Create PHP array from string for Mongo - php

Question

I have a Laravel installed with Moloquent (Mongo). Mongo ins't necessarily the problem, when the model loads the "JSON" record, it becomes a PHP associative array.
I need to be able to create a function in a model that returns an array element by a string.
for example:
$search1 = 'folder1/folder2/folder3/item';
//would look like: $array['folder1'][folder2'][folder3']['item']
$search2 = 'folder1/picture1/picture';
//would look like: $array['folder1'][picture1']['picture']
echo getRecord($search1);
echo getRecord($search2);
function getRecord($str='') {
//this function take path as string and return array
return $result;
}
I guess I could use the ?? operator, but I have to form an array "check" meaning:
How would I form the $array['1']['2']['3'] if I have 3 elements deep or 1 ($array['1']), or 5 ($array['1']['2']['3']['4']['5']).
I am making an api to add an item or folder to Mongo.
Input : "f1/f2/item"
This function I have:
echo print_r($j->_arrayBuilder('f1/f2/item'), true);
public function _arrayBuilder($folderPath)
{
$ret = array();
$arr = explode('/', $folderPath);
Log::info("Path Array:\n" . print_r($arr, true));
$x = count($arr) - 1;
Log::info("Count: " . $x);
for ($i = 0; $i <= $x; $i++) {
Log::info("Element of arr: " . $arr[$i]);
$ret = array($arr[$i] => $ret);
}
return $ret;
}
Current output:
Array
(
[item] => Array
(
[f2] => Array
(
[f1] => Array
(
)
)
)
)
Desire output:
Array
(
[f1] => Array
(
[f2] => Array
(
[item] => Array
(
)
)
)
)
Note: I have tried PHP's array_reverse and it does not work on this.. Multidimensional and non-numeric..
Thank you.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, You want to take input string f1/f2/f3/f4/f5/item and create array("f1" => array("f2" => array("f3" => array("f4" => array("f5" => array("item" => array()))))))
In order to do that you can use function close to what you tried as:
function buildArr($path) {
$path = array_reverse(explode("/", $path)); // getting the path and reverse it
$ret = array();
foreach($path as $key)
$ret = array($key => $ret);
return $ret;
}
For input of print_r(buildArr("f1/f2/item")); it prints:
Array
(
[f1] => Array
(
[f2] => Array
(
[item] => Array
(
)
)
)
)
Hope that what you meant. If not feel free to comment