PHP: Recursive array function - php

Question

I want to create a function that returns the full path from a set node, back to the root value. I tried to make a recursive function, but ran out of luck totally. What would be an appropriate way to do this? I assume that a recursive function is the only way?
Here's the array:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => Root category
[_parent] =>
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[name] => Category 2
[_parent] => 1
)
[2] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[name] => Category 3
[_parent] => 1
)
[3] => Array
(
[id] => 4
[name] => Category 4
[_parent] => 3
)
)
The result I want my function to output when getting full path of node id#4:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => Root category
[_parent] =>
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[name] => Category 3
[_parent] => 1
)
[2] => Array
(
[id] => 4
[name] => Category 4
[_parent] => 3
)
)
The notoriously bad example of my recursive skills:
function recursive ($id, $array) {
$innerarray = array();
foreach ($array as $k => $v) {
if ($v['id'] === $id) {
if ($v['_parent'] !== '') {
$innerarray[] = $v;
recursive($v['id'], $array);
}
}
}
return $innerarray;
}

Answer 1

assuming "id" in your sub array is that sub arrays index + 1 inside the parent array (otherwise you would need to do a search in the array each time), you could do this:
$searchNode = 4;
while ($searchNode)
{
$result[] = $nodes[$searchNode - 1];
$searchNode = $nodes[$searchNode - 1]["id"];
}
$result = array_reverse($result);