for ($i = 0; $i < count($nameArr); $i++) {
            if(array_key_exists($nameArr[$i], $arr)) {
                if (!is_array($arr[$nameArr[$i]]))
                    throw new Exception("Array key \$this->request[" . implode("][", array_slice($nameArr, 0, $i)) . "] is not an array");
            } else
                throw new Exception("Array key \$this->request[" . implode("][",  array_slice($nameArr, 0, $i)) . "] is not a valid key.");

            $arr =& $arr[$nameArr[$i]];
        }
        if(array_key_exists($lastName, $arr))
            $arr[$lastName] = $val;
        else
            throw new Exception("Array key \$this->request[" . implode("][", $nameArr) . "] is not a valid key.");
    }  

 

The key was popping off the last value.