PHP array_map looping to itself - php

Question

I´m creating an rest server using some examples in internet. The source is:
https://github.com/danucu/GUS/blob/master/restfulengine/restfulobj.php
The problem is when I´m making a call to the object, it calls itself again in the method getMyVars:
protected function getMyVars($myVars = null) {
if (empty($myVars)) {
$myVars = $this->showMyPublicsOnly();
}
if (is_array($myVars)) {
/*
* Intorc array convertit la obiect
* utilizand __METHOD__ (constanta ;) )
* pentru apelurile recursive
*/
return array_map(__METHOD__, $myVars);
} else {
// intorc array
return $myVars;
}
}
The full rest object is here:
https://github.com/danucu/GUS/blob/master/restfulengine/usertest.php
When Whe I run localhost/rest/UserREST/example it runs in a infinite loop.
I have changed the method getMyWars to:
echo $this->method."\n\n";
echo __METHOD__."\n\n";
$arReturn = array_map(__METHOD__, $myVars);
print_r($arReturn);
And I got:
GET
restObject::getMyVars
...infinitely and it never reaches: print_r($arReturn);
Maybe I´m doing something wrong.

Answer 1

Well, that code looks really strange, it will always call itself to the end of the times (or at least until the call stack overflows). Let me explain:
if (is_array($myVars)) { //is_array === true
return array_map(__METHOD__, $myVars); // This will call __METHOD__ (getMyVars); and pass $myVars to it (which is an array).
} else { //This will never be reached.
return $myVars;
}

Answer 2

Your code apparently works. What I think is happening is this:
first call: getMyVars() get passed, say, null.
this is empty, so it gets $this->showMyPublicsOnly()
this is an array, so every member of that array gets applied getMyVars()...
...but one of those values is equivalent to empty.
So if you have, say,
[ 'varOne' => 'Hello', 'varTwo' => 'World', 'varThree' => 42 ];
it will work, but
[ 'varOne' => '', ]
will loop.
You can try this:
// Only iterate on non-empty values
$myVars = array_filter($myVars);
// If there are no non-empty values...
if (empty($myVars)) {
/* ...this would loop, so we return an empty array */
return [ ];
}
return array_map(__METHOD__, $myVars);