Turn one dimensional array with string path into multi dimensional json object - php

Question

I am trying to parse some data and just cant seem to figure it out myself.
I have tried using recursion and got the general idea but i cant seem to work out getting the array indexes to line up right. Here is what I have so far:
public function reverse() {
$reversedValues= array();
foreach ( $this->sorted as $key=>$value ) {
array_push( $this->reversedPaths ,$key );
array_push( $reversedValues , $value );
//print_r($this->reversed);
echo "<br />";
}
$this->reversed = $this->stringToArray($this->reversedPaths[0] , $reversedValues);
var_dump($this->reversed);
return json_encode($this->reversed , false);
}
private function stringToArray($path , $values , $count = 0) {
$separator = '/';
$pos = strpos($path, $separator);
if ($pos === false) {
//check for numbers so we know to add those to an json object
if (is_numeric($path)) {
//add it to the parent array of values...
}
$reversed = array(
$path => $values[$count],
);
return $reversed;
}
$key = substr($path, 0, $pos);
$path = substr($path, $pos + 1);
$reversed[$key] = $this->stringToArray($path , $values , $count);
$count++;
//read in next path string
if (array_key_exists( $count ,$this->reversedPaths)) {
$currentpos = strpos($this->reversedPaths[$count], $path.$separator);
$currentPath = substr($this->reversedPaths[$count], $currentpos );
$nextpos = strpos($currentPath, $separator);
if ($nextpos === false) {
} else {
$nextPath = substr($currentPath, $nextpos + 1);
$nextKey = substr($nextPath, 0, $nextpos);
echo $nextKey;
echo $nextPath;
// echo $nextKey;
//if this key equals first value of next path dont return but process recurssion again on it
if ($nextKey !== false ) {
$reversed[$key][$nextKey] = $this->stringToArray($nextPath , $values , $count);
}
}
} else {
}
return $reversed;
}
I was trying to read in the next path data to check if it is within the same array index but i just couldn't get it working. I know i am over complicating it but it doesn't seem like there is any easy way to accomplish this...

Answer 1

I had a crack at this. Based on the details you provided, it looks like you are trying to create a tree, like a directory structure: each / delimited string in the key represents a 'depth'. The solution I found was to create a multidimensional array for each element, parsing the current key into levels and recursively merge/replace the result into a master 'tree' array. This is what I have:
// original JSON string
$json = '{
"one/two": 3,
"one/four/0": 5,
"one/four/1": 6,
"one/four/2": 7,
"eight/nine/ten": 11
}';
// convert to a PHP multidimensional array
$array = json_decode($json, true);
// init an array to hold the final result
$tree = [];
// iterate over the array of values
// explode the key into an array 'path' tokens
// pop each off and build a multidimensional array
// finally 'merge' the result into the result array
foreach ($array as $path => $value) {
$tokens = explode('/', $path);
while (null !== ($key = array_pop($tokens))) {
$current = [$key => $value];
$value = $current;
}
$tree = array_replace_recursive($tree, $value);
}
// show the result!
print_r(json_encode($tree, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));
Yields:
{
'one': {
'two': 3,
'four': [5, 6, 7]
},
'eight': {
'nine': {
'ten':11
}
}
}
Hope this helps :)