Multidimensional array from string - php

Question

Let's say I have this string which I want to put in a multidimensional array.
Edit : The number of subfolders in the string are dynamic .. from zero sub folders to 10
<?php
$string ="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .=" Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .=" Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";
?>
I want the following array returned
<?php
Array
(
[Folder1] => Array
(
[Folder2] => Array
(
[Folder3] => Array
(
[0] => filename1
[1] => filename2
)
)
)
[Folder4] => Array
(
[Folder2] => Array
(
[Folder3] => Array
(
[0] => filename3
)
)
)
)
?>
What would be the most efficient way to accomplish this ?
And for the fun of it let's say this array will be send to the other side of the world and it wants to return to a string. How would we do that ?

Answer 1

You could borrow pieces of code from this class (link no longer available), specifically the _processContentEntry method.
Here's a modified version of the method that does the job:
function stringToArray($path)
{
$separator = '/';
$pos = strpos($path, $separator);
if ($pos === false) {
return array($path);
}
$key = substr($path, 0, $pos);
$path = substr($path, $pos + 1);
$result = array(
$key => stringToArray($path),
);
return $result;
}
The output of
var_dump(stringToArray('a/b/c/d'));
Will be
array(1) {
["a"]=>
array(1) {
["b"]=>
array(1) {
["c"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(1) "d"
}
}
}
}
I suppose that's what you need :)
UPDATE
As per your comment, here's how you can process a string separated by new line characters:
$string = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= " Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= " Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";
// split string into lines
$lines = explode(PHP_EOL, $string);
// trim all entries
$lines = array_map('trim', $lines);
// remove all empty entries
$lines = array_filter($lines);
$output = array();
// process each path
foreach ($lines as $line) {
// split each line by /
$struct = stringToArray($line);
// merge new path into the output array
$output = array_merge_recursive($output, $struct);
}
print_r($output);
P.S.
To convert this array to a string, just call json_encode, however I see no reason to convert it to an array and then back to what it was.

Answer 2

I think this what you want,
$string ="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .="Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";
$string_array_1 = explode("\n", $string);
$array_need = array();
foreach($string_array_1 as $array_values)
{
if($array_values)
{
$folders = explode("/", $array_values);
$array_need[$folders[0]][$folders[1]][$folders[2]][] = $folders[3];
}
}
print_r($array_need);

Answer 3

This can be solved recursively in another way by taking the items from the beginning of the array and when the last item is reached just return it.
function make_tree( $arr ){
if( count($arr) === 1){
return array_pop( $arr );
}else{
$result[ array_shift( $arr )] = make_tree( $arr ) ;
}
return $result;
}
$string = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= "Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";
$string = trim( $string );
$files_paths = explode( PHP_EOL, $string);
$result = [];
foreach ($files_paths as $key => $value) {
$parted = explode( '/', $value );
$tree = make_tree( $parted );
$result = array_merge_recursive( $result, $tree );
}
var_dump( $result );