Insert auto generated multidimensional array to database - php

Question

I need to create a db function for multidimensional array. How deep the array currently dont know, bcoz they will come from xml file.
I have a sample array
Array
(
[employee] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => Array
(
[lastname] => Kelly
[firstname] => Grace
)
[hiredate] => October 15, 2005
[projects] => Array
(
[project] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[product] => Printer
[id] => 111
[price] => $111.00
)
[1] => Array
(
[product] => Laptop
[id] => 222
[price] => $989.00
)
)
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[name] => Array
(
[lastname] => Grant
[firstname] => Cary
)
[hiredate] => October 20, 2005
[projects] => Array
(
[project] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[product] => Desktop
[id] => 333
[price] => $2995.00
)
[1] => Array
(
[product] => Scanner
[id] => 444
[price] => $200.00
)
)
)
)
[2] => Array
(
[name] => Array
(
[lastname] => Gable
[firstname] => Clark
)
[hiredate] => October 25, 2005
[projects] => Array
(
[project] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[product] => Keyboard
[id] => 555
[price] => $129.00
)
[1] => Array
(
[product] => Mouse
[id] => 666
[price] => $25.00
)
)
)
)
)
)
I need to enter these type of array to db and then retrieve them in a good non programmer readable format
I created 2 table... 1st for array key with array level field and another for key=value
I tried this
function array_Dump($array, $d=1){
if (is_array($array)){
foreach($array as $key=>$val){
for ($i=0;$i<$d;$i++){
$level=$i;
}
if (is_array($val)){
if (is_int($key)){
array_Dump($val, $d+1);
}else{
$query = "insert into xml_array (level, input) VALUES ('$level','$key')";
insert_sql($query);
array_Dump($val, $d+1);
}
} else {
$query = "insert into xml_data (array_id,level_id, array_key,array_value) VALUES ('$insert_id','$level','$key','$val')";
insert_sql($query);
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

Create a table like this:
attributes(id, parent_id, properties)
where id will be the primary key, parent_id will be the id of the parent record and properties will be a small json field with the atomic properties. This way you support any depth the XML may throw towards your direction.
As about non-programmer representation. For instance you could use a table (you can solve that with divs as well) which will contain a row for each element in the top level array. Such a row would contain separate columns for each property. When a property is an array, then the given cell will be a table of its own, which will be handled similarly as the first table. It is advisable to make the inner tables collapsible, so if one wants to see the main levels only, the user will not have to scroll for a long while.