Get to leaf in multidimension array - php

Question

I have array structure where i must get leaf.
Example
First type of array
[name] => long_desc
[values] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[values] => xxx
)
)
)
or
(
[name] => long_desc
[values] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => span
[values] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[values] => xxx
)
)
)
How to get value what name xxx? My array have longer depth and using foreach many times not work fine. I was try recursivearrayiterator but not help.

Answer 1

Try array_walk_recursive() function:
function testArrayItem($item, $key)
{
if ( $item == "xxx" ) {
echo "Found xxx on key {$key}";
}
}
array_walk_recursive($array, 'testArrayItem');
EDIT:
If you want to get entire branch, which leads to the leaf you can recursively iterate through it:
function getPathToLeafRecursive(array $input, array &$branch)
{
foreach ( $input as $key => $item ) {
if ( 'xxx' == $item ) {
$branch[] = $key;
return true;
}
if ( is_array($item) ) {
$res = getPathToLeafRecursive($item, $branch);
if ( $res ) {
$branch[] = $key;
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
$found_branch = array();
getPathToLeafRecursive($array, $found_branch);
$found_branch = array_reverse($found_branch);
var_export($found_branch);

Answer 2

Here's how to find the leaf node, without depending on the name of the key. It's rather primitive and could use some OOP, but it demonstrates the basic algo:
$array = array(
array('name' => 'span',
'values' => array('values' => 'xxx', array('values' => 'yyy')),
'stuff' => '123'
)
);
$deepest_depth = 0;
$deepest_node = null;
find_leaf($array, 0);
function find_leaf($array, $current_depth) {
global $deepest_depth, $deepest_node;
do {
$current_node = current($array);
if (is_array($current_node)) {
find_leaf($current_node, $current_depth+1);
} else {
if ($deepest_node === null || $current_depth > $deepest_depth) {
$deepest_depth = $current_depth;
$deepest_node = $current_node;
}
}
next($array);
} while ($current_node !== FALSE);
}
echo $deepest_node;

Answer 3

What is this xxx value? Do you know the content and you just want to know that it is in the Array?
In that case you can use the RecursiveArrayIterator with the RecursiveFilterIterator.
If you want to get all "values" keys that are leafs, then you can use the RecursiveFilterIterator too, but checking for "values" that are scalar for example.