How would I split multiple strings into a deep nested array? - php

Question

I have multiple strings similar to:
$str = "/One/Two";
$str2 = "/One/Two/Flowers";
$str3 = "/One/Two/Grass";
$str4 = "/One/Another/Deeper";
$str5 = "/Uno/Dos/Cow";
I want to split it into a deep nested array that looks similar to the following:
Array
(
[One] => Array
(
[Two] => Array
(
[Flowers] =>
[Grass] =>
)
[Another] => Array
(
[Deeper] =>
)
)
[Uno] => Array
(
[Dos] => Array
(
[Cow] =>
)
)
)

Answer 1

This should do it:
$strings = array(
"/One/Two",
"/One/Two/Flowers",
"/One/Two/Grass",
"/One/Another/Deeper",
"/Uno/Dos/Cow"
);
$result = array();
foreach($strings as $string) {
$parts = array_filter(explode('/', $string));
$ref = &$result;
foreach($parts as $p) {
if(!isset($ref[$p])) {
$ref[$p] = array();
}
$ref = &$ref[$p];
}
$ref = null;
}
print_r($result);
Working example:
http://codepad.org/GmAoXLXp

Answer 2

Something like this should work. I couldn't think of any nice functional way to build the structure, so I fell back to a couple foreach loops.
<?php
$strings = array(
'/One/Two',
'/One/Two/Flowers',
'/One/Two/Grass',
'/One/Another/Deeper',
'/Uno/Dos/Cow'
);
$paths = array_map(
function ($e) {
return explode('/', trim($e, '/'));
},
$strings
);
$pathStructure = array();
foreach ($paths as $path) {
$ref =& $pathStructure;
foreach ($path as $dir) {
$ref =& $ref[$dir];
}
}
unset($ref);
print_r($pathStructure);