Find missing elements from array based on another (keys not values) - php

Question

I need to test an array to make sure it has all elements I am expecing. The twist here is that we are talking about multidimensional arrays. Here is an example:
$required_data = [
'firstname',
'lastname',
'shipping' => [
'address',
'city',
'contacts' => [
'phone',
'email'
]
]
];
$incoming_data = [
'firstname' => 'Mike',
'shipping' => [
'address' => '1st Avenue',
'contacts' => [
'phone',
'email' => 'test#example.com'
]
]
];
I simply need to detect the two missing elements (lastname and city). I don't care about values. I test them separately.
At the moment I'm playing with this function just to get true when all required elements are provided or false otherwise.
It works when $incoming_data doesn't have any value but as soon as I start adding values (eg. Mike, 1st Avenue etc.) it fails.
function validate($incoming_data, $required_data)
{
foreach ($required as $key => $value) {
if (!isset($data[$key])) {
return false;
}
if (is_array($data[$key]) && false === validate($data[$key], $value)) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
I can't understand where my function starts playing with values. All is see are comparisons based on keys. Whut?
Thanks.

Answer 1

you have to set empty data in your $required_data tab like so :
$required_data = [
'firstname' => '',
'lastname' => '',
'shipping' => [
'address' => '',
'city' => '',
'contacts' => [
'phone',
'email'
]
]
];