Apply multidimension array data to an object - php

Question

For a given PHP object (loaded from CouchDB) $obj:
class stdClass#1 (3) {
public $_id =>
string(10) "nochecksum"
public $_rev =>
string(34) "1-4f734a24465bf7ba2de316fe87ffa0c1"
public $rooms =>
class stdClass#2 (1) {
public $kitchen =>
class stdClass#3 (1) {
public $ceilingFan =>
bool(false)
}
}
}
And for a given multidimensional array of data $arr, consisting of changed or new values for properties:
array(1) {
'rooms' =>
array(1) {
'kitchen' =>
array(1) {
'needsCleaning' =>
bool(true)
}
}
}
How is it possible to set $obj's properties to be values from $arr?
The solution is simple for a single dimension array:
foreach ($arr as $k=>$v) {
$obj->{$k}=$v;
}
I tried with a recursive function, but I don't know how to reference the parent(s):
$obj = setObjectFromArray($obj, $arr);
function setObjectFromArray($obj, $arr, $tree=Array())
{
foreach ($arr as $k=>$v) {
if (is_array($v)) {
$tree[]=$k;
$obj = setObjectFromArray($obj, $v, $tree);
} else {
// Here $tree is Array('rooms','kitchen')
// I want to set $obj->rooms->kitchen->{$k}
}
}
return $obj;
}
I think passing a reference of the object's property to the recursive function might work - but I don't understand either enough to make an educated guess. Any help appreciated

Answer 1

You could do it like this:
function setObjectFromArray($obj, $arr) {
foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
$obj->{$k} = is_array($v) ? setObjectFromArray($obj->{$k}, $v) : $v;
}
return $obj;
}
The major difference with your code is the assignment to $obj->{$k} instead of $obj: that way you rewrite (or create) the property at each level of the recursion tree.
Be aware that even if you call the function like this:
$result = setObjectFromArray($obj, $arr);
... $obj will still have been modified and be equal to $result.

Answer 2

This solution is not totally obvious and maybe can fail somewhere but still - it's pair of json functions:
$r = array(
'rooms' => array(
'kitchen' => array(
'needsCleaning' => true
)
)
);
echo '<pre>',print_r(json_decode(json_encode($r))), '</pre>';
Explanation: you encode array to json-string and then decode this string to object.
Maybe you can expand this code further.