php create navigation menu from multidimensional array dynamically - php

Question

I did research on this, and wasn't able to find an exact answer. Most of the questions/answers on here pertaining to this seem to be unfinished. If anyone knows of a finished solution similar to my question, please point me in that direction!
Here is my array:
Array
(
['home'] => Array
(
[0] => sub-home1
[1] => sub-home2
)
['about'] => Array
(
[0] => sub-about
['about2'] => Array
(
[0] => sub-sub-about
)
)
['staff'] => Array
(
[0] => sub-staff1
[1] => sub-staff2
)
['contact'] => contact
)
And here is what I would like to turn it into:
<ul>
<li><a href="">home<a/>
<ul>
<li>sub-home1</li>
<li>sub-home2</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="">about<a/>
<ul>
<li>sub-about</li>
<li>about2
<ul>
<li><a href="">sub-sub-about<a/></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="">staff<a/>
<ul>
<li>sub-staff1</li>
<li>sub-staff2</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="">contact<a/></li>
</ul>
The array will be dynamically generated, but will have a limit of 3 levels ex: about->about2->sub-sub-about. I tried going off of this question: PHP/MySQL Navigation Menu but they didn't really seem to come to a conclusion? I am familiar with foreach's whiles and for loops but I just can't seem to wrap my head around this one.
EDIT: Enzino, your code works!

Answer 1

Here is my solution:
<?php
function MakeMenu($items, $level = 0) {
$ret = "";
$indent = str_repeat(" ", $level * 2);
$ret .= sprintf("%s<ul>\n", $indent);
$indent = str_repeat(" ", ++$level * 2);
foreach ($items as $item => $subitems) {
if (!is_numeric($item)) {
$ret .= sprintf("%s<li><a href=''>%s</a>", $indent, $item);
}
if (is_array($subitems)) {
$ret .= "\n";
$ret .= MakeMenu($subitems, $level + 1);
$ret .= $indent;
} else if (strcmp($item, $subitems)){
$ret .= sprintf("%s<li><a href=''>%s</a>", $indent, $subitems);
}
$ret .= sprintf("</li>\n", $indent);
}
$indent = str_repeat(" ", --$level * 2);
$ret .= sprintf("%s</ul>\n", $indent);
return($ret);
}
$menu = Array(
'home' => Array("sub-home1", "sub-home2"),
'about' => Array("sub-about", "about2" => Array("sub-sub-about")),
'staff' => Array("sub-staff1", "sub-staff2"),
'contact' => "contact"
);
print_r($menu);
echo MakeMenu($menu);
?>

Answer 2

Calvin's solution worked for me. Here's the edited version. We can use more nested loops to get sub - sub menu items.
echo '<ul>';
foreach ($menu as $parent) {
echo '<li>' . $parent . '';
if (is_array($parent)) {
echo '<ul>';
foreach ($parent as $children) {
echo '<li>' . $children . '';
}
echo '</ul>';
}
echo '</li&gt';
}
echo '</ul>';

Answer 3

I think you can use recursion? Here is some pseudocode, not very familiar with php.
function toNavMenu(array A){
for each element in A{
echo "<li>" + element.name + ""
if (element is an array){
echo "<ul>"
toNavMenu(element)
echo "</ul>"
}
echo "</li>"
}
}

Answer 4

I would probably slightly adapt the array to be something like the following:
Array(
0 => Array(
'title' => 'Home',
'children' => Array()
),
1 => Array(
'title' => 'Parent',
'children' => Array(
0 => Array(
'title' => 'Sub 1',
'children' => Array(),
),
1 => Array(
'title' => 'Sub 2',
'children' => Array(
0 => Array(
'title' => 'Sub sub 2-1',
'children' => Array(),
),
),
),
)
)
)
With a structure like this you could use recursion to build your menu HTML:
function buildMenu($menuArray)
{
foreach ($menuArray as $node)
{
echo "<li><a href='#'/>" . $node['title'] . "</a>";
if ( ! empty($node['children'])) {
echo "<ul>";
buildMenu($node['children']);
echo "</ul>";
}
echo "</li>";
}
}